Twisted Pretzel

Things have been really busy in our kitchens and I haven't had much time to get things posted.  Students kept feeding their starters and began having an abundance of discards.  So it was time to cut the waste and put together something tasty! And what is better than soft pretzels!

This was the first complicated recipe that they had to follow. To save space, they had combined their starters into large jars, one per kitchen with six total.  Once they had enough discards, we were ready to start. At this point, we had put the starters in the fridge to slow the growth process of the starters. 

Before school, several students come in to prep the kitchens. They gather the necessary ingredients for the recipes and portion them out into six bins, one for each team. In addition, they gather the equipment that each kitchen will need to complete the recipe.  On the first day we made our dough. Because we only have about 40 minutes in the kitchen to get things done, we have to break the recipe up over several days.  This is great when dealing with recipes that need to rise because it breaks the procedure into natural steps. 

Students measured their starter discards and then began to add the remaining ingredients, mixing until they formed a good ball of dough.  We placed the dough into separate bowls and left them to rise. At the end of the day, seventh period was sure to place all the dough into the fridge for the night.
The following day the dough was ready to make into pretzels.  Students enjoyed rolling out the dough, some more successful than others.  It took several tries and a bit of extra flour, but they each eventually accomplished the task.

We stacked their pretzels and froze them for the following day.  This kept some of them from getting smashed and stopped them from a second rise.  The next day, they baked them and enjoyed them with while watching some Good Eats with Alton Brown!  Unfortunately, I often get too busy in the classroom to remember to snap some pictures.  And these pretzels got eaten faster then I anticipated!  Interestingly enough, we coated the warm pretzel in butter, but instead of salt, cinnamon sugar was the popular choice of coating. 
These kids are amazing and learning more everyday. I love my job and teaching these kids how great cooking from scratch can be.
Here's to healthier families! Cheers!

Our Class Pet!

In an attempt to learn about where our food comes from, my amazing students were introduced to "starters".  We started our first cooking lesson with the most basic of foods, BREAD.  A basic ingredient in bread is yeast.  Yeast has evolved over time.  As technology advanced, so did our choices.  In any supermarket you can now purcase instant, even rapid rise, yeast. But that's no FUN! 

We began to study the process of how yeast grows. Each team developed their own starter.  Being that yeast is a living organism, it had to be fed. So over the first few weeks of the semester, students practiced their measuring and mixing with daily feedings. They improved their communication and got familiar with their kitchens. They grew their sourdough starters and we were able to make tastey treats completely from scratch.

Here's their process:

First they mixed one cup flour and 1/2 cup purified water in a glass mason jar.  We talked about how it is important to use purified water because so much of our tap water contains minerals and chlorine, which will stunt the growth of the yeast.

Everyday they needed to feed their starter.  After discarding 1/2, they mixed in another cup of flour and 1/2 purified water.  They continued this process for two weeks.  As the yeast and lactobacilli fed on the flour (simple sugars), the yeast would "burp" and release gases, causing it to expand.  The lactobacilli is what keeps the starter from molding and going bad. 

Once their starter showed constant growth, they were ready to use!  I'll update you soon on their success with recipes using their starters! Sourdough Pretzels, Crackers, Pizza Crust, Cinnamon Rolls, YUMMY!

Challenge these kids to think beyond what is infront of them and they will step up and respond.  I am very excited that they are loving this project and learning where their food comes from.  Education is key to a happier, healthier family! 

Till next time!  Cheers!

The Bitter Truth

I am a mom to two healthy kiddos and one amazing husband.  Yes, I consider my husband one of my children.  Really?  Yours isn't?  Well then, bless your heart.  I am not sure mine would survive for long without me, which is completely my fault. And, he probably couldn't tell you exactly when he became completely incapable of tending to himself. Now, let me paint you the picture of my family:

We are a typical American, middle class family of four.  Possibly more dysfunctional than some, but we are definitely entertaining.  We love cooking, smoking (aka BBQ to the novice), football, and friends.  A perfect weekend to us is smoking a brisket and cooking all night Friday, and spending the day Saturday feeding friends and watching college football.  Now when I say we are carnivores, I do not speak of that lightly.  We have been known to cause meat comas in many of our friends, and vegetables are rarely spotted at these gatherings. We enjoy cream corn, tater tot casserole, beans and cobbler. And don't even ask which cobbler is better, peach or blackberry. Our Savior, Jesus Christ, and BBQ are two things sacred in this house. 

Okay, now to everyday life. I am currently laid off from teaching public middle school.  I like to bless my own heart for that, LOL. My husband works an average of 50-60 hours a week. Our kids are in 2nd and 4th grades at the public elementary school six blocks from home. We try to eat healthy during the week, pre cooking meals, having snacks ready.  As I have already explained, I am far from granola. I didn't make my own baby food. My kids didn't wear cloth diapers. Heck, I didn't even breastfeed.  But, I admire those that did.  I can say that I could have competed with the local dairy when I was pumping. We eat too much fast food, too much pizza, too many things that come in a box, and nothing organic.  We love meat, and only avoid red because it is too expensive.

So, I am busy trying to get a job, cleaning the house, doing homework, etc. etc.  I know, you feel me. Being unemployed has gotten me around to thinking about what I love to do, and that's cook. I have recently realized that I make more and more things from scratch. Not only do they taste better, they are so much healthier.

So in an attempt to clean up my family's eating habits, I am going to start trying to replace the items in my pantry with homemade options. I have recruited a good friend (and you can follow her blog also at http://thewhitesbackyardfarm.blogspot.com) to help me with this adventure and assist me with the recipes.  I am going to be posting as often as I can, new recipes, cost, pros/cons to making it yourself. Please remember, I am not a trained chef; nor do I have any authority on this subject.  I am doing my research and throwing my opinion out there. Feel free to give me feedback, and share your experiences. My main goal is to find efficient, inexpensive ways to remove processed foods from my family's everyday diet.

Check back soon to see the garden, making your own bread and butter, jelly and hot sauce. We have to start somewhere. Here's to a healthier family! Cheers!

Where have you been?

So, it has been a long time since I have posted.  Definetly haven't stopped cooking, but major life changes have interfered with my ability to find time... for anything.

Here is the short version:  I was hired in December as a Culinary Careers and Career Planning teacher at a local middle school.  I started in January, and am loving my job! So the direction of my blog is shifting slightly as I work to teach my students how to make things crunchy in their own homes. 

I plan to use my blog to show my students some things I have going on at home, and share with their parents what is going on in class.  Hope you all enjoy!

Buttery Goodness!

So, is making butter just a cool project for kindergartners?  Is there any benefit to your nutrition or does it taste any different?  This is one product that is used in many recipes that I wanted to find out if I could make it myself.  So here's is my experience:

 

I started with a quart of heavy whipping cream, $3.49 at Sams and my Kitchenaid mixer.

I first brought the cream to room temp, not sure that was necessary but several items I read recommended it. I started with the wire whip and ran the mixer at a 4.  I tried turning it up higher but it splattered even with the guard.  Once the fat started to separate from the milk, which was at about 5 minutes, I drained the liquid through a stainer into a bowl.  I changed the blade to the flat beater.

This is when I had to stayed close to the process or it made a mess.  I set the mixer at 2 and the butter began to form. Once it starts separating the process happens quickly and will splatter the milk all over.  As more liquid seperated, I continued to pour it out into the strainer. After about three times, I added about two cups of ice water and continued the process. At this point you are trying to "wash" the buttermilk off the butter.  This will keep it from getting rancid quickly.  You want to continue the process, pouring the water liquid into the sink, NOT the strainer you were using earlier.  Continue until the liquid is as clear as you can get it.  It only took me about three pours. 



I scooped the butter into 8oz Ball freezer jam jars.  I kept one out and froze the other.  I poured that buttermilk, which is actually closer to skim milk, into a quart jar put it in the fridge. 

So is it worth it? It was really cool to start with one ingredient and end with two.  My son loved the milk!  I would definitely recommend your own butter if you are baking fresh bread or you want to add herbs or spices and plan to use it as a spread, not sure it is necessary otherwise.  I thought the homemade butter tasted smoother and less like lard. I do keep a stash in the freezer now, and that has been nice.  You definitely are not saving money.  I am going to ask at Sams what they do with the cream they don't sell and see if there is a way to buy it at a discount the day it expires. I did take a picture of the mess it created.  It wasn't too bad and I did use the guard, although it didn't help much. I did a total of 3 quarts, resulting in 3 cups of butter. If you are looking at cost, you will not save money. It took a total of one hour from start to finish. It was a very simple process.

Some things to consider about store bought butter:

Like I have said in the past, I am far from granola.  I love my friends who are and enjoy the knowledge they share with me.  Butter is one of those things I never really thought about.  But, it is an animal by product.  Whatever the animal is eating, is contributing to the quality of the cream being used to make the butter. But, that also means that if you choose to churn your own butter, you have to be conscious of the cream you are choosing to use. Nothing like making it even more complicated. 

 

Here's to a healthier family! Cheers!



Home Fried Tortilla Chips

This week has really gotten away from me, but what a great week!  So here's what I have today: home fried tortilla chips! Might be the easiest thing I do, and saves our grocery bill the most amount of money. That fact that I said fried has already told you that this one isn't about making it healthier, instead they are tastier and SO MUCH cheaper!
So here's how to begin.  I like to use a 12 quart pot.  Mine happens to be the orange Rachael Ray pot and I love it.  But at this point I only use it for frying, and actually keep my oil in it until it needs to be changed.  I like the 12 quart pot because it reduces the splashing and clean up.  I pour about three inches or so into the pan. Heat the oil to 380 degrees, this is really important.  At first I would flick water into the grease and judge the temp by the pop.  But, my fried favorites have improved since I invested in a thermometer.  Cut your flour tortillas into quarters. My family prefers yellow corn, but white is good too.  I also stick to Mission brand, only because I have not mastered the home tortilla yet.  Moved away from my Mexican friends before I thought to have them teach me! When we were living in Texas I would buy homemade tortillas at the grocery store.  And yes, the tortilla matters! When you use the first brand you don't like, you will believe me. I do about 10 tortillas at a time, which is 40 pieces. 

Once your oil is hot, drop in the tortillas. I prefer using an Asian spatula, which is a small wire scoop to move them around and separate them in the oil. Put on the lid and let them fry for five to eight minutes. Check on them and move them around with the scoop to be sure they are all in the oil.

Make a pile of paper towel to put the chips on when you pull them out.  I use a wire rack with a cookie sheet and paper towel, but the paper towel on a cookie sheets works just fine.  Using the spatula, pull out a chip and check to see if it cracks on the paper towel. You have to push on it with the spatula.  I did use large tongs before I bought the spatula.  I was too cheap and had to wait for a good deal at Kohl's.  Fry them until they are done enough for you.  You will start to figure out what that means after you fry a few times.  I like them done a bit more than the family does, so a vary my batches. 

Once they are cooked to your liking, scoop them onto the paper towel. If you are doing more, place the next batch in while the first cools.  The first batch can be dusted with salt, or your favorite seasoning.  I mix salt, garlic, pepper, cumin and paprika, I my secret seasoning, LOL.  I then put them into a paper grocery sack or a large Tupperware container lined with fresh paper towel. Once you have moved the first batch, repeat with the following batches. 





After my oil has cooled, I store it in the coolest room in the house with the lid on.  I strain the oil between most batches and never use the oil for anything else.  If you boil something battered it will dirty it up.  I also like doing most batter fried items in a different pan anyway.  But we eat chips that often in our house.  I am assuming there might be less preservatives, but not actually sure.  We eat the chips for about three weeks before they are really considered stale. But you do have to keep them in a sealed container.  During football season we go through a large batch each weekend, so leftovers are not an issue. 

You can also fry flour tortillas the same way. Then instead of a salt seasoning, you would dust them with a cinnamon sugar mix.  I like cinnamon and powdered sugar.  Add a little honey or chocolate dip and they are a great dessert!

Home fried tortilla chips will not make your family any healthier, but it will help your pocket book!

Here's to a healthier family! Cheers!



The Burk Beachside Garden

My husband would laugh if he actually read this, but I am probably one of the most stubborn people I know.  And when someone tells me something can't be done, that actually fuels me to successfully complete the task at hand.  I have always wanted a garden. I have tried over the years.  Learned a lot of "what not to do's".

So moving back to Florida, I set my heart on a garden.  I knew I had to have raised beds and bring in soil.  We live beachside, which to my northern friends means that we live on the barrier island that runs down the east side of the state.  Yes, Florida has a barrier island, who knew?  So, our soil is extremely salty and sandy.  While at Lowes buying my lumber, I was chattin it up with the cashier about my plans. An old man pipes in "No one will EVER be successful with a vegetable garden beachside".  Really?  It's on old man!  So then my two 4X6 bed idea grew a bit and the dump truck came and dumped 8 yards of dirt in our driveway.

My husband simply shook his head and laughed. Now, please understand I did not actually plan that big of a pile of dirt.  After filling my two beds, the pile sat for probably 2 months.  I couldn't even give the stuff away.  So it was time to expand the garden and move the dirt.  Although my husband is extremely helpful in many areas, he leaves me alone with my "projects".  To sum it up, after a lot of sweat, this is where my garden is at:

These are the back beds, growing okra and various types of squash and pumpkin. I have already had to pull one round of squash because they got infested with worms.  I them moved on from my attempt at organic gardening and Sevin'ed them. No more bug problems, just have to sure to wash veggies well. 

These are the four front beds.  The first is corn.  It is doing pretty well.  I do need to make a fence around it because I noticed an animal has gotten to a few of the tops. The next bed is tomatoes, which are close to done for this round, and squash.  I am in the process of rotating out my summer plants and planting new seedlings.  The third bed is my eggplant and peppers.  The next picture shows you a better shot.  Now the back bed isn't worth showing close up.  Everything I have planted in that bed has died.  Not sure if it has anything to do with it, but our yellow lab passed away last spring and we buried him under the bed. My husband insists that he has at least three if not four feet of dirt onto of him.  I don't know because that was his "project".  Needless to say, everything in the bad has always died.  So I am now using it to cultivate better soil, mixing in my compost. 

I am so excited over my eggplant! I planted them because I heard they do really well in Florida.  So I figured it might give me a little success, and they have.  I have my herbs in restaurant pickle buckets, and yes my basil has gone to seed.  I need to replant.

I am by no means an expert.  I ask people a lot of questions and try new things all the time.  I have found it very helpful to have a good friend working on the same goals.  She turned a third of her backyard into a garden and is doing great.  But she also has 7 chickens, LOL. Check her out at http://thewhitesbackyardfarm.blogspot.com.  I have been able to add fresh peppers and tomatoes to our meals, but nearly as many as I would like.  This is definitely a work in progress.  Hope you enjoyed the pics!  Feel free to comment what has worked for you. I'm always up for new tricks to try.   Here's to a healthier family! Cheers!