It was done this morning, just in time for breakfast, so while I was spooning it into jars, I asked her if she wanted some for breakfast with her blueberries. I scooped some out for her, and asked what I was doing. I explained that I had just made the yogurt and it was fresh. She said it was good, and liked it mixed in with her blueberries.

I told her I liked it with my granola, as well.

It made me feel good to know I was giving her everything super fresh.

On the bread, of her toast, I’d bought. I should have made bread for her visit, as well, but that would have taken more time than I had. Yogurt is nice because you can do other things while it heats, and you don’t have to watch it while it sits overnight.

Fresh Plumbs

Well, what do you do with plums, other than eat them? One thing, not to do, is to leave them on the counter until they go moldy, which is what happened to the first batch I got from my CSA. So, I was bound and determined not to let that happen again.

I almost took the plums that had gone soft and hadn’t gotten moldy, and tried to make plum jam, but I didn’t have pectin, and I didn’t have the time, so decided to just cook the plums that hadn’t gone bad.

So, I read all my cook books, but could find nothing that I wanted to make with plums, so I asked my friend, Chris, to send me what she had. She found one called Swiss Plum Cake, along with a bunch of other ones, that sounded closest to what I wanted to do with the plums, and didn’t call for me to make them into plum jam, which seemed like a waste.

Plums in the batter

It seemed like an easy thing to make. It called for 1 egg, I used three, because I was going to make it with non-wheat flour. I took the three eggs, mixed with 2 tablespoons of honey and 2 tablespoons of my home made yogurt and mixed them together

Then I took 1 cup of King Arther Gluten free flour and 1/2 cup of coconut flour, and mixed them in with one teaspoon of baking soda and a pinch of sea salt. Then I added 6 tablespoons of melted butter, and cut up the plums. The recipe called for 2 pounds, but I just put all the plums I had into the batter, after I poured it into the pan. The last touch was to drizzle honey on top.

Finished cake

I baked it at 375F for 45 minutes.

I wasn’t sure what it was supposed to look like, and I wasn’t sure what it was supposed to taste like, but it tasted fine, a little tart and not too sweet, which I liked.

My sweetie ate it nearly all up and called it a “keeper” so, that is a good sign. If I get more plums, I’ll make it again. That is the problem, however, with making things with fruit in season, that when the season is gone, so is the dish, until next year.

no cherries

I went to the farmer’s market today, to pickup the the things I didn’t get from the farm. I was also meeting a friend there, who brought me a book for cooking things from farmer’s markets. Local Flavors. She said it was one of her favorite food porn books.

I thanked her, and went looking through the book for things to make. I had bought about four pints of cherries, as well as a quart of blueberries and half a flat of strawberries. I was hoping if I over bought fruit, I would have some left over to make something with them, rather than just eat them, as I am want to do.

I found a cherry almond loaf cake that looked good, and figured I could sacrifice one pint of cherries for that.  I opened the book to the recipe and figured I would make it after dinner. I ate the rest of my veggie mush, and had cherries for dessert…yes, the cherries I had set aside.

Oh well, I’ll make it another day. There is nothing quite like ripe cherries, on their own.

Although, I haven’t in the past. In the past I have just tried as best I could to keep the basil fresh for salads, and failed at it.  I know I am supposed to keep it in water in the fridge, but it still would go bad far too quickly. I said as such when I was picking up my basket to day, to one of the helpers at my CSA.

What about pesto? she asked, and so, I set out to make some.

The basil in a water jar

I found a good recipe in the Broccoli Forest, that appeared to ask for the ingredients I had, which is always a good thing when making something late at night when I don’t want to run out to store. On the opposite side was a recipe for tomato sauce I thought I would make, but when I had taken all the basil that was called for, I had none left to make it. Well, perhaps some other time, or I’ll make something else with the tomatoes.

Last time I left the tomatoes too long, before doing anything with them. Unfortunately, the sun shines on the kitchen counter in the summer, so things go bad more quickly then they might otherwise..

pulverized basil, oil and garlic

The recipe called for 3 packed cups of basil, and 4 large garlic cloves, dropped into a blender, which I did. After not getting it to blend for a long time, I added 1/3 of a cup of olive oil. The olive oil seemed to make the leaves stay down, so it finally blended. Once it was blended, I took it out of the blender, and mixed int he grated Parmesan (1/3 of a cup).

Three cups of basil, equal half a jar of pesto

But once it was all mixed, it ended up about being a half a jar’s worth of pesto. The recipe says that it will keep, so I will have to find something to put it on.

Granted, a whole pint or two of blueberries, but since I am the only one home at the moment, as sweetie and daughter are in L.A., with their own private hell heat, I only have to cook for me.

I was all set to cook something with the onions I picked up at the farmer’s market, as well as some potatoes. I was going to make a veggie shepherd’s pie, and I may yet do so, but the kitchen gets too hot, and I have all the yogurt I made the other day, as well as the strawberries, and granola, and that can make a parfait without any cooking at all.

And come on, I don’t need to document how I did that, do I? I just looked up to see if there was something special I was supposed to do, other than layer the yogurt, berries and granola.

Nope. Here is the example I found:

OK, so they ask for blackberries, instead of strawberries, but close enough.

• First is tofu. As I mentioned the other day, I saw a recipe for tofu and cabbage salad. I didn’t want to go out and buy tofu, but I have never made tofu, so that is on my list. According to one website, it is a bit like making cottage cheese, so that is another thing I’m going to have to try to make.
• Second is Soy Milk. Until I read the website mentioned above, I hadn’t even thought about making soy milk any more than I would have though of making cows milk.  On the other hand, how could would that be, to not have to worry about the soy milk going bad, and being able to make it when I needed to.
• Third is cottage cheese. I hadn’t thought about that, until I realized I didn’t have any for the recipe I made the other night. The cheese website had a good overview on how to do it.

And that is it, for now. I’m sure when I do more recipes, I will find more things I want to make. I have been told it is not economical, if you don’t own a cow, to make cheese, and I really don’t have a desire to do that, as I don’t like cheese all that much. I presume it is the same thing with butter. I tried making that once in elementary school. It might be fun to try to do that too, but I don’t have a butter churn.

cabbage and potatoes on the stove

With my finger tightly bandaged, I set about cutting up the rest of the veggies.

Oh well, back to my usual method of just cutting things up, and throwing them in to cook and hoping for the best.  Before I put the cabbage in, I had to cut up onions, and cook them for a while in butter, which I did, then I threw in the cabbage.

rest of veggies in the mix

At that point, with my cut finger, and it being late, I just figured that this would turn out how it turned out.  I quickly cut up the carrots and the garlic cloves, and tossed them in.  I put in the caraway seeds and the bill, both of which weren’t fresh, but oh well, but didn’t put in any cider vinegar, as it smelled old.

Meanwhile, the potatoes were done, and I mixed in the yogurt, but didn’t have any cottage cheese, but I figured that was ok. I didn’t really like cottage cheese all that much. Once the potatoes were mixed with the yogurt, I poured it into the pan, and mixed it all together, and then put it in the casserole pan to cook.

Finished casserole

I put sunflower seeds and paprika on top, but I wasn’t sure how much I was supposed to put. I stuck the whole thing in the oven, and hoped for the best.

When it came out, I tasted a little. It wasn’t bad, so I figured it would make some good lunches and dinners. At that point it was after 1 a.m in the morning, and despite the cook book saying to serve it hot, I stuck it in the fridge to cool.

Next time I make this, if I do, I will have my Cuisinart, and have a nicer looking casserole at least.

And it came right in time, because I had picked up a half a cabbage head from my CSA. I had no idea what I was going to need to do with it, or what I was going to make with it, but I knew I was going to use the Cuisinart.

First, I had to find a recipe. The one that Camp Joy (my CSA) had on its blog was for tofu cabbage salad and zucchini chocolate chip cookies, neither of which I wanted to make. I went through all my cookbooks, and found one for Solyanka in the New Moosewood Cookbook. True, I had no idea what this was going to taste like, and I didn’t have all the ingredients, but that has never stopped me before.

I grabbed what I did have out of the fridge. A bunch of small potatoes, also from the CSA (the recipe called for 4 medium. I had about six or seven potatoes of all shapes and sizes. Hey, I’m sure this is going to be a sort of peasant dish, and I’m sure they couldn’t always find all the stuff they needed either.  I cut them up, put them on to boil, then set to work cutting up the onion.  I was now ready for the Cuisinart.

I pulled it out of it’s box, read through the warnings, read through what I was supposed to do and not do, such as “don’t touch the blade”. Right, I won’t touch the blade.

I dropped my onions in, turned it on, and pressed the button. Nothing. Unplugged it, tried a different outlet. Nothing. Tried every outlet in the kitchen, and one that was running the fan in my office, that I knew was working. Still nothing.

Rats, I would have to cut everything up by hand after all

Shredded cabbage

Rats, I reached in to pull out the onions, and of course I TOUCHED THE BLADE. So, now, I had potatoes boiling, and cabbage to cut, and I was sucking on my finger, racing to the bathroom to bandage it up, and go back to work.

I shredded the cabbage as quickly as I could, and poured it into the pan with the onions, and cursed my fate.

More on the actual making of the Solyanka tomorrow.

Fruit mix

Last night, I thought I would be practical, and do a recipe that would use up some of the fruit was was going bad. Not bad, like fermented, but a little squishy. I found a great recipe on the King Arthur flour blog for sorbet that didn’t require an ice cream maker, so thought, that sounds cool, let me try that. (the link above isn’t quite the recipe I followed, but has more pictures and steps.The original link, for Sorbet two Ways, has less pictures and explanation.)

The recipe called for 3 3/4 cups of blended fruit. They recommended using apples, kiwis and pears or raspberries and peaches. I decided that since it said fruit, I could use any fruit that I could mush up, so I set to it. I wrote it down too, in case this mess turned out to be any good, seeing as I wasn’t really following the recipe at that point.

I used 1 strawberry (that I found in my garden.), 1/2 pint of blueberries that were a bit on the bitter side, 2 figs that were past their prime, 2 kiwis, 3 or 4 small plumbs, 2 granny smith apples, which I cut up and zapped in the microwave, as requested.

The blender actually blended everything, which surprised me to no end, as it usually didn’t do that.

On the stove I heated on cup of water and 3/4 of a cup of raw sugar. I don’t think I needed to heat that much sugar, as this was to be added to the mix, and the mix was already sweet. I think if I make this again, I’ll add tarter fruit, or less sugar.  Once the sugar and water were cool, I mixed it into the fruit, and added about two lemons worth of lemon juice. I think I could have added more.

Finished sorbe

The recipe called for chilling it in the freezer in a flat pan, and then stirring it every hour on the hour. I said, after the first stir, screw this. The recipe also called for taking it out to server after a few hours, but once again I was in the screw it mode. It was late, and I didn’t feel like staying up late to stir frozen fruit.

In the morning it wasn’t too solid as I was able to put some on my granola, which helped with the overly sweet taste. This afternoon, when I tasted it, it had frozen even more, and I had to jab to get any out. This is probably why, like the souffle, one must server it when it is ready to be served.

I don’t like cheese. There, that being said, why in the earth did I make something with cheese in it yesterday. Well, as I tried to explain to whomever would listen, because it was the first first recipe under souffles. That was the only reason.

Fallen souffle

Next time I will make something I enjoy making. I only ate the first bit, because it said to serve right away, and I try to obey what the books tell me to do.

But now, a day later, it has fallen, very much, and I’m taking little bits off it, tasting the cheese and saying, yuck.

So, tomorrow’s recipe is going to be something I wouldn’t mind eating (and I’d better not mind it, because Cartoonist is out of town, and there is no one else but the cats and dog.  She said to share it with someone, but with the souffle in the shape it is in, the only thing that I can share it with is the compost.