Butter, better homemade!? What kind of bread? No, way! Yes, Whey!! Too much work don't you think?

Indeed, that probably would have been Mom's comment to my culinary adventures yesterday.  A variation on her "what do you want to do that for?" query that I often heard about some of my other kitchen undertakings.  Would she have turned done anything presented to her from the fruits of my day long labors.  Absolutely not!!!

A little background and then I'll get to the delicious delectables's I managed to make from a few simple fresh ingredients.  My DH mentioned off and on this summer he worked with a man that farmed also.  Whoa, two full time jobs.  DH mentioned during a break in my culinary fun that the man's wife didn't work so he was sure she did a few things around the farm to help out.  This woman whom I've never met has 4 young children, ages 1-7.  they are raising chickens, cows, goats, and rabbits.  Their intent is to raise eggs, milk and meat without all the extras that have been the subject of a blog or two lately.  When I learned the ages of the children, I promptly set my DH straight about this lady not having a job.  She may not get a paycheck but I'll just bet there are days a job away from home would be much more restful and less tiring than what she does daily!  So what's all this got to do with my kitchen?  A few weeks ago the co-worker brought eggs to work.  Did I want some?  Heck, yes!!  Are they milking those goats, I asked?  I like goat's milk, would love to try to make some cheese!  Well, DH didn't know about that but he knew the two had made butter over the weekend.  That brought back memories so I asked if they would consider selling a gallon of cream.  I got it Friday, I think it came out of the cow Thursday and here is what I did with it on Saturday!

Basing what I was about to do on memories of sitting in my grandparents kitchen when Grandpa would get a pail of the thickest, almost honey colored cream from the ancient fridge and Dad would get the butter churn down (the one in the picture).  They'd proceed to make the palest looking butter at the old solid 5 legged table (Dad said it was made from pignut wood) in the kitchen.  Just because that and this-endless cranking on the handle, Mom "washing" the butter in ice water, Dad adding salt to the "buttermilk" and drinking the blechy tasting stuff and Mom turning that nasty stuff into gorgeous loaves of tasty bread-was all I really knew about what I was about to do.  Well, no need to let that slow me down!  I knew what the end results where supposed to be!  Join me now as I show you what I did!!!

First I pulled out the trusty KA, thinking that it would simulate the churning action.  The old churn is good for photo ops only.  Yes, I made whipped cream but I figured I'd go past the whipped stage and onto the butter stage.  Then I tasted the whipped cream.  Well, perhaps I should just get a jar and shake it to the desired finish.  Might as well pretend to use up some of those calories that were tasting so good!

I do not remember the butter tasting so good back then.  So light and fluffy, fresh and creamy sweet.

I do not remember the "whey" tasting like milk.  Umm, buyable drinkable milk that is.  I wanted to duplicate Mom's bread.  I gave up on that and went for a baguette recipe I'm fond of and just replaced all the liquid with my "whey".

Baguettes

2 cups "whey" (water)

2 T butter (oh yeah! it was fresh!!)

1 1/2 T sugar

1 T salt

1 package active dry yeast

6 - 61/2 cups flour

Must ask what type if cows these people have!!!!!  The bread-well, if Mom were here she would say, "better than Angel food cake"!  I decided to keep going with my culinary adventures and make sourdough English muffins.  Use some of those farm fresh eggs on them later, pretend I was making eggs Benedict and call it dinner!  They guys can only handle new things up to a point!  Again replaced all the liquid in the recipe with my "whey".  I used my sourdough starter which is older than the co-worker's oldest child so I'm not putting it's recipe in.  If anyone was interested I would email the directions for it.  I must say the teen had two of my dinner specials and one for breakfast so they had to  pass muster!  He can drive to McDonald's after all.  On the toasted lightly buttered English muffins are scrambled farm fresh eggs with my homemade Canadian bacon( I do have a Canadian friend and I know "no such thing" lol) topped with a cheese of their choice.  That's mine(didn't want to risk limb dismemberment trying to take a photo of their's) in the picture.  It has a lovely smoked Gouda cheese on it and I would have loved to try a Hollandaise sauce. Oh well!  Anyone want to plan a vacation in my area next year so I can try all the foods I just see in pictures?  I do so hate making something that only I will try!

For dessert, apple.strudel's Victoria sponge.  I made it Sunday because our dear friend, Al, was coming for lunch.  Everyone loved it!!!  I didn't exactly do AS"s recipe, why make buttercream when you have real whipped cream!!!  I so don't remember this exquisite flavor coming from Grandpa's cream.  I do know Mom would have loved everything.  Even though she didn't have sweets often(so she said), I know the sponge would have been enjoyed with a cup of hot steaming tea in the evening.

And that's how I spent my weekend!! 

Green Grape Leaves Gone Giggly not Fiddly,aka, the Fusion Confusion Continental Outtakes

As promised, my outtakes from the joint dolmades excursion Good EatNZ and I took earlier this summer in the Fusion Confusion:  Callusion with Cat, or Sushi...It's all Greek to me!!!! blog.  For those that read our blog, you know she and I got together to see if the same old, same old was all that could be stuffed in grape leaves.  Good EatNZ also went to the extra effort of doing a Dolmades tutorial blog beforehand using typical ingredients in the usual way.  Perhaps she needed a slight refresher course in dolmades but she may have done this because of all the questions I was asking.  Just maybe.  Good EatNZ does such a great job with her blogs and this did help me to see what they were supposed to be like but our goal was to take grape leaves in a whole new direction!

If you are familiar with Good EatNZ's blogs, you know fiddly is a term she uses to describe some of the foods she enjoys making.  It was certainly my good fortune that she cheerfully agreed to share her wealth of knowledge with someone who thought grape leaves where just to shade growing grapes.  After all, she does have a "well traveled spatula"!  To me, this is still one of the best parts of AR, making new friends from all corners of the world and learning from them.  Why were my grape leaves giggly and not fiddly?  Because I can't help but laugh every time I think of the look on her face or what she might have said out loud while reading the various "how to" questions our culinary adventures were prompting me to send. GOL! (giggling out loud)!

Some of that I'll share shortly but all lightheartedness aside for a moment, I've never experienced an earthquake, hurricane or wildfire.  We have tornadoes in the Midwest.  I do know that living through and cleaning up after Mother Nature's rage is so different than catching glimpses of the destruction on T.V.  It was alarming to see an earthquake had struck Christchurch. To know one of the only things to do was send an email and hope for a quick, positive answer.  The other, check the RE and see if anyone had heard any news.  I know I wasn't the only one that was ever so glad to get her "we're OK" reply.  I sincerely hope Mother Nature settles down and everyone affected by the quake can get their lives back to normal as soon as possible!

Now for those outtakes.  GOL. This first question should have tipped off Good EatNZ what she was in for.  You see, I have my own grapevines and really wanted to try making my own grape leaf wrappers.  Some of the websites I looked at made is sound so easy.  One said, "sure you can use fresh grape leaves."  It neglected to say fresh didn't mean fresh off the vine.  Unless, you need some serious fiber in you diet don't try this!

At least the insides tasted good!  That's garden fresh asparagus, goat cheese, sliced carrot, slivered red onion, mushroom and fresh basil with lemon verbena.  Wrapped in a "fresh" grape leaf and tied with a chive.

Shot off yet another email "why didn't that work"?  A briny blanch is a must!  Ah ha!  Might explain the toughness of the leaf!

To this day, my blanched and brined leaves are not as tender as store bought.  Yes, I did break down and buy some just like Good EatNZ gently suggested the first time! GOL.  I don't know what went wrong.  According to directions, I picked the right ones at the right time.  Maybe it was our screwy spring weather that caused outtake #2 or is this #4.  Oh, never mind!  I did learn about typical Greek herbs and spices while researching the brining procedure which prompted me to try making fresh spicy dill pickles.  Before that I thought you could only make sweet refrigerator pickles.

I had a rather odd result from the blanching experiment.  That particular day I had just enough time to blanch some leaves and try my first steamed (hopefully properly cooked) stuffed dolmades.  Being frugal, I just used the blanching saltwater to steam with, then left the pan on my cook top and took off.  Don't worry I did turn off the burner. Gol.  When I came back this is what was left in the pan-a lovely colored slightly grape flavored salt.

This worked well for something else though!!

A seasoned rub for cedar planked smoked salmon.  I used the recipe and directions on the package.  It called for kosher salt so I figured my flavored salt wouldn't hurt a thing.  It didn't!!  Dinner was a hit!!!!

Planked Salmon with Spice Rub

1 T brown sugar

1T coarse salt (I had just enough accidentally flavored salt)

2 tsp ancho chili powder (used what I had on hand)

1 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp black pepper

I'd also asked about smoking with grape leaves.  Poor GENZ (stands for Good EatNZ not genetically engineered- lazy typer), she put up with a lot during our joint blog. GOL!   I actually tried it.  No, I wasn't  rolling my own out behind the woodshed.  I rolled the brined grape leaves around cherry wood and used them as you would regular wood chips to smoke ribs with.  At this house we have experimented with different fruit woods so I figured why not grape leaves?  Terrie and her husband thought it was a great idea after sampling the ribs for dinner. 

Remember those spicy dill pickles, I learned to make?  I served those with the BBQ and they were a hit also.  So much so that my DH asked if I'd made them cause he liked the flavor.  Uh, could have been the lack of uniformity in the pickle slices and that they were in a canning jar with a plastic Miracle Whip lid that tipped him off.

I also did  the cedar smoked salmon again.  This time I wrapped grape leaves around the salmon before putting it on the plank.  YUM!!!!!!!



Grape wrapped smoked salmon with EVOO and salt  rubbed grilled potatoes!

GOL! for sure now.  When I asked if we were doing a dessert stuffed grape leaf, GENZ may have had some reservations but she told me to go for it.  Just follow the line of culinary logic here.  It had to be a filling that would stay put and this style of cooking would work for.  Idly thinking about what kind of desserts were similar, old fashioned steamed puddings came to mind.  Not being a fan of pudding, the next thought was what kind of dessert is solid enough that I do like?  Cheesecake!!!!!!  I believe GENZ's reply to my announced dessert was, "I NEVER would have thought of that!" GOL!!!!!  Now in defense of my dessert attempt, GENZ did see an episode of "Chopped" after our blog and grape leaves were in the dessert round.  I don't believe those chefs went as far outside the creative box as I did but I haven't seen the episode. 

I used the Barefoot Contessa's Raspberry Cheesecake recipe as my guide.  Not wanting to waste a whole cheesecake recipe just in case this didn't work.  I mean, what would the odds of that be?!  I reduced the recipe.

Confused Cheesecake Version #2

 (my original notes disappeared so I had to redo the dessert to make sure it was the same.  This is for you ALVA416!)

6 oz low fat cream cheese

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla

2 T sugar

1/4 tsp lemon zest

I mixed this together and placed a spoonful onto the grape leaves.  Adjust the amount for the size of grape leaf.  The first version had fresh sliced plums from my tree on it so the grape leaves wouldn't dry out.  #2 did not.  For the baking "water", I used 1/2 cup red wine mixed with 1/4 cup of homemade grape jelly.  I did reduce the sauce for a couple of minutes so it wouldn't be too watery.  Baked in the toaster oven at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.  I served this over homemade graham crackers with more wine sauce drizzled over the top.

Homemade Graham Crackers

1/2 cup butter

2/3 C brown sugar packed

2 3/4 C whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp cinnamon 1/2 C water

1 tsp vanilla

In my trusty Kitchen Aid I cream the butter and sugar together.  In a separate bowl mix the flour, salt, baking powder and cinnamon.  Beat the dry ingredients into the creamed mix, 1/2 cup at a time alternating with a little water until you have a smooth dough.  Beat in vanilla.  Cover and let rest 30 minutes at room temperature.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  The original recipe calls for parchment paper lined baking sheets.  I like to use silpats.  On a floured surface, roll out dough to 1/8 inch thick.  Cut into 2 1/2 inch squares and Bake 20 minutes or until lightly browned.  Cool on wire rack then store in an airtight container.  I put mine in the freezer.

There you have it!!!  The Fusion Confusion Continental outtakes!  Some worked tastefully well, 1 or 2 were frightful but it was all so much fun!  Anytime I think of making that blog, I laugh.  Laughter is so good for the soul!!!

But what did I really get from our joint blog effort?

   Experimental experience & knowledge of a different cuisine-

       Positively a plus!!!!!

   A new friend with a delightful sense of humor-

       Perfectly Priceless!!!!!!!