Image and poem from Wikipedia

This week in our Back to Basics Cooking Series I’m going to explore the world of tarts. I have made a few of them from Simply in Season, but they are not a regular part of my repertoire. I’ve always been fascinated at the idea of making them more, and learning how to improvise recipes, possibly because of this poem:

The Queen of Hearts

She made some tarts,

All on a summer’s day;

The Knave of Hearts

He stole those tarts,

And took them clean away.

The King of Hearts

Called for the tarts,

And beat the knave full sore;

The Knave of Hearts

Brought back the tarts,

And vowed he’d steal no more.

Tarts must be pretty impressive if that Knave is stealing them! Plus they just sound so fancy. Yet, they are also versatile. Here’s what Alice Waters says about tarts in The Art of Simple Food:

A buttery crust with a savory or sweet filling, a tart is a perfect food in the same way a sandwich or pizza is. My favorite kind of tarts are the flat, crusty, round, and open-faced versions known as galettes. The pastry shell is rolled quite thin, topped with a filling of fruit or vegetables (only about twice as thick as the shell), and baked free-form. The galette is baked until it is crisp and golden and the topping is softened, its flavors concentrated–an ideal marriage of textures and flavors.

Put that way, I’m convinced this is something I need to learn how to do! Plus, imagine the possibilties. Wow your friends and families with whatever you have to use up made into a tart, or even more impressive-sounding, a “galette!” Imagine: apple tart, roasted peach tart, pecan tart, ginger-rhubarb tart, pesto tart, chocolate tart, red onion galette, tomato and cheese galette–it’s the perfect way to eat in season!

Ah, but there is one little catch. The crust. I hate making crust. Some people are afraid of yeast; I’m afraid of pie crust. And really, tart and galette are just fancy names for a one crusted pie. Sort of. More often than not I just buy organic frozen crusts at the store, always vowing to learn how to make and freeze my own because they are so darned expensive. Perhaps this is the week.

And so I turn to Mark Ruhlman for advice. In Ratio, he covers tarts in the chapter on Pie Dough. His ratio is 3 parts flour : 2 parts fat : 1 part water. For a tart, you’d use

• 9 oz flour
• 6 oz butter (1 1/2 sticks; or lard or shortening, cold, cut into small pieces)
• 2-3 oz ice water (less water if using butter as it already has some water in it)
• 1/2 tsp salt

 What I like best about this ratio is that it takes pies and tarts from being open-a-book, plan-in-advance items into the realm of spontaneity. Savory and sweet tarts can often be made simply with what’s on hand, say some onions and cheese. The discovery of fresh peaches or rhubarb at a farmer’s market can, on a whim, result in a pie later in the day. Pie shells and tart shells are vehicles for other ingredients. When you think of this dough as a vehicle, whole worlds open up to you. — Mark Ruhlman

Dough can be made ahead of time and refrigerated for two days or frozen for 2-6 months (thaw frozen dough in the refrigerator overnight before using).

Interestingly, while Ruhlman and Waters both talk about being able to spontaneously come up with tarts if you learn how to make the dough, I could find no references to what temperature and length of time are normally used, and the sample recipes are all over the place. I suppose one will eventually learn what temp and time for various sorts of tarts; for now, I think I’ll stick with using recipes until I feel confident enough to branch out.

Related posts:

1. Plum Tart
2. Uganda, Days 11-14: Queen Elizabeth Park & Returning Home
3. Pie Crust & Mom’s Apple Pie

Sometimes people hear “eat local” and they picture expensive, fancy food. I went out to dinner the other night with friends to a burger joint that we like because they source some things locally. “It doesn’t have fancy buns, does it?” they asked the waitress. While made on site, I’m not sure one would consider them “fancy.” But I digress. This week’s Dark Days Challenge entry is  most definitely not fancy, but is fast, easy, and–local.

I received this recipe from my friend Holly as a Hamburger Helper alternative. I made a couple of additions and voila! A fast, easy, weeknight meal that’s mostly made from local ingredients.

Ingredients:

•  1 lb ground beef (could use sausage or venison; I used ground beef from S&S Lamb)
• 1 large onion, sliced (believe it or not, I still have some left from last fall’s CSA!)
• 1/2 Tbsp mushroom powder (optional)
• 4 large potatoes, sliced very thin (from the store, but they are Michigan)
• 1 bunch kale, chopped (optional; I had some left from the co-op)
• 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• shredded cheese (I did not use local, note to self pick some cheese up at the farm next time)
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. In a large skillet, brown the ground beef, onion, and mushroom powder (if using) until cooked through. Remove from pan and drain fat.
2. Place potatoes and kale and a little water in the skillet; season with salt and pepper; cover and cook until potatoes are soft.
3. Add meat back in and heat through; add the Worcestershire sauce. Top with cheese and serve.

The Verdict: What’s not to love? This is comfort food at its best. While DH probably would have preferred that it not have kale in it, the meat and cheese made up for it.

For more ideas for cooking with local ingredients in winter, check out the Dark Days Challenge at Not Dabbling in Normal. 

Related posts:

1. Summer Vegetable & Ground Beef Skillet
2. Ground Beef Curry
3. Beef Stew (Boeuf Bourguignonne)

Related posts:

1. Soup Recipes Link Up
2. Pasta Recipes Link Up
3. Salad Recipes Link Up!

Black Olive & Herb Yeast Loaf

I can’t let bread week go by without talking about sourdough, soaking, fermenting, sprouting, and other traditional ways of preparing grains–my “Real Food” readers would kill me!

First, my personal philosophy:

Everything in moderation. I do eat bread and grains. I have tried diets where I cut out all carbs and did very badly. After researching more about metabolism, I discovered that I do best with more carbs than, say, my husband who can do just fine without them. That said, I really don’t eat much bread. I do enjoy some toast with eggs on the weekends, and for that I usually purchase Ezekiel sprouted bread or Little Rooster bread, which is a locally produced fermented bread. While I do know how to make my own bread (as you’ve noticed from my bread postings!) I don’t do it very often, and since it’s so infrequent I don’t feel the need to grind my own flour or soak/sprout/sourdough it.

However, if you want to make your own bread on a regular basis, and if you are interested in preparing your bread (and other grains) in a way that is easier for your body to digest, you may want to learn more about what is referred to as “traditional” methods. In fact, my friend Kelly from Kelly the Kitchen Kop just posted an excellent article today that talks about grains or no grains, and includes links to various methods and health claims. I encourage you to check it out.

Additionally, GNOWFGLINS is holding a free webinar on Friday, February 3 to talk about the basics of sprouting, fermenting, and soaking grains.

Again, it is not my intention to guilt anyone into yet another thing to do. Yes, it is “best” to use sourdough and other traditional methods of bread making. But if that’s not going to happen and your choices are between making homemade bread with whole wheat and buying a loaf of Wonderbread (recognizing that sprouted and fermented breads are rather pricey), I’d vote for homemade bread with whole wheat.

Related posts:

1. Kitchen Tip Tuesday: Cook dried beans without soaking!

I came across the idea in a recent Learning Herbs e-newsletter and knew I had to try it. The list of ingredients is pretty short:

• 3 cups or so of evergreens (blue spruce, fir, pine, etc.)
• organic olive oil
• beeswax

So, I went to my mom & dad’s house one Sunday afternoon and asked if I could cut some branches from one of their blue spruce trees. My dad thought I was nuts but helped me anyway. I let the branches dry for a couple of days just to make sure the snow had dried up.

Then, I stripped the needles from the branches. It was pretty fun to do sitting in front of the TV. It made the whole house smell like a pine tree! Next I put them in a jar and covered it with oil. The directions said to chop the needles first, or smash them with a cleaver, but blue spruce needles are VERY poky and hard and seemed fragrant enough after being stripped from the branches so I skipped that step. I placed the needles in a canning jar and covered with oil. Where to put it? I needed a warm dark place. I decided our front living room in front of the heat register would do.

Two weeks later, I opened the jar and . . . oh my, VERY sweet smelling! I was a bit worried until I re-read the original directions and said that it would smell sweet. Whew! It also said it could take 2-4 weeks to extract the fragrance but I thought it was plenty strong smelling so I proceeded to the next step . . . straining the needles out of the oil.

Now, you can use a cheesecloth and try to extract the oil from the needles, however as I mentioned before, the blue spruce needles are very hard and I could tell all I would accomplish by squeezing the needles in cheesecloth would be to further poke my hands. So I just used a strainer. It smelled HEAVENLY. In fact for the rest of the day I found myself hovering over the garbage can to catch a whiff of that beautifully infused oil that remained on the needles.

Next up was to add the beeswax. Here’s where I differed a bit from the recipe (again). My limited research into making balms said to use one ounce of beeswax per ounce of oil. However, the recipe said to use 3 cups of oil and 4 ounces of beeswax. Since I had 2.5 cups of oil, I decided to use 3.5 ounces of beeswax. It worked fine, but I think 2.5 ounces would have worked even better. As you can see from the photo, it was a little harder than I expected it to be and had a bit of cracking going on.

The procedure is, in a double boiler, bring the water to a boil, place the upper pot over top of the lower pot, add the oil, and then add the beeswax. Stir until the was is nice and melted in. Then pour into containers. Allow to cool before adding the lid.

The Verdict: I love this stuff! Not only does it smell great, but it has really helped my chapped hands (winter is brutal on skin here in Michigan). It’s a bit greasy on the initial application but absorbs fairly quickly. It is supposed to be good for chest congestion, sore muscles, and uplift one’s spirits. My homemade blue spruce balm definitely makes me happy, although that might be from the satisfaction of making something I never thought I could make (at the fraction of the cost of fancy organic lotion, plus with eco friendly ingredients), and remembering my dad helping me cut the blue spruce branches.

This post shared at Simple Lives Thursday, I’m Lovin It, Frugal Friday, Monday Mania

No related posts.

One of the downfalls of baking homemade bread, or getting the really good bread from the farmer’s market, is that it tends to get stale much faster than the preservative-laden, mass produced variety. Don’t throw it out, however–here are some ways you can make use of bread that’s not so fresh.

Before we proceed, I should mention that we are talking about bread that’s a wee bit on the hard side, not bread with mold on it. Unlike cheese, it’s not a good idea to try to cut off moldy parts and save the rest.

1. Make croutons.

You knew I was going to say this, right? It’s the traditional thing to do with stale bread, and it’s great in soup and salad (two things we’ve already covered in this Back to Basics series).

2. Make bread crumbs.

I have to confess, I’ve never done this. Everyone says it’s so easy. But I just don’t use breadcrumbs that often. We grill most of our meats and the last time I  made something with breadcrumbs it was part of a giveaway I did for Panko. I still have most of the box left, even after using it for a couple of meatloaves. However, if you have children or like things with breadcrumbs all you have to do is dry in an oven at 250F, and crush in a blender or food processor, adding seasonings as desired. If you’re making meatloaf, you can actually just chop up the stale bread and you don’t need to make it into crumbs.

3. Make toast.

Another sort of obvious option. Put it in the toaster and voila! It’s supposed to be dry and crackly.

4. Make french toast.

Covered in egg and raw maple syrup, who wouldn’t love it?

5. Make bread pudding.

One of my favorites is Savory Squash bread pudding. I’ve also been tempted by some of the sweet bread pudding recipes that feature alcohol like this one.

6. Make fondue.

Another one I haven’t tried, even though I do have a fondue pot. However, toast it a bit and it would theoretically make a great gooey cheese dipper. Then again what isn’t better dipped in cheese?

7. Make an appetizer.

Slice in a pretty round or on an angle and top with bruschetta.

8. Make panzanella.

An Italian salad that actually works better with stale bread as it holds up to the dressing without getting soggy.

9. Throw it in soup.

It makes a great thickener, and you can save the crackers for another day.

10. Throw it in the freezer to deal with later.

Only sort of kidding. If you notice it going stale, though, and want to make croutons or crumbs, it’s a good idea to throw it in the freezer for a day when you have time to get the oven going.

What are YOUR favorite ways to use stale bread?

This post shared at Kitchen Tip Tuesday, Top 10 Tuesday

Related posts:

1. Oatmeal Pumpkin Bread
2. Seeded French Bread
3. Top 10 Reasons to Bake Your Own Bread

I’ve discovered that many people are intimidated by yeast breads; lucky for me, I grew up knowing moms who made bread and so I didn’t know it was supposed to be difficult. My early attempts were quite successful, but I do have a dud now and then. I’ve assembled some breadmaking resources to give some confidence if you’ve never tried it, as well as some ideas for experimentation.

Don ‘t be afraid to just try it. Alice Waters says that everyone loves freshly baked bread, even if it doesn’t quite rise or if it gets a bit overdone, and I have to agree. While breadmaking might seem like a laborious task, it isn’t all that difficult–it just requires being home for a few hours, although the different stages can be tweaked here and there.

I used to have a bread machine, but for some reason it stopped working (it was a rather old hand me down). No matter; I use my large stand mixer and it works just fine. DH likes to tease me saying that I should knead by hand if I want to be authentic. Then he ducks so as to avoid flying dough.

Some of the important things I’ve learned:

• pay attention to the flours and yeast called for in recipes. They are NOT always interchangeable.
• go by feel, not specific measurements. Start with the measurements called for, but recognize that flour is tricky to measure even with a scale. So if the dough feels to wet, add a bit more flour. If the dough is hard and crumbly add more water.
• don’t refrigerate bread (unless it’s store-bought Ezekiel or other sprouted bread that is supposed to stay in there). It’s best to leave it on the counter for a few days OR freeze it.
• it’s not necessary to take the temperature of the water; just make sure it’s not too hot. It should be about body temperature.

Some of my favorite bread websites:

The Fresh Loaf: A plethora of featured recipes, lessons, book reviews, a community forum and recipe exchange, and baker blogs.

Wild Yeast: Home of the weekly meme Yeastspotting, where lots of people link up their favorite bread recipes.

Bread in Five: From the authors of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, a blog where they post even more recipes using the no-knead technique.

GNOWFGLINS: A great all around blog, plus she offers an excellent Sourdough A to Z eBook.

The links above should get you started on your bread making journey. For the rest of bread week, we’ll be exploring more bread topics. Stay tuned!

Do you bake bread? If so, what are some of your favorite tips? If not, what are your questions?

Related posts:

1. Back to Basics Cooking Series Coming in January!
2. Salad: Beyond the Iceberg {Back to Basics Cooking Series}
3. Pasta Week {Back to Basics}

Related posts:

1. Bread Recipes Link Up
2. Pasta Recipes Link Up
3. Dressings & Sauces Recipe Swap {Link Up!}

Who would have thought that there was so much to learn about soup? I feel like I barely scratched the surface this week. Yet, next week’s bread theme is quickly approaching. So I decided to post today about thickening soups. In the winter, a thicker soup is nice and hardy. Be sure to check back tomorrow to link up your favorite soup recipes and to check out others!

When I first started making soups from Simply in Season, I simply adored how some of our favorite soups were so nice and creamy. Very hearty! Often they had me add a milk and flour mixture to the soup. It wasn’t long before I discovered that this thickening method is common and has, you guessed it, a great French name that all chefs understand:

Roux

Mark Bittman’s Ratio has a, um, ratio for roux.

Roux = 3 parts flour: 2 parts fat

Thickening Ratio = 10 parts liquid : 1 part roux

If you’ve ever tried to thicken a soup using a recipe found online (or from a cookbook) that doesn’t provide much by way of instruction, such as the Beer Cheese Soup that DH made, you may have ended up with curdled soup and wonder what the heck happened. Keys to Good Cooking, offers the following tips:

• when thickening with egg yolk or other uncooked animal protein, take care not to overheat the protein. Begin the process with the soup well below the boiling point, and add small amounts of hot soup gradually to the thickener to dilute and warm it gradually, then mix all together and heat slowly just until the soup starts to thicken.
• when thickening with cream, don’t go low fat! Light cream, sour cream, yogurt, butter, or olive oil can curdle, so leave these for the last minute and keep temperature well below a boil (this goes for reheating, too.)
• choose recipes that include starch or flour as this helps protect fat from coagulating.
• to thicken soups with flour or starch, make sure to predisperse the thickener before adding to the soup. Add the thickener and then simmer just until the soup reaches the right consistency. For example, many of the recipes in Simply in Season instruct one to mix the flour in milk before adding to the soup towards the end.

So, what are some of my favorite thickened soups?

Polish Wild Mushroom and Potato Soup

Zucchini Garden Chowder

Potato Soup

Hearty Broccoli Soup

This post shared at Real Food Wednesday and Works for Me Wednesday

Related posts:

1. 5 Simple Tips to Avoid Heart Disease
2. Potato Soup
3. Beer Cheese Soup

Photo from live58.org

As part of my goal to raise awareness about global poverty on this blog, I’ve decided to use this space to promote the 58: Global Impact Tour. Each month will feature a different country and issue. This month it’s malaria. Did you know that mosquito bites can kill?
Watch this video to learn more:

To learn how you can make a difference, visit http://my.live58.org/tour today to join the global fast.

Disclosure: This post has not been compensated in any way, however I do work for one of the organizations that is part of this initiative.

Related posts:

1. 58: A Christ-centered global initiative to end extreme poverty
2. Uganda, Day 1: Arrival
3. The One in Which I Realize I Know Nothing about Beer