Cream of Kamut for Jim

Cream of Kamut cereal with 3 1/2 C. of water used in cooking.

Day before serving:


1 C. Kamut grains toasted at 350° for 15 minutes and cooled.
2 t. whey (optional)
2 C. water


Blend in standard blender until grains are broken and it is beginning to look cloudy.


Let sit on kitchen counter overnight.


Next morning for breakfast:


Add 1 1/2 to 2 C. more water.
1/2 t. salt


Cook in heavy bottomed saucepan until bubbling.  Let sit on warm burner for 10 minutes or so until you like the texture. 


Top with your favorite ingredients such as:


Raisins
Cream
Coconut Oil
Butter
Maple syrup
Almonds, chopped.


Tastes like cream of wheat which it actually is.  Kamut is an ancient wheat grain.


Jim might add cocoa too.  The taste is nutty and smooth.  There is no indication that you are eating a whole grain.  The bran becomes soft in the overnight soak and more digestible.

Chickens are my neighbors

 Every so often, I leap at the chance to take care of my neighbor's chickens.  My job is to open the little door you see in the background.  It slides up and hooks there all day while the chickens are out.  They need to be able to come and go to access their food and water, and also to lay eggs.

Chickens coming out in the morning.


The light red chicken made it her job to run out first. As I opened the door, she would leap out and then leap back inside.

One gray, rainy morning, when she came out and ran right back in, they all stayed inside. She had indicated to them that it was a cold, hostile, wet world.  All I understood her to "say" sounded like wonderful throaty clucking noises.  I had never really known how satisfying the sound of clucking is.  When you read the word "clucking" in a book, it doesn't make clear how soft the sound is.  It is most engaging.
If the light red chicken liked what she saw, I could hear immediate thumping noises which is how they sound flying down from their perch.

Deciding what to do and collecting some seeds.



Picking up a few seeds and grubs on the way to the garden.

One time the light red chicken brought everyone outside, and then went back in.  I sat with my cat for about  5 minutes.  When she came out again, I opened the big door and collected her freshly laid warm egg.  I had that one for breakfast.


Cleaning up the garden, an all day job.

Our neighbors have the most clever arrangement for their chickens.  The fencing leads into the garden which is where they spend most of their day eating seeds and grubs.  Admirable work for a chicken who in turn, lays the most wonderful eggs.  After a day of messing around, they lay gold.  Then I go and close their door.  They go inside by themselves and wait for me to come and close the door to protect them for the night.

I get paid in eggs and it is truly a fair trade.

Christmas Tree

I went out to cut a tree today.  There weren't many choices that would actually fit in our house, so I chose:

It has single branches radiating from the trunk which allows you to actually hang ornaments vertically instead of on a fat bushy tree...this can also be nice, but I really like a sparse tree.

And then Rosie came to join me.

I put on Christmas music, A Robert Shaw Christmas, and made Orange Blossom Cookies from the King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion Cookbook.  I never would have picked this recipe because I especially like chocolatey or carmel things for parties, but Sam made these at work and they are really delicious.

Fall Ferments

I spent an afternoon making fermented vegetables out of my purchases at the Farmers Market:

I began with Giardiniera.  That's the half gallon on the right.  It has cauliflower florets and stems, carrots, onions, red peppers, garlic, and mixed peppercorns. I salted the vegetables first to make them wilt a bit so they would be easier to pack into the jar.  I then added well water to cover them.  I put a little jar on top as a weight.  These are two days old and bubbling madly.  I had more than a half gallon, so I put the rest into the far left jar and put carrots on top of them.


The blue crock is from my friend, Melissa.  She hand threw this fermentation crock with a little reservoir for water around the rim to seal it and keep from air entering.  It works beautifully.  The half gallon in the center is nappa cabbage sliced with red peppers, onions, garlic, oregano, and hot pepper flakes.  I tossed these vegetables with 3 T salt and when I packed them in, they had made their own brine.


The jar just to the left is zucchini with carrots, onions, oregano, garlic, red peppers, and salted brine.


The back two are only carrots and garlic in brine.  I didn't have dill for them.


These will be so good when they are done and full of probiotics and lactic acid.  They will actually be "pickled" with their own generation of lactic acid and nicely sour.  There is no sugar in these.


The little jar is leftovers which will ferment just fine in their recycled jar.

I just went to a Sandor Katz Fermentation Seminar

I came home incredibly inspired to ferment everything.  Sandor Katz is the national guru of fermentation and he was at the Friendly City Food Co-op tonight.  He mentioned lots of interesting combinations to ferment:

Apple, Cranberry, Cabbage Kraut

Cabbage, Corn Kraut

Cabbage mashed potato Kraut, yes, cooked potatoes, mashed and added to cabbage, then fermented.

He suggests just salting to taste and then fermenting. 

I am so excited about this.  I got to talk to lots of fun people who want to learn fermentation.  We desperately need this bacteria in our systems because of the over use of antibiotics and germ-phobia.  Fermented vegetables and cultured beverages are a lovely way to do this.

Some tidbits:

The head of the USDA says there have not been any incidents of food poisoning from fermented vegetables.

Fermentation pre-digests food which is beneficial for our gut.

Nutrients become available during fermentation.  Nutritional Augmentation. (I love that description).

B vitamins become available through fermentation of vegetables.

Ferments are full of unique micro nutrients good for the digestion.

Fermentation detoxifies phytic acid which otherwise binds with minerals preventing you from absorbing them.  Phytic acid is in grains.

Traditionally, water has been made potable by adding a little sugar and fermenting the liquid and in that process, the alcoholic  result kills the bacteria.

Babies get their first bacteria from the lactic acid which is in the birth canal.  They have sterile guts and bodies in the womb. 

Chlorine kills beneficial bacteria in our bodies when we drink treated water.

Eating fermented vegetables replenishes the beneficial bacteria.

Fermentation is a "Natural Phenomenon That Is Inevitable" .

Put ferments in smaller and smaller jars as you use them to keep the air space to a minimum.

Fixing the lawnmower with bread dough

Bread dough inserted just to the left of the red gas primer.

The gas tank actually broke off its mount and began to splash gas around and stopped.  The whole machine rattles terribly due to a slightly bent shaft......so while it is hard on the arms and wrists, I prefer to get the most out of this mower before I buy a new one.  I wrapped wire around the tank, hooked bungee cords into the wire and stretched and attached each to something on the other side of the mower.  Then I mixed:

1/2 C. King Arthur all purpose flour

3 T. Water

1/4 t. yeast

I kneaded this into a paste and pressed it into the cracks around the break.  I figured the yeast would help it expand and seal the tank.  IT WORKED.  I was able to mow the lawn normally without the tank splashing up and down losing gas.  The seal remained flexible enough to jiggle without breaking.

I didn't need to buy a new lawnmower today.



Rhubarb Pickle

Lacto-Fermented Rhubarb

I was given some rhubarb tonight.  I don't usually use it because it requires so much sugar to make palatable.  Then I thought of lacto-fermenting it.  I diced it up, added sea salt, hot pepper flakes and onion.  I tasted it and it's deliciously sour and I can imagine eating it as a condiment with most all meats and fish.

Diced rhubarb to fill a quart jar....and a little more as it turns out.

2 T plus 2 t. unrefined sea salt

1/2 t. hot pepper flakes

1/2 Spanish onion

Stir all together, pack into a quart jar with a little more for a tiny jar, seal and wait.

I'll burp these morning and evening so that pressure doesn't build up too much.  I've never heard of using rhubarb in this way, so please wait until I report back to let you know if I was successful.

 Update: May 7- After 2 days of "fermentation", no bubbles have appeared and there is no pressure building.  Perhaps the rhubarb is so very acidic that that won't happen.

Update: May 11, This rhubarb did not actually ferment, although I have read about people using it to flavor kefir soda.  I did not add any whey which may have helped.  It is very tasty as a condiment, but since I made it, I've read that rhubarb isn't all that useful as a nutrient.  It's worth making a little in the spring I think.