First, we no longer let it “yoge” in the oven. After forgetting that it’s in there and baking it once too often, we’ve started culturing it in the microwave. This works great!

Second, we’ve been whisking in the culture once the milk cools to 130 degrees, rather than 120 degrees. This seems to result in a creamier . . . → Read More: Yogurt Update]]> Since we first posted our yogurt recipe (really more of a method), we’ve made a few changes.

First, we no longer let it “yoge” in the oven. After forgetting that it’s in there and baking it once too often, we’ve started culturing it in the microwave. This works great!

Second, we’ve been whisking in the culture once the milk cools to 130 degrees, rather than 120 degrees. This seems to result in a creamier yogurt. I’m not sure why, but it might be because the temperature is kept slightly higher while culturing.

Third, after we melted the lid of our regular yogurt container (see comment number one), we switched to using a quart jar. It works really well, except that you have to start with 3-3/4 cups of milk, rather than an even 4, so that the jar doesn’t overflow.

I hope you’ve at least given the yogurt thing a try. If you need an extra push in that direction, read this short NPR article, which includes a couple of yummy sounding recipes in addition to the author’s own yogurt method. Happy culturing!

We’re leaving for Florida early this week and received a shocking amount of food from our CSA, considering it’s still the winter season and it was the second-to-last pickup. Four pounds of onions, four pounds of beets and radishes, five pounds of apples… you get the picture. We’ve certainly gotten our . . . → Read More: A Busy Day Working with and Against Microbes]]> Lindsay and I had a busy day. But we had a lot of help in the form of pressurized steam, yeast, and lactobacillus bacteria.

We’re leaving for Florida early this week and received a shocking amount of food from our CSA, considering it’s still the winter season and it was the second-to-last pickup. Four pounds of onions, four pounds of beets and radishes, five pounds of apples… you get the picture. We’ve certainly gotten our money’s worth this year! But with all this food on top of what we already had, we needed to prep some for storage.

To deal with the four pounds of fingerling potatoes (which we already had a bunch of), Lindsay used our pressure canner for the first time:

Regular water-bath canning limits you to recipes that are acidic or briny enough to kill off botulism. 212-degree boiling water will kill off everything else, but botulism can survive (see our rules of canning, which we will need to update to include a guide to pressure canning). Pressure canning uses pressure to get the temperature high enough to kill absolutely everything, which means that you can do absolutely anything you wants.

And it’s a two-fee: it cooks at the same time it preserves. In six months, if we want to make potato salad, we can just reach for one of these jars. Lindsay will have to write-up the process of pressure canning. Even though it was perfectly easy and safe, the first time is still scary and intimidating, even for someone comfortable with canning. Just look at this steampunk contraption:

Second, to deal with the two heads of cabbage we weren’t going to eat, Lindsay made (actually, is still in the process of making) sauerkraut. Our CSA this year has given us a lot of cabbage (both red and green), and we’ve found that we waste a lot less of it by taking an hour to make one large batch of kraut which will supply 5-10 quick dinners down the line. We even decided to invest in a ceramic fermenting crock that has a water moat to allow it to “burp” while fermenting while still enduring that no nasty microbes can get in:

Finally, speaking of fermenting, I made a batch of beer this weekend. I plan to take more photos down the line and do a real post once I get the hang of the process, but for now, here’s a preview:

It is an all-grain (from malted barley) recipe and we decided to save the “spent grain” that is left over. This grain has been crushed and steeped in hot water to convert and extract all the sugar from the starches, but what’s left over still has flavor. We used our dehydrator to dry it out so that we can store it. It goes great as an added crunch to granola (reminds me of grape nuts) and we also plan to crush it into flour and make some spent-grain baked goods:

Fried foods on a stick are popular summer treats, especially in Minnesota, where I will be attending my second state fair this August (and Lindsay her… well it’s been many). We tried tackling one standby at home, as natural and from-scratch as we could get it (we skipped making our own hot dogs). The results were great! And it wasn’t even very hard. Make these on July 4th and be confident in what you’re . . . → Read More: A Homemade Fourth of July Treat: How to Make Corn Dogs!]]>

Fried foods on a stick are popular summer treats, especially in Minnesota, where I will be attending my second state fair this August (and Lindsay her… well it’s been many). We tried tackling one standby at home, as natural and from-scratch as we could get it (we skipped making our own hot dogs). The results were great! And it wasn’t even very hard. Make these on July 4th and be confident in what you’re feeding your family (foods on a stick from carnie vendors… generally a total crapshoot!).

Homemade Corn Dogs
Serves 8+

Directions

1. First, a few pieces of equipment that you will need:
   • A heavy pot for boiling the oil, preferably one that is deep for its width. We need a deep pot for sticking in the hot dogs, but the narrower it is the less volume there is for a given depth and the less oil will be need and the faster it will come to temperature. All we had was our Dutch oven. It worked just fine.
   • A thermometer and a way to clip it to the side of you pot. Our digital thermometer came with a clip (see the pictures), but other methods include using binder clips.
   • Disposable bamboo skewers to star as “the stick.” An alternative is to use chop sticks.
   • Gloves. Holding the end of the sticks with exposed hands when frying these is a risky proposition. We tried. There was very little oil splash back, but enough to hit our hand and make us drop one of the dogs to the bottom of the fryer. Fishing it out was not fun (and far more dangerous). We then started using our glove-shaped oven mitts.
   • A tall, narrow glass or container for the batter dipping step.
   • A cooling rack and sheet pan. We used a rack that we have for cookies placed inside of a sheet pan, to catch any oil that drips.
   • An ice cream scoop and a slotted metal spoon or spider, if you want to take advantage of the leftover batter to make hush puppies. A large spoon or ladle will also do in a pinch, but an ice cream scoop is perfect for the job.
2. Pour the oil into the pot, attach your thermometer setup, and heat the oil until it’s at 375 degrees.

   The amount of oil that you need will depend on the size of your pot. With our Dutch oven we only needed to use 3 quarts, as opposed to 4. If you happen to have an actual fryer you should be able to use less oil, but we do not. For normal cooking and baking we use local, organic sunflower oil, but given the volume and the cost we opted for the Whole Foods label organic. On the plus side, we will reuse all of it.

   

3. In a mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients (cornmeal, flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cayenne pepper). In separate, larger bowl, combine the solid and liquid ingredients (minced jalapeño, corn, grated onion, and buttermilk). Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients all at once, and fold the ingredients together only enough times to incorporate the dry into the wet and bring the batter together. Don’t worry about the lumps; once you’ve eliminated any dry patches in the batter, just stop. Set batter aside and allow to rest for 10 minutes.
4. Cover a sheet pan or Pyrex dish (something flat and shallow with a larger surface area) with a layer of corn starch. Skewer each hot dog onto one of the bamboo skewers, and then roll each to coat.

   We didn’t make our own hot dogs (although we did once make our own sausage from scratch for an Oktoberfest party… but that’s WAY more involved). We do try to buy the best 100% all-natural, all-beef dogs from our local beef vendor (or butcher). The point is, if you’re going to go through the effort to make these (amazing) corn dogs, don’t skimp on the meat and get a bunch of nitrate-filled Oscar Meyer Weiners.

5. Once it has rested, pour some of the better into the tall glass (refill as needed).

   

6. Once the oil is at 375, have your assembly line ready. It helps of you have two people (especially since our “protective frying gloves” were actually clumsy rubber oven mitts; if you have better gloves it would make it easier for one person to do it all!). Here are the steps:
   1. Dip a hot dog into the glass of batter to coat.
   2. Place the battered dog into the frying oil and hold it there so that it is below the surface and not touching the sides or bottom.
   3. Hold the dog there until the coating is golden brown, abou 4-5 minutes (in our pot we were able to do two dogs at a time).
   4. Carefully remove and set aside on your cooling rack setup and let it cool for at least 5 minutes.

   Make sure to keep monitoring the oil temperature. You want to maintain 375 degrees. When you place food in, the temperature will drop, so between hot dogs (or pairs), be sure to give the oil time to come back to temperature. Alternately, if you have the heat on too high, make sure that you don’t exceed 375 and adjust your flame accordingly. Hitting the right oil temperature is one of the keys to good frying.

   

7. We wound up with a good amount of extra batter from this recipe. With this advanced knowledge you could choose to buy a few more hot dogs, or do like we did and just go nuts making hush puppies. We poured the remaining batter into a shallow bowl and used and ice cream scoop to measure out the batter and place it in the oil. The process is the same as for the corn dogs, except that you need a slotted metal spoon or spider to retrieve them from the molten oil.

   

8. Enjoy the fruits of your labor!

   

9. When you’re done frying, leave the oil off the heat for a few hours to cool. Cover the pot if you like; it will take longer to cool but definitely be safer! A few hours later / the next morning, filter the oil back into its original bottles. This oil can be reused for frying 2-3 more times (many people would say many more times as well).

   We used three bottles, so we had three funnels and three filters ready to go. We use Chemex cone coffee filters to do the job, because their shape makes them really easy to use with a conical funnel and they can hold more than a regular coffee filter, meaning fewer times having to “top up” the filter as it drains.

   

Yum!

Sunday nights are for Game of Thrones in our household. I don’t know about you, but I always want to order dinner on special TV nights. Whatever your show is, there’s something ritualistic about waiting for the doorbell to ring and then curling up on the couch with a fork and a pile of delicious, but kind of bad for you, food. A gigantic salad just doesn’t do it for me while I’m watching . . . → Read More: Why Buy? D-I-Y! Chinese Takeout Edition]]>

Sunday nights are for Game of Thrones in our household. I don’t know about you, but I always want to order dinner on special TV nights. Whatever your show is, there’s something ritualistic about waiting for the doorbell to ring and then curling up on the couch with a fork and a pile of delicious, but kind of bad for you, food. A gigantic salad just doesn’t do it for me while I’m watching intrigue unfurl.

To stay strong against the temptation of the stack of delivery menus this week, I searched through my recipe collection to find something new and tantalizing. Mission accomplished! I LOVE Chinese food, but have been avoiding it due to some migraine issues. I’m also a big fan of scallops – or fishy marshmallows, as Erik calls them. Chinese food + scallops + spicy + some greens (so you don’t feel too bad) = General Tso’s scallops! Delicious enough that I might have to make them again next Sunday. Unless our copy of A Feast of Ice and Fire: The Official Game of Thrones Companion Cookbook arrives by then.

There are two things that might scare you off from this recipe.

First – Shouldn’t we be avoiding seafood? Mercury and overfishing and all? The Environmental Defense Fund says that scallops are low in contaminants, so we can eat more than four meals a month without concern. It recommends bay scallops (the small ones) over sea scallops (the marshmallow-sized ones), because the usual harvesting method is less harmful to the environment. Sea scallops are still “ECO-OK”, though.

Second – You seriously want me to fry those things three times? Yes, I do. Here’s the problem. If you use a low temperature for long enough to cook them through, they’ll be really greasy. If you cook them only at the high temperature, they’ll burn before they finish cooking. This is a worthwhile compromise. I was skeptical too, but it was really much easier than I expected. Just make sure that you have a thermometer that goes up to 400 degrees and everything is ready to go before you start frying. The oil heats up pretty quickly, since it’s not very deep. (If you don’t have a wok, use your widest pot.) Since each cooking time is short, it’s really no more work than stirring a pot for 5 minutes. Things move pretty quickly once you start frying, which you can take advantage of if you’re well-prepared beforehand.

Okay, one more thing. Our recipe calls for kale flowers, which you might not be able to find. They’re just the flower buds from overwintered kale, but we hadn’t seen them before this season. They taste kind of like broccoli rabe, but less bitter. If you can’t find them, feel free to use broccoli (which the original recipe calls for anyway) or broccoli rabe. You could also just leave it out.

Beware! The original recipe from The New York Times calls for marinating the scallops for six to eight hours. We didn’t overlooked that and only did it for three. Still delicious.

General Tso’s Scallops

Serves 4

Directions

1. Make the marinade by mixing the egg, 1 1/2 TBsp of rice wine, 1 tsp of soy sauce, 1 tsp sunflower oil, and 1/4 cup of cornstarch in a medium bowl. Add the scallops; toss to coat. Cover and refrigerate for 3 to 8 hours.
2. When you are ready to cook, make the sauce by combining in a small bowl 1 TBsp of rice wine, 2 TBsp of soy sauce, the chicken stock, sugar, and white vinegar.
3. In another small bowl, mix the arrowroot powder with 1 1/2 TBsp of warm water until it dissolves.
4. Put the remaining 1/2 cup of cornstarch in a wide bowl (I used a small casserole dish). Remove the scallops from the marinade with a fork, giving each a little shake to remove the excess liquid. Toss the scallops in the cornstarch so all sides are coated.
5. Add 4 cups of peanut/safflower oil to your wok or large pot. Set a colander or strainer over a large bowl. You will fry the scallops three times. Start heating the oil on high and check the temperature every few minutes. Once it comes up to the right temperature, carefully put the scallops into the oil and start the timer. After the time has elapsed, remove them with a spider or slotted spoon and allow them to drain in the colander while the oil heats up to the next temperature.

   

   • Stage 1: 280 degrees for 30 seconds (shake off the excess cornstarch before adding the scallops to the oil)

     

   • Stage 2: 350 degrees for 20 seconds

     

   • Stage 3: 375 degrees for 45 seconds

     

6. Once the scallops are fried three times, turn off the heat. Pour the oil into another pot so that it can cool. If you want, you can filter the oil through a coffee filter and reuse it. Wipe any remaining little bits out of the wok with a paper towel. 
7. Get the sauce, dissolved arrowroot powder, dried peppers, garlic, ginger, scallions, balsamic vinegar, and sesame oil ready and near the wok. It’s go time! Be careful about breathing in the aromas coming off of the wok. The spiciness can irritate your nose and lungs, so just don’t hang your head over it.
8. Put the wok back on high heat. Once it’s hot, add 1 TBsp of peanut/safflower oil. Swirl it around the wok and then pour out all but 1 tsp. 
9. Add the chili peppers to the wok. Stir them around until they start to burn. 
10. Add the garlic, ginger, and scallions. Stir for about 10 seconds. 
11. Add the sauce, stirring until it boils (which might be immediately). 
12. Give the dissolved arrowroot powder a stir and then pour it in. Stir until the sauce thickens (which might be immediately). Turn off the heat. 
13. Add the scallops and steamed kale flowers to the wok and toss to coat. Add the balsamic vinegar and sesame oil and stir.

      

14. Serve with rice. Eat on couch. Stare at TV. 

Many of our friends have had babies in the last couple of years. We’re really lucky to have this amazing group of kids to play with and moms and dads to admire. They’ve given me quite a bit of food-related knowledge. For example, if it falls on the floor, it is either totally contaminated (first kid) or fine after you shake off the dog hair (second kid).

I’ve also learned that one of . . . → Read More: Why Buy? DIY! How to Make “Hot Pockets”]]>

Many of our friends have had babies in the last couple of years. We’re really lucky to have this amazing group of kids to play with and moms and dads to admire. They’ve given me quite a bit of food-related knowledge. For example, if it falls on the floor, it is either totally contaminated (first kid) or fine after you shake off the dog hair (second kid).

I’ve also learned that one of the best things you can give parents of a newborn is food that can be eaten with one hand. Since we really like these “haute” pockets (shmancy, huh?), we figured they’d be an awesome food gift for our friends who just had their second daughter…especially since their first child is only a year old. Heroes!!

This recipe does take a little bit of time, but it makes six good-sized pockets, enough for almost a week of lunches. They’re sturdy enough to toss in your purse (maybe wrapped in one of these cute food cozies) and taste just as good at room temperature as they do warm. I haven’t tried it, but I’m sure you could freeze and reheat them like the real thing (2 minutes in the microwave or 25 minutes in a 350 degree oven).

In my quest to convert you to the DIY version, I tried to look up comparable nutrition information. I gave up. They’re all so meaty and cheesy that it’s not a fair contest. You could fill this dough with whatever you want, though, so if you have a favorite flavor, give it a try!

Greens-Stuffed Haute Pockets

Serves 6

Directions

1. To make the dough, add the yeast to 1/2 cup of room temperature water. This will dissolve the yeast so that it’s ready to work.
2. Whisk together the flour, 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt, and sugar. This is sort of a lazy girl’s version of sifting.
3. Whisk together one egg and the olive oil. Add this and the dissolved yeast to the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until it forms a shaggy (i.e. dry) dough.
4. Dust a clean counter with flour and dump out the dough. Knead the dough for a couple of minutes until becomes nice and smooth. It shouldn’t be sticky, so knead in a little more flour if it is.
5. Pour a drop of olive oil into a clean bowl. Form the dough into a ball, put it in the bowl, and roll it around in the oil. Cover the bowl with a towel and let the dough rise for an hour or until it has approximately doubled.
6. While the dough is rising, get a big pot of water boiling. While it’s heating up, prepare your greens by removing the stems/ribs.
7. Once the water is boiling, blanch the greens. To do this, add a couple of big handfuls of greens to the water and cook for 3 minutes (only 1 minute for spinach). Don’t crowd the pot too much. While the greens are cooking, fill a big bowl with ice water. Once the time is up, shock the greens (stop them from cooking) by transferring them from the pot to the ice water. Use tongs or a spider to let most of the hot water drain off first. Once the greens are cool, drain them well.
8. Once all the greens are blanched, shocked, and drained, squeeze the pile with your hands to remove most of the water. Then, roll up the greens to a dishtowel that you don’t really care about and wring out some more water. Avoid white towels, because they’ll turn green. The idea is to get rid of as much water as you can so that the pockets aren’t soggy.
9. After you’ve squeezed and squeezed, you’ll have a loaf of compacted greens. Chop this up into about 1/2 to 1 inch pieces. Set aside until the dough has risen.
10. Once the dough has risen, put the ball on a lightly floured counter and cut it into six equal pieces. Form each piece into a ball and let them rest on the counter for 15 minutes. This will relax the dough so that it doesn’t spring back when you roll it out.
11. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
12. While the dough is resting, beat the second egg and add almost all of it to the greens. Save about 2 tablespoons. Add the garlic, cumin, coriander, salt, and pepper to the greens and mix well. I like to use a fork, because it helps to break up the clumpy greens. Plus, I just used it to beat the egg, so it’s already dirty.



13. After 15 minutes, roll one of the dough balls into a circle approximately 7 inches across (that’s about the size of my hand). If you keep your counter floured and rotate the dough after each roll, you’ll keep it from sticking and get a better circle.
14. Lightly pack the greens mixture into a 1/2-cup measuring cup and turn them out onto the bottom half of your dough circle. You might need to use a slightly larger or smaller cup, depending on the volume of your greens. Using the reserved egg mixture, brush a little onto the bottom edge of the circle. You could use your finger if you don’t have a brush. Stretch the top of the circle over the greens to meet the bottom edge. Fold and crimp the edges together. The egg will help glue the pocket shut.
15. Transfer the pocket to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or lightly dusted with cornmeal and repeat with the other five dough balls. Three pockets will fit on each sheet pan. Brush the pockets with the remaining egg for a nice, shiny finish.
16. Bake for 25 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through for even browning.

I keep telling my friends that canning doesn’t really take that much time. Well, sometimes, it totally does. It takes all day and you end up sticky and with a sink full of dishes. BUT you can avoid that very easily by being smart about the recipes you make and how you make them. I made a canner full of applesauce yesterday, but I also managed to sleep in, do laundry, bake bread, finish . . . → Read More: How to Make Applesauce and Spend the Day Biking]]>

I keep telling my friends that canning doesn’t really take that much time. Well, sometimes, it totally does. It takes all day and you end up sticky and with a sink full of dishes. BUT you can avoid that very easily by being smart about the recipes you make and how you make them. I made a canner full of applesauce yesterday, but I also managed to sleep in, do laundry, bake bread, finish a knitting project, watch a little How I Met Your Mother, and go for a 20-mile bike ride. Your day might be full of family events, work responsibilities, reading a book, watching the news, whatever, but you can still fit in canning if you want to.

This recipe relies on two appliances to make life easier – the slow cooker and food mill. We actually used two slow cookers to speed things up. If you don’t have two slow cookers or can’t borrow one from your nice friend, Ben, you can cook in two batches. Just stick the cooked apples in another container in the refrigerator, load up the slow cooker again, and then mill everything when the second (or third or fourth) batch is done. The slow cooker is brilliant, because it eliminates all the time you’d otherwise spend standing over the stove. Plug it in and go play outside.

If you don’t have a food mill, then check out our original applesauce post. We posted a little tutorial on how to set up a KitchenAid food mill attachment, because I get buffaloed every time I open the boxes, but it really is a worthwhile tool.

Easy Peasy Applesauce

1 peck of apples will yield about 4 quarts of applesauce.

1. Wash as many apples as you want, using the yield above as a guide. A peck weighs somewhere between 10 and 14 pounds.
2. Quarter the washed apples and toss them into the slow cooker(s). Don’t worry about peels and seeds, because we’ll remove these later. You might want to cut the bigger apples into sixths, just so that they nestle better into the slow cooker.
3. Cook on high for 6 hours. This part is pretty flexible as long as the apples are really really soft at the end. You could cook one batch on low overnight and then start the second batch on high in the morning. I started right before lunch, then went on a nice long bike ride. When I got home for dinner, they were ready to go.
4. When the apples are cooked, get your canning gear ready. (Steps 3 and 4)
5. Pass the cooked apples through a food mill directly into a pot. The food mill will remove the peels and seeds and smash everything into a nice consistency.
6. If you want, you can spice up your applesauce at this point. You can add any herb, spice, or sweetener you want. We did maple syrup and cinnamon last year, which was a big hit. I think brown sugar and crumbled dried chiles would be good. Maybe smoked paprika? That stuff makes everything awesomer. Do not add nuts, dried fruit, dairy, or oil, however. Those ingredients change the pH of the sauce, potentially rendering it unsafe for canning. (Read this post for more science-y stuff.)
7. Regardless of whether you add extra ingredients, put the pot of sauce on the stove and heat to boiling. If you want your sauce thicker, keep it at a simmer until it reaches the consistency you’re looking for.
8. Fill quart, pint, or half pint jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace, and process for 20 minutes. (Steps 6 through 22)

Well, we’ve finally done it. We’ve been making our own yogurt for almost three years now. You need to let it sit out for eight hours to culture at room temperature. However, during the colder months the ambient air is a bit chilly, so we wrap it in a kitchen towel and put in in the (cold) oven. The yogurt itself is still 120 degrees when it goes in, and it will retain this . . . → Read More: Yogurt Fail!]]>

Well, we’ve finally done it. We’ve been making our own yogurt for almost three years now. You need to let it sit out for eight hours to culture at room temperature. However, during the colder months the ambient air is a bit chilly, so we wrap it in a kitchen towel and put in in the (cold) oven. The yogurt itself is still 120 degrees when it goes in, and it will retain this heat much better in the oven than sitting out. This gives the culturing process a bit of a boost.

Today we put it in the oven at 11am and completely forgot until we needed to put our dinner in the oven, which we had already pre-heated! We cooked the yogurt, and melted the plastic lid of the jar to our kitchen towel. Epic fail!

We always said that we would be open on this blog and post warts and all. Lesson learned: when we put yogurt in the oven, we need to put a post-it on the temperature controls so that we can’t possibly make this error again. Instead, we’ll find a new error to make next time.

Yep, it’s kind of gross. But . . . → Read More: Dark Days Challenge Week 4: How to Cut Up a Whole Chicken]]> Our Dark Days meal for the week was something that we have already posted, so we decided to post a strategy instead. Eating locally sometimes means having limited options and learning how to deal with what you can get. In our case, we can’t find (or afford when we find it!) user-friendly, pre-wrapped packages of local chicken breasts. So, we buy a whole chicken and do some work ourselves.

Yep, it’s kind of gross. But I think it’s important to acknowledge that you’re eating an animal, not just “meat”. I sort of feel like this is the respectful way to eat chicken. Is that overly crunchy and “we are the world”? Probably. But it’s also waaaay cheaper and not all that bad. To combat the ick factor, keep a pair of tongs and a towel nearby. When I feel the willies coming on, I just clean my hands on the towel, grab the tongs, take a deep breath, and remind myself that if I’m going to eat it, I should be able to touch it. A few minutes with the tongs and I’m back to my bare hands.

This is probably not the “official” way to cut up a chicken, but it works for me. The model for our photo shoot was a delicious 3-and-a-half pound chicken from Stillman’s. She had a little cosmetic issue with the skin on her breasts, so imagine that it was intact. Sorry for the blurry photos…the day went something like this…

Erik: Hold still so I can take the photo.
Lindsay: I’M HOLDING A CHICKEN SPINE. IT’S GOOD ENOUGH!!

Directions

1. Get all your tools ready. Once your hands are chicken-y, you won’t want to dig around. You’ll need:
   • Cutting board
   • Sharp knife
   • Kitchen scissors
   • Plate to hold the finished pieces
   • Zip-top bag or something similar to hold the pieces that will go in the freezer for stock later
   • Tongs
   • Towel for drying your hands when things get icky or slippery

2. Take a look inside the bird. Is there a little bag? These are the giblets – the organs. Some people cook them up; some people toss ‘em. Your choice, but take them out of the cavity either way.
3. Put your chicken, breast side down, on the cutting board. Use the scissors to cut down one side of the spine and then the other to remove it. You might have to use two hands. I save the spine for chicken stock, so it goes in my zip-top bag.

   

4. If there’s anything floating around inside, get rid of it. My chicken had a couple of things that I assume were organs. That called for tongs and a deep breath. I got through it, though, and so will you.
5. Flip the chicken over. Legs are up first. This is mostly about dislocating the joint, rather than cutting through the bone. Lift up the chicken by a leg to see how it moves. This will help you figure out where the joint is. Cut through the skin and meat on all sides of the joint until you can see it. Bend the leg back and forth to try to pop it. Sometimes I’m lucky and it comes apart easily. If that doesn’t work, stick the tip of your knife in the joint and push down to break it. Repeat with the other leg.

   

6. If you want, you can also separate the drumstick from the thigh. Follow the same steps as for separating the leg from the body – find the joint, cut through the skin and meat, and pop/cut the joint.

   

7. Now for the wings. I usually stick these in my stock bag along with the spine, but you can certainly cook them if you’d like. Again, just use the same steps as for the leg to remove both wings.

   

8. Once the wings are off, you’ll have a very familiar piece of chicken staring at you. The breasts. With the neck-end facing you, stick the tip of your knife in the bone at the top-middle of the breasts. Push the blade of the knife down to the cutting board to split the bone in half. One half of the breast should come away pretty easily at this point. You’ll have to use your fingers to separate the meat from the center bone, leaving you with ribs and meat. You can leave the second breast as is or remove the wedge-shaped breastbone by working the meat away from it with your fingers and a knife. There are probably nicer ways to split the breasts, but this works for me.

   

9. There. Done. Not so bad, right? Cook however you’d like.

   

I had been scrutinizing labels for the last year or so, trying to find products without petrochemicals, chemicals that mess with hormones, or shady business practices. I could find one of the three, maybe two, but not all three. And they were EXPENSIVE! And tiny, so the bathroom trash was filling up with little empty bottles.

As a reaction to all that, I decided to give my sister-in-law a bunch of homemade spa-type products . . . → Read More: Why Buy? DIY! Hand, Body, and Face Lotion]]>

I had been scrutinizing labels for the last year or so, trying to find products without petrochemicals, chemicals that mess with hormones, or shady business practices. I could find one of the three, maybe two, but not all three. And they were EXPENSIVE! And tiny, so the bathroom trash was filling up with little empty bottles.

As a reaction to all that, I decided to give my sister-in-law a bunch of homemade spa-type products last Christmas. While searching for recipes, I realized that lotion is really only three ingredients. THREE! Not 20 ingredients that are nearly impossible to pronounce (octinoxate, anyone?). Just beeswax, oil (almond and sunflower are good), and water. Done. Even better, we make local lotion, since we get both sunflower oil and beeswax at the greenmarket.

This is a technique, not a recipe. I’ve put some ratios at the bottom, but the basic idea is that more beeswax will make a thicker lotion. If you want to use a pint-sized Mason jar on your blender to minimize clean up, keep the total volume at 15 ounces or less, so that there is enough room in the jar for everything to move around. We made a pump dispenser out of a Mason jar, which means this process is easy peasy for us now.

**Update: our homemade pumped only lasted a few months. We replaced it by purchasing a lid-pump for a mason jar. A few options available on Amazon are here, here, here, and if you still want to make your own, this will help.

Lotion Technique

1. Grate the beeswax with a microplane or other grater. The finer you grate it, the quicker it will melt.

   Note, although we used the small blocks pictured, as time went on we upgraded to using a one-pound block of beeswax, which is both easier to grate and more economical. We bought ours at the greenmarket, but you can find similar ones online. Even if you make this lotion regularly, a single block will last you 1-2 years at a minimum.

   

2. Measure the oil into a Pyrex cup and add the beeswax.

   

3. Put the measuring cup into a pot and add enough water to come up to the level of the oil.

   

4. Heat the pot until the water simmers gently. Continue the simmer until the beeswax melts. Remove from heat and allow it to cool until you can touch the measuring cup.

   

5. Pour the water into a regular mouth pint jar and add the cooled oil/beeswax.

   

6. Add essential oils to the jar, if desired.

   

7. Screw on the blender pieces and blend on low until everything is emulsified (pulsing helps). It will go very quickly from separated to a creamy white lotion. You might want to open the jar and give it a stir to free up any water that might not be getting down to the blades.

   

Yep, that’s it.

For a rich hand cream, we use 6 ounces of oil, 3 of beeswax (6 tablespoons), and 6 of water (all volume).
For a body and face lotion that will work in a pump dispenser, we use 6 ounce of oil, 1 of beeswax (2 tablespoons), and 8 of water.

We add about 30 drops of essential oil for fragrance – lately half lavendar and half geranium.

Go forth and blend!

I have to admit that I was skeptical of this project. I made Erik try it, because I thought it would be an interesting experiment, but I wasn’t terribly hopeful that this would come close to the commercial dyes. But look! The colors are so vivid! It’s really not much harder than using Paas and the ingredients are pretty common, so you could do this on a whim…like the day before Easter when you . . . → Read More: Take a Pause from Paas and Make Your Own Natural Easter Egg Dye]]>

I have to admit that I was skeptical of this project. I made Erik try it, because I thought it would be an interesting experiment, but I wasn’t terribly hopeful that this would come close to the commercial dyes. But look! The colors are so vivid! It’s really not much harder than using Paas and the ingredients are pretty common, so you could do this on a whim…like the day before Easter when you want colored eggs, but don’t feel like shopping.

There are only three steps.

Cook the eggs. We cover the eggs in cold water then bring it to a boil. Once it’s rolling, turn off the heat, cover the pot, and let the eggs sit for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, run cold water over the eggs until they no longer feel hot.

Make the dye. Place 2 cups of raw material (see list below), 2 cups of water, and 1 tablespoon of white vinegar in a pot and bring it to a boil. Simmer for 15 minutes, then strain out the solids. Let the dye cool slightly.

Dye the eggs. Set out as many tall, narrow containers as you have colors of dye. We used half pint jars, which worked really well. Glass or metal containers are best, because they won’t stain. Place the eggs in the containers and cover with dye.

Go watch TV or make a cake for 15 to 20 minutes, then move the eggs around so that a different part is resting on the container. This will help avoid light spots. Repeat once or twice or until the eggs are the desired color.

That’s it! We tried a few different raw materials, but these worked the best.

Shredded beets = red

Shredded red cabbage = blue (yes, blue!!)

Yellow onion skins = orange

Turmeric = yellow (use 2 to 3 tablespoons and don’t bother to strain out the solids – just stir it up each time you shift the eggs)

Green = 1 part blue + 1 part yellow
Purple = 1 part blue + 1 part red

So pretty!