Bubble Solution

A non-edible, but I need to park this information somewhere before I forget it.

And lemme say, I hate bubbles.  I hate how the solution feels slimy.  I hate how store-bought solution smells.  I hate how drippy and messy bubbles are, and all the I-WANT-TO-DO-IT-MYSELF-DO-IT-FOR-ME lunacy from the kids. I hate it when the kids put the wands right on their mouths and get sudsy and then gag on the suds while I'm trying to clean them up.  Hate it, hate it, hate it.

The answer to all of the above is homemade bubble solution, self-serve bubble refills from a 2 gallon sun tea container and big round no-blow bubble wands from the dollar store.  Homemade solution is less drippy, less slimy, and smells better.  The kids got more "blows" out of each refill than they did out of the store-bought stuff, so it lasts longer too.  Less mouth-sudsing too when they do get their lips on it.  And of course, it's cheaper...about $2.50 for a homemade batch compared with $5 for the same amount of store-bought (which goes faster, as mentioned).

Empty spice jars work well for long skinny bubble wands

I used the store-brand generic for regular ol' blue Dawn liquid detergent.  Something cheaper that doesn't suds as well in the sink isn't going to make good bubbles either ya know?  And I like the smell of Dawn.

I had to hunt down glycerin (which I also use to make aftershave).  It's in the pharmacy section of one of our local grocery stores.  I found it on the first aid aisle, but another store said they would carry it in the digestive remedy aisle if they had any in that day (they did not).  Everybody offered to order it for me if I couldn't find anywhere with it in stock.  So...ask if you don't see it.

2 24 oz. bottles Dawn (you'll need the "ultra concentrated" type)
18 cups water (4 1/2 quarts)
3 tbsp glycerin

Stir everything together in a large drink dispenser.  Enjoy! Pin It

Aloha Salad (kidney diet)

I found this recipe in a cookbook for renal patients.  A lot of fruits and veggies are actually off-limits for people with chronic kidney disease (CKD) because they're high in potassium (a good thing for the rest of us but with impaired kidney function, potassium will build up to dangerous levels in the body).  So finding CKD-friendly side dishes can be tricky.  Especially since I also have to balance a number of food allergies, sensitivities and preferences within my family.  One serving of this salad (pay attention to serving sizes!) is 112 mg potassium and 26 mg phosphorus.

This "salad" proved to be quite a hit (and about the only way I've found to get my 3 year old to eat carrots without squawking).  I am not a fan of describing anything with Jello as a "salad" but it seems to be a thing here in the Heartland (and also in many 1970's era cookbooks...but I digress).  However, this "salad" was more fruit/veggie and less Jello so I'll let it ride.

Since it's a gelatin "salad", you need to make it in advance so it can set up.  My favorite thing ;)  You can also prep this in stages if you need to, like if your baby is teething and NEEDS you to hold her CONSTANTLY except for when she dozes off for a few minutes at a time.  Just a hypothetical example.  Grate the carrots, measure and mix the dry ingredients, measure the liquid ingredients, and fridge each part until you're ready to put it together.

We are avoiding artificial dyes at my house (in addition to all the aforementioned food restrictions...I told you it gets tricky to plan menus), so I got to experiment with substituting a homemade, dye-free mix for the box o' Yellow 6, er, Lemon Jello.  It turned out very well.

The tricky bit about applying this substitute widely in recipes calling for a box of Jello is figuring out what to use for flavoring that doesn't skew the liquid ratio but still gives a punch of flavor, especially if you try to create flavors other than citrus.  In this recipe, I used a bit of lemon juice in place of some of the water called for in the OR as well as a lot of lemon zest.  To substitute for other flavors, I'd look into dye-free flavoring oils over juices or extracts...you'll get more flavor without adding liquids.  If your recipe calls for water, you can swap some or all for a juice or puree but you might need to pay attention to how the acid from your flavoring liquid impacts leavening reactions.

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Bisquick Substitute

I don't keep Bisquick in my pantry b/c there's more ingredients than necessary in that box and b/c it's plenty easy to make a stand-in product out of pantry staples in whatever amount you need (while lowering sodium content as well).  I make this is up as needed rather than making gigantic batches and storing them.

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Blue Ribbon, baby

I am too stinking excited about this.  I am now an official Hoosier...1) I entered jellies and pickles at the State Fair and 2) I won.  Probably 1st out of 3 entries or something like that, but I won!!  1st place in the low-sugar category for low-sugar corn cob jelly and Honorable Mention for Pickled Edamame (below).








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Big batch bread mix

I don't buy bread any more.  I know that sounds all hippie-pinko-commie (as my husband likes to say), and most people don't go quite this far in their preference for home-cooked food, but the primary purposes of this blog are actually a) my own entertainment and b) my personal reference source for stuff I've done that I write down somewhere but can't always remember where.  So this is more for my benefit than yours, but feel free to give it a whirl ;-)

I use this King Arthur Flour 13x4x4 pain de mie pan for sandwich bread, which is what "1 loaf" is for me (this recipe is also an adapted, scaled-up, prep-ahead version of the KAF recipe).  If you're using regular baking pans, I'd guess that a 9x5 pan will be a little small for the amount made by 1 portion of this recipe, so you could reduce the amount of mix and wet ingredients by around 75%.  I'd try baking it for about the same amount of time, though I've never done this so that's just an educated guess, not a final recommendation. 

If you want to do this in a bread machine, a 2 lb. loaf will take 4 cups of dry ingredients and a 1.5 lb. loaf will take 3 cups of dry ingredients.  Scale the wet ingredients back proportionately. 

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Further Adventures in Homemade Yogurtry

Attempt #2.  Interesting.  Recap of the basic recipe:

8 cups milk
1/2 cup yogurt with live cultures
Optional: unflavored gelatin or Jello (I used 2 3 oz. Jello packets this time)

Put the milk in the crockpot and heat on low for 2.5 hours.  Turn off and let stand 3 hours.  Whisk 1 cup of warm milk into yogurt along with gelatin if using.  Mix back into crockpot.  Let stand, covered and well-wrapped to retain heat, for at least 8 hours.  Fridge for a few hours if using gelatin.

Funky browned milk

First of all, I have discovered that a regular ol' crockpot is the way to go.  I tried using a fandangled pressure cooker-crockpot-steamer thingie that I really like, but not for this.  The cooking element gets too hot, and made a layer of custard crust at the bottom of the pot...a desirable result for some recipes, but not this one.  I screw up so you don't have to...just use a plain crockpot with a ceramic insert that can't be used for speed-cooking beans.

I also tried using more gelatin this time, in the form of fruit flavored Jello.  I'd love to say that I'm making homemade yogurt because it's healthier, blah, blah, but I'm tired of buying ridiculously expensive tiny cups of kiddie yogurt so I'm trying to duplicate it more cheaply.  Per ounce, two 3 oz. packets of Jello will not make my homemade yogurt contain any more sugar than commercial yogurt, so that's good enough for me.  Although adding the flavored jello to the whole batch does compromise the future use of your homemade yogurt as a starter for the next batch (I used 1/2 cup of the last batch instead of buying another container of plain), unless you're planning to do the same flavor next time.

Two packets did create a MUCH firmer yogurt, but it was too firm...kind of like milky Jello.  The kids won't eat it LOL  But the flavor is pretty good and it looks appropriately neon-colored.  Back to 1 packet of gelatin next time. Pin It

Homemade Yogurt: Day 3

I didn't expect there to be a Day 3 post, but there is!  After 24 hours in the fridge, the yogurt firmed up to a lovely soft-but-spoonable consistency.  I forgot that while the yogurt cultures need heat to do their thing, the gelatin I added needs cold to do *its* thing.  I must confess that I'm not enough of a purist foodie to enjoy runny yogurt, so I'm going to call this a success. 

Next time, I'll still try to keep the crockpot warmer for the yogurt cultures, but I may even add a second packet of gelatin for an even firmer texture. 

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"Yogurt napping now"

All bundled up, waiting to turn into yogurt overnight:

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Homemade Yogurt: Day 1

When I told my Dear Husband that I was thinking about trying to make homemade yogurt, his response was, "I'm not surprised."  Haha!

Why?  Why not.  I'm following directions from A Year of Slow Cooking.  You don't need a yogurt-maker, just a crockpot and a towel.  I'm using whole milk because that's what we feed the boys, which should thicken up nicely according to the directions.  I do, however, want a firmer, more spoonable-by-a-3yo product than what I *think* I'll get with this process, so I'm adding some gelatin per the low-fat milk directions.  We'll see what happens.

I was hoping to start this early in the morning and have a finished product by tonight, but my younger son grew an inch last week and can now reach the wine rack.  Crash, bang, surprise!  No yogurt-making this morning.  So I'm starting in the afternoon, but that's okay because the magic will happen overnight.  Fresh-made yogurt in the morning!

I am so stinking excited!

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Stay-In Take-Out: Spicy Orange Beef & Broccoli edition

I just got the Argo Cornstarch product cookbook in the mail (free with $2 S&H), and I am drooling over the many stirfry recipes.  But I am genetically incapable of leaving well-enough alone, so I already have tweaks to report.

The original recipe calls for just 12 oz of beef.  I'm sure it's very authentically Asian to use less protein and more veg, but I live in the Midwest and there's no grocery store in a 100-mile radius that sells meat in such piddly quantities.  So I'm using 1.25 lbs of flank steak.  I could have bought a full 1.5 pounds and split it to make dinner tonight and freeze a kit of the same recipe, but I didn't want to commit a kit to a totally untried recipe.  Next time! 

The original recipe also calls for using the zest of an orange to marinate the beef in and plain ol' water for sauce.  Why not be less wasteful and more flavorful and squeeze the juice to use instead of the water?  So zest AND juice the orange for this recipe, unless you're using some of your frozen stash of citrus zest.

Tips: I don't peel ginger before grating any more.  It's bothersome, the peel is very thin and really doesn't cause problems and I'm a lazy cook.  Grate away!  Also freeze the beef for about an hour before slicing.  It's easier to cut thinly when it's got a little more backbone.  If you plan to freeze a meal kit for this dish, you can include frozen broccoli rather than needing to get fresh broccoli when you're ready to cook, but the veg won't be nearly as crisp.

And now, I present the Improved Argo Spicy Orange Beef & Broccoli...

Spicy Orange Beef & Broccoli (makes 4 servings)

1 lb (or so) flank steak OR sirloin steak, cut thinly across the grain
grated peel of 1 orange (or 2 tsp frozen zest)
1 tbsp grated fresh ginger
1 tbsp cornstarch
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3 tbsp sherry
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp beef bouillon granules
1 tbsp sugar
1/4-1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
1/2 cup orange juice (or water)
2 tbsp cornstarch
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2 tbsp vegetable oil
3 cups broccoli florets

Rice, pasta, or shredded lettuce for serving

If prepping ahead to cook the same day or the following day or for freezing, combine the steak with the orange zest and ginger.  For same-day/next-day prep, combine the sherry, soy sauce, bouillon granules, sugar, crushed red pepper, orange juice and cornstarch and whisk. 

Showing the grain on the flank steak (right-slant) and the perpindicular angular of cutting (left slant)

For freezing, omit the cornstarch from the sauce mixture.  Put the marinated beef, sauce and frozen broccoli (if using) into a large vacu-seal or zip-top bag and freeze.  Make sure to have cornstarch in the pantry when you're ready to cook.

When ready to cook, toss 1 tbsp cornstarch with the zest-ginger-beef mix and set aside.  Add 2 tbsp cornstarch to sauce mixture if preparing from a frozen kit and whisk well.

Heat oil in wok or skillet over medium-high heat.  Add beef and stirfry for 2 minutes until nearly cooked through.  Add broccoli and stirfry 3 minutes or just until tender.  Whisk sauce mixture well and add to pan.  Stirring constantly, bring to a boil.  Cook 1 minute, until thickened.

Serve over rice, pasta or shredded lettuce. Pin It

Peanut-butter oatmeal slices

My husband and his grandfather are the only two people I have known in real life who didn’t like dessert.  And my husband can be persuaded to eat some.  You need dessert in the freezer arsenal, end of story.  It's are also handy to have something like this in the freezer when you need a quick thank-you gift for a neighbor who keeps snow-blowing your sidewalk for you, ferinstance.

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How Pizza Saved My Family

That’s perhaps a bit of an overstatement, but nonetheless, made-ahead pizza has come to my rescue many a time. 

After my first son was born, I was truly surprised by how exhausted I was…I mean, I knew it would be exhausting, but I didn’t know you could be THAT tired and not be dead!  Even on those days when all I had to do to make dinner was turn on the oven and stick something in it, I couldn’t always remember to get the oven turned on in time.  Forget about planning a meal, organizing a grocery list, actually leaving the house and going shopping, coming home and putting away groceries, and then still having to prep and cook.  Nuh-uh, couldn’t do it.  Before my second son was born, I socked away four of these pizza “kits” and pulled them out when I was too tired to do much besides turn on the oven.

The kit gets you most of the way to a pizza, but does require some finish work because I personally don’t have anything that I can seal a fully assembled 16” pizza in.  If you do, go ahead and assemble the pizza and then freeze it…less work on the back end, though it will take up more freezer space that way too. 

I like to make my own dough and pizza sauce, but you can certainly assemble kits with store-bought sauce and prepared pizza crusts.  In fact, making pizza for dinner one night and portioning out the remaining jarred sauce for kits is a perfect way to manage the sauce leftovers. 

Toppings can be just about anything you want.  Meat toppings like pepperoni or browned sausage will freeze well, or you can buy a can/jar of something (sliced olives, artichoke quarters, pineapple chunks) and stash it in the pantry to go with the freezer kit.  If you’re like me, though, you’ll want to label the stuff in the pantry so that you don’t forget and use it for something else!  I don’t recommend freezing anything you want to have  crunch though, like green peppers, or delicate fresh ingredients like sliced tomatoes and basil leaves.  Save those for days when you have a chance to hit the store (or the garden).

This, like so many prep-ahead meals, is a money/time saver, too.  This is a great way to capitalize on a sale on cheese …if you can get a good deal on the 8 oz. packages of shredded mozzarella, just freeze it as is.  Or you can make some nice cheese blends with mozzarella, parmesan, romano, even cheddar or blue cheese, and save yourself some work by shredding a lot at once and freezing the mixture in 2 cup portions for pizza later.

The basic pizza kit components are:

• 1 prepared pizza crust or ½ of the following Pizza Dough recipe
• ¼ cup sauce or ¼ of the following Pizza Sauce recipe
• 2 cups shredded cheese
• Toppings (freezable toppings include pepperoni, browned sausage, sautéed mushrooms and onions, roasted garlic; pantry toppings include sliced olives, pineapple chunks, artichoke quarters, roasted red peppers)

Freeze the dough, sauce, cheese and toppings in separate zip-top bags or vacuum-sealed bags.  Label everything with permanent marker (works best if you write before filling the bags).  Place everything into a 2-gallon zip-top bag and write the baking instructions on the large bag (or write the instructions on an index card and place the card in a snack-size zip-top bag inside the 2-gallon bag.

To bake, thaw the pizza kit on the countertop for a few hours (it doesn’t have to be totally thawed).  Press the dough into a 12” pizza pan, and let it rest for 10 minutes or so while you preheat the oven to 375F.  Add the sauce, cheese and toppings and bake for 20 minutes.

The Recipes!!

This dough recipe is an adaption of Tony Rosenfeld’s Pizza for the Grill.  I make a double batch to match up with my pizza sauce recipe which makes 4 pizzas’ worth of sauce.  It really is an easy dough recipe…I make it in the stand mixer or in the bread machine, and I’ve never had to add a pinch of flour or a splash of water…the proportions work out just right every time.

Pizza Dough

Makes 2 12”pizza crusts

• 1 ¼ cup warm water (110F)
• 1 package (2 ¼ tsp) yeast
• ½ tsp sugar
• 3 ½ cups flour
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tsp salt

Stir the yeast and sugar into the water and allow to sit for 10 minutes.  When you see bubbles in the yeast, stir in the salt and olive oil and 1 cup of the flour.  Keep adding flour by the ½ cup until you have a smooth ball of dough.  Knead for 8-10 minutes.  Put in a greased bowl and allow to rise for 1 hour.  At this point, you can divide up the dough and freeze it in airtight bags or put it in the refrigerator until you’re ready to use it. 

Pizza Sauce

Makes approximately 1 cup

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/4 medium onion, chopped
• 1 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 15-oz can diced tomatoes
• 1 tsp Italian Seasoning
• Salt and pepper

Saute onion, garlic and tomato paste in oil over medium-high heat until lightly browned.  Add diced tomatoes and seasonings.  Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer 25 minutes.  Let cool slightly.  Puree mixture with a food processor or blender.

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