I may never drink lemonade again…
May 15, 2011 Uncategorized
Let me start by saying I love lemonade. Lemonade made from fresh lemons picked from the tree.
It is one of the top two drinks of all time.
But, thanks to the by-product of making Crystalized Ginger (for future ginger snaps), I may never drink lemonade again.
We’re talking Ginger Ale.
Nothing against the stuff made in the factory, but most of the time I really don’t even taste the ginger. It’s good, but it is more like Ginger-ish Ale.
The stuff you can make at home is GINGER Ale.
Now, I love ginger. Steve does not. As a result, I love this drink and he does not. So, keep that in mind when you make this. If you are not a fan of this cousin of turmeric and cardamom, this is not for you. I’ll give you some really great lemonade recipes.
For those who drink the stronger stuff, I am guessing (though I haven’t tried it myself) this tastes great with vodka.
Ginger Ale
1 cup of peeled, thinly sliced ginger
3 cups of water
2 cups of sugar
2 cups of club soda
1 teaspoon of lime juice
- In a covered saucepan, bring the water to a boil.
- Add the ginger pieces and sugar. Cover.
- Reduce the heat and allow it to simmer for 5 minutes.
- Remove from the heat and allow it to sit for 20 minutes.
- Strain the mixture. Set the ginger aside and use to make crystalized ginger.
- Once the liquid has cooled, put it in the fridge.
- Once it’s cold, mix the gingered sugar water with two cups of cold club soda. Add the lime juice and stir. (Alternately, you could use lime flavored carbonated water.)
Tags: Boil, Cardamom, Club Soda, Cold Club, Cold Mix, Cousin, Flavored Carbonated Water, Fridge, Ginger, Ginger Ale, Ginger Pieces, Ginger Snaps, Lemonade Recipes, Lemons, Lime Juice, Saucepan, Sugar Water, Teaspoon, Turmeric, Vodka
No one ever says, “It’s easy as biscuits.”
May 6, 2011 General
Next week will be the last week we cook in the kitchen for culinary class.
Next week will be the last week I have to haul my Kitchen Aid, 4 bags of groceries, a 50lb bag of flour, and my regular humongous bag of work to school, then the perishables up three flights of stairs to the fridge, and then everything back down and over to the kitchen.
Next week will be the last week that I’ll be yelling to kids to turn off their burners when no pots are even on the stove top or to hold knives down when they walk around. After that I won’t have to remind students to look at the recipe instead of just randomly assigning measurements or mixing steps. I won’t have to demonstrate cooking techniques and explanations which immediately become mocked by students as some kind of sexual innuendo (see butter recipe, below). I won’t be cleaning the kitchen for an hour after the students “cleaned up”.
Next week will be the last week that I’ll try to convince whining kids to taste kale salad, that macaroni and cheese from scratch is better than Kraft, and little teeny bits of garlic are not going to kill you when they’ve been simmered for almost an hour in a Moroccan tagine.
Next week will be the last week that these kids will have to convince me that they’ve learned something this year.
I can’t wait until next week so I can miss all of this.
We made biscuits, homemade butter, and jam. I gave out two different recipes to six groups and came out with six completely different products. Biscuits are most importantly about texture. If you’re like us about every third batch will turn out like crackery hockey pucks instead of fluffy flaky puffs. Here are the two Biscuit Commandments:
Thou Shalt Not Knead the Dough Too Much.
Thou Shalt Roll the Dough 1” Thick.
If you follow these two important details, you will do well. After observing my students’ work, I’d have to add a few more pieces of advice:
wet dough is better (and never add more flour than is called for)
do not grease the cookie sheet
pay close attention to teaspoon vs. tablespoon markings
the butter and milk should be cold, cold, cold and work quickly, quickly, quickly
biscuit cutters, if you remember to bring them to class, would be good. cut down, don’t twist.
The recipes we used:
Cream Biscuits by Deb at Smitten Kitchen
Homemade Blackberry Jam by Savory Sweet Life
Homemade Butter
- 1 Cup cream
- 1/2 tsp salt
- In a lidded jar, shake the cream and salt about one revolution per second. You’ll have butter pretty soon. If you are doing this in a high school class, use the two handed back and forth method with the jar held horizontally instead of the “shake weight” method. Trust me.
Tags: Biscuit, Biscuits, Different Products, Explanations, Flour, Fridge, garlic, Groceries, Homemade Butter, Kale, Kitchen Aid, Knives, Macaroni And Cheese, Moroccan Tagine, Perishables, Pots, scratch, Sexual Innuendo, Stairs, Stove Top
Making the most of a mango sale
Apr 1, 2011 Uncategorized
I love mangos.
They’re sweet, though not sickeningly so.
Eating one sends me off on a day dream of sitting out on a tropical island – our sailboat bobbing just off shore – eating lunch.
My friend Amy, who works for the National Mango Board (yes there is such a thing – www.mango.org), buys the fruits by the case. She may like these fruits more than me.
But when I found them on sale at the grocery the other day for 30 cents each (about 75 percent off), I grabbed up half a dozen. Of course, I realized I wouldn’t eat them that fast so I decided to use a couple of them to make mango butter so I could enjoy them for a bit longer.
Mango butter tastes great on flavored breads (pumpkin bread complements the taste quite nicely) or waffles (the whole grain variety is really good with this fruit butter).
This takes just a few minutes, but you can enjoy it for weeks from the fridge…of course, you’ll finish it up long before then.
1/2 cup honey
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup finely chopped ripe mango
- In a small bowl beat together the honey, the butter, and the mango until its all evenly mixed.
- Transfer the whole mix to a ramekin or small bowl with a cover and smooth off the top, cover and slip it into the fridge or enjoy right away.
- You can also spread the butter on a long sheet of plastic wrap or wax paper, and roll it into a log, which you can then freeze for later use.
Vegetarian.
Tags: Day Dream, Few Minutes, Fridge, Friend Amy, Fruit Butter, fruits, Half A Dozen, Honey Butter, Lunch, Nbsp, Plastic Wrap, Pumpkin Bread, Ramekin, Room Temperature, Sailboat, Tropical Island, Unsalted Butter, Waffles, Wax Paper, Whole Grain
