The Classics: Navy Beans & Ham

Just like gramma used to make! Simple and filling this has fed our family for generations. My grandmother was never too far from a big ol' pot of beans. Navy beans, Great Nortern, lima, and butter beans, all got simmered on the stove all afternoon with some sort hog bones. Ham bones, neck bones, pig's feet, you were never quite sure what it was going to be, but you knew it would be good.

So here's our entire ingedient list: 1 left over ham bone that I had stashed in the freezer, 1 one pond bag of dried navy beans and 1 onion.

 

Place the ham bone in your dutch oven.

 

 

Pour 2 quarts of water over, don't worry if it doesn't cover it completely. Now turn the burner up on high, put the lid on the pot and let it boil good for an hour or so.

 

After that hour, remove the lid, turn your heat down to medium, flip your ham bone over. Prepare your dry beans. Do what you do, sort 'em, rinse 'em, scrub 'em, disinfect 'em - or do like I do, tear open the bag and pour them in! The whole bag.

 

 

Now chunk up that onion (large dice) and put it in the pot too.

 

Sprinkle the whole thing with some pepper, put the lid back on and let it boil gently until the beans are soft. Don't salt it just yet. Check it every so often and if it looks like you need it you can add some more water. Easy does it because in the end we want it to be thick and creamy.

 

Now while the beans are cooking if you can twist bits of meat off the bone, it's cooked enough for the next step. Remove it from the pot, let it drain and cool so that you can remove the meat from the bone.

 

Toss in all those tasty little bits and dispose of the bone.

 

Now turn the heat down to low, cover and simmer until the beans are soft.

 

When the beans are totally soft, take your spoon and mash the beans. You want to mash about a third of them. This is going to release the starch that will serve as our thickener. You'll know you've mashed enough when the broth gets all cloudy.

 

And now we're going to let it simmer without the lid from here on out. This will let it thicken up nicely and concentrate the flavors, I still have not added any salt up to this point.

 

Let them cook down until it's as thick as you want it. Now you can add salt if it needs it!

 

Dish it up! I've added a big dose of fresh salsa to mine. My step dad always ate his with a coupl hefty slices of Bermuda onion. You add what you like.

 

Serve it up with some thick slices of still warm home made bread slathered in butter and you've got a meal that even your great grandfather would recognize. That's cheesy green chili quick bread, and some day I'll get the recipe for that up here! Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thoughts: Toxic Food

 

 

Today I need to vent. I am totally fed up with the snivelling and whining going on about food in general. What set me off was a web page that was all about how your kitchen cookware is full of toxins and will kill you.

 

 

Then there's the organics. These people are convinced that if your food didn't come from an heirloom seed grown in a chemical free environment tended by a virgin who prays to an earth godess, it's full of toxins and will kill you.

 

 

Not to be left out are the vegetarians and vegans who won't eat anything that ever had a face. If it is, was, or came out of an animal, it is bad and will kill you.

 

 

And there's the crowd who can't eat anything that's been cooked because cooking changes the molecular structure of foods and if you eat it you will die because the human body evolved eating only raw stuff.

 

 

There's also the anti-GMO crowd that has a big push on to do away with any seed that has ever been studied by science. News flash, people have been modifying their food sources since they discovered they were edible. Now instead of taking generation upon generation, it can be accomplished in a lab in relatively short order. But today if you eat it you will die.

 

 

So today it's our cookware, it's leaching toxins into our food and it WILL kill you.

 

 

Long and short of it is this: WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE! We don't live forever. Never have so far in the whole history of mankind. At some point in time your life on earth will be done. But how do we know this is true? It's not on the LABEL! In fact there is NO LABEL! Life doesn't come with a label and instructions, we are left to muddle through as best we can.

 

 

Oh the label worshippers! They need to know so much that soon the labels will out weigh the product.

This is nutrition information for grapes. Now you have to decipher the bar code to find out where they are from. Label worshippers would like to know the exact cultivar, name of the farm, farming method, and a farm employee list complete with social media passwords so that they can troll for fruit pickers with less than stellar cleanliness habits. My grapes come with big red label telling me that they are a product of Chile. I bring them home, rinse them off and eat them. And I'm still here!

 

If you're totally concerned about the toxins though, I'd recommend giving up meat, fruits, vegetables, grains, all dairy, anything processed, most water and get an air scrubber to keep yourself occupied in your sterile plastic bubble. Otherwise, I'm going to make a chemically unsound cake using some unidentified ground wheat, processed sugar and some butter from a cow I can't trace and eggs from an unknown chicken who lives in a small cage. And on top of that I'm going to destroy it's molecular structure by baking it in a metal leaching pan. Come on over and have a piece, I'll put on a pot of not fair trade coffee!

 

The Basics: Sourdough Starter

 

My daughter thinks this is the grossest thing in my kitchen!

 

 

Sourdough starter is your own private, living little yeast colony. You can search the web and find all kinds of sourdough info, but it all begins with a good starter and something to keep it in.

 

 

I'm currently using (and loving) this old coffee pot saved from an old coffee maker that died. I can see how much starter I have and exactly what it's doing. I've used a variety of containers over the years. I've had this starter going for about a year and a half. When it gets tired, out it goes and I start a new one.

 

 

So how do you start it?

          2 cups flour

          2 cups water

          1 package yeast

 

Stir it all together and let it sit on your counter where it's warm for several days until it developes that distinctive sourdough aroma you're looking for. At this point it's ready to use or you can let it rest, covered, in the fridge. This is called the "sponge".

 

Before you use the sponge, you have to "set" it. Basically, that means that you're going to feed it so that it's ready to. And you'll want to have enough for your project plus one or two cups left over, to keep your starter going.

 

So how do you feed it? Add equal amounts of flour and water.

 

Here's my starter right out of the fridge, it's hard to see, but it's about the consistency of sour cream on the bottom with a thin layer of clear liquid on the surface. I sed this starter yesterday to make pancakes, I want to make bread tomorrow, so we're going to feed it today.

 

 

 

I have dumped in a cup each of flour and water.

 

 

 

I've stirred it up and here's the consistency I'm looking for. Feel free to keep it to the consistency you like by adjusting the amounts of flour and water. I prefer a thinner sponge for pancakes and a thicker one for bread. I'm going to let this sit out and it will grow and fill the pot.

 

If you don't bake regularly, store it covered in the fridge and feed it half a cup of flour and water each week. Remember that you will still have to set the sponge before you bake. If it turns hideous colors, developes a bad smell I would toss it out and start over. Mine will some times discolor to grey and I'll still use it, but if it's black, I toss it.

 

Just a couple notes, if it totally dries out you may be able to resusitate it by adding some warm water and letting it soak. You can also scrape down the crusty sides and even dried hard bits will come back to life with the yeast and enzyme action.



 

 

 



Apple Hand Pies

This is part two of a two part series on how to make some delicious little fruit pies.

 

 

I don't have a real set list of ingredients for this because this can be pretty flexible. But here goes:

 

 

Enough pie crust for two pies

1 can of apple pie filling

1 egg

Sugar to sprinkle on top

 

Here's my ingredients. Feel free to make your own filling from scratch, but make sure it's pre-cooked and well thickened.

 

 



 

You're also going to need something to cut a 5 inch round. You can purchase a high dollar pastry cutter or you can use a cup or a mug. I use a large soup mug.

 

 

 

Now roll out your pie dough and cut some circles and place them on your cooking sheet. I can make 12 fruit pies out of a batch of dough from the recipe on this blog.

 

 

Here it is. If you are one of those cooks who are afraid that your pots and pans will look like you actually use them, you can line the baking sheet with parchment or silpat.

 

 

Place a little filling on each circle. Now crack the egg into a small bowl or cup, add a tablespoon of water and mix it all up. This will be our dough glue and gloss.

 

 

Moisten the edge of the pastry with the eggwash. I do this with my fingers, but feel free to use a pastry brush!

 

 

Fold the pastry over and crimp the edges with a fork. Cut 2-3 vent slits in the top of each pie.

 

Brush the top of each pie with more of the egg wash.

 

 

I spinkled mine with turbinado sugar and a little cinnamon. Sprinkle yours with what you like that will compliment your filling, even cookie decors will work. Kids love to pick off decors!

 

 

Bake in a 400 degree oven for 15-20 mintes. And while this batch is baking you can assemble the next six pies. Cool before eating!

 

 

Feel free to use any filling you like. Here's a batch with cream cheese and cherry.

 

 

 

 

Apple

 

 

 

 

Cherry Cream Cheese

 





 

 

 





 

 

The Basics: French Pastry Pie Crust

This is really part 1 of a two part entry to make some little fruit pies, but since this is my go to recipe for all things crusted I decided to give this versatile crust its own entry.

There are lots of recipes out there for pie crust and this one is my favorite. This is the crust I use for all my pies, from fruit pies to hearty chicken pot pies. And I know that there are lots of magic gadgets to make all your kitchen and cooking chores easier and quicker, but I prefer the good old fashioned way, I use my hands! Let's get started.

 

There's the recipe, and I'm ready.

 

 



Flour, sugar and salt in the bowl, and yes, this is my favorite dough making bowl. And I'm going to mix it all up.

 

 

This is my choice for crust. It comes in one cup blocks. Now to be totally honest this recipe will work with any solid fat, regular shortening, butter, lard can all be used. They can be used in combination like half a cup of shortening, half a cup of butter. In any case, you're going to need on full cup of a solid fat, never oil!

Now you need to cut this up into the flour. There are gadgets you can use but I'm going to just use ny hand. Swirl your fingers in the flour first and the fat won't stick to your hand so much.

 

And when it looks course and mealy throughout, you're done with this part.

 

 

This dough can almost hold its shape!

Now it's time to add the wet ingredients. This is 5 the water, vinegar and egg. I'm going to mix this all up and pour it over the flour and work it with my hands until my dough forms a ball.

 

Now it looks like this. And I'm going to divide it in half because this is enough dough for two crusts.

 

 

Here's half the dough on a piece of plastic wrap. Scoop up the edges of the plastic wrap and wrap the whole thing into a tight ball.

 

 



 

And here's my two crusts, rolled up tight and ready to rest in the fridge before rolling out. It needs to rest for at least 10 minutes but even if it rests for several hours it'll still be good for your crusted culinary delight!

 

 

What's for dinner? Cheater Enchiladas

I don't always have all day to play around in the kitchen, especially on those days when  I've been outside all day with the camera. This is one of my favorite quickie winter time meals.

 

 I can make every thing on here from scratch (even the corn tortillas), but this is how I do it when I'm busy with other things. I'm sure that as this blog progresses, you'll see those recipes.

 

And just a note, I don't try to follow any particular diet, so if you're vegetarian, vegan, fat free, gluten free, sugar free, all organic, low salt, no salt, anti GMO, unprocessed, raw food, distilled water, ionized water, grapefruit with every meal, you're going to be disappointed with this blog. The rest of you can probably make the modifications you need to make to make any of these recipes and ideas your own!

 

 



Highbush Cranberry Barbecue Sauce

There is a rainbow of edible berries that grow wild here in Alaska's Interior and throughout the state. They are one of my favorite ingedients to work with. Not every kind of berry is plentiful every year, but one that I can really depend on is the highbush cranberry.

 

The highbush cranberry is not to everyone's liking, but neither is coconut. I like to pick my berries after the first frost.  The leaves on the bushes will start to turn scarlet, so even from the road you can pick out a pretty good patch. And keep in mind that by using the term "road", what I'm talking about is a dirt trail out in the middle of a forest somewhere! You can read more about this berry at the at University of Alaska Fairbanks, Cooperative Extension Service here:

 

http://www.uaf.edu/files/ces/publications-db/catalog/hec/FNH-00112.pdf

 

They've even included recipes, and the one I started with can be found here. The first step is to go pick your berries. I have a nearby place near some ponds where I like to go. Here's what they look like when they're still on the bush.

 

 

I enjoy picking these because there's not as much bending over as with some of the other berries! The recipe calls for six cups, but pick a couple gallons because this is a really good sauce and you'll want to make more than one batch! This is the basic list of ingredients from the extension office site.

 



 

 

The first step is to make the berries into puree. I  rinse mine and fish out all the leaves, twigs, stems and little spiders that I can find. All six cups of berries and about a cup-cup and a half of water go into a large pot to be boiled until the berries are soft enough to be pulped in a food mill or a sieve. Now here's the thing about highbush cranberries - THEY HAVE A VERY DISTINCT ODOR! I would describe it as berry barf being boiled with dirty gym socks. It's still worth every bite of what it's going to become, so hang in there!

 



 

My puree looked like this, and I had to fish out a few skins and seeds that slipped through. It now goes into the pan that you're going to cook it down in (Who am I kidding here? Rinse out the pan you boiled them in and put it back in there!). Add the ingredients listed above and you'll have a really good mild ketchup.

 

I however wanted more of a barbecue sauce, so as it started to thicken I added: onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne, red chile powder, mustard powder, cumin, Chinese five spice and liquid smoke. Nothing was added in amounts over a teaspoon, and the five spice was only like a quarter teaspoon. Please season yours to your own taste. (Like ginger/garlic for one).

 

 

And the hardest part of all is letting it simmer way down. This is what mine looked like, it made exactly two pints. I didn't can this batch in the canner since it was only two jars, I stored it in the fridge and used it all up within a couple of weeks on grilled chicken. It was awesome on wings! Give it a try, and if you're going to can it, please follow the instructions from the extension office and your canner to do it safely.