Food for Thought (and Discussion)

[Ryadian]

I ended up making a lamb cake for the first time this year (though it came in this kind of mold). I ordered it thinking that it might arrive in time for whenever my family can do a full Easter celebration, but apparently it's made in and shipped from Minnesota, so it actually arrived on time. I made one as a practice cake. It was quite good, though I thought it was perhaps too sweet (at least with the particular frosting recipe I used - though my first piece also happened to be one with a lot of frosting).

I might experiment with it next time, or perhaps try a different recipe for the frosting (the cake itself was quite delicious, but pound cake always is ). Regardless, it was very cute!

*Goes back to lurking in this thread*

[The Rose-Tree Dryad]

What kind vessels do you guys use to make that much kefir on a daily basis, SnowAngel? A couple of 64 oz mason jars, or one big gallon size jar? I am both intrigued and impressed.

Long live the Easter lamb cake tradition, Valia!

And those cranberry walnut biscotti sound lovely, Wunder.

The trouble you and Wunder have been having with zesting citrus... I wonder if it's because the fruit has wax on it? I always have trouble with getting waxy green stuff stuck on my hands when I have to cut up a lot of zucchini, but I don't have this problem when I'm able to get organic zucchini, and organic zucchini aren't waxed but conventional ones are. It might be the same with citrus fruit. Maybe give it a really good scrub with a brush before zesting next time?

Glad that your lamb cake pan showed up on time, Rya — that sounds like a really fun Easter project.

I made a big pot of vegetable soup last week that's a family favorite — it's tomato-based and has lima beans, peas, corn, carrots, quartered brussels sprouts, onions, peppers, and ground chicken, and I usually put Mexican spices in it. You can make it in the middle of the winter and it has such a summery vibe because of all of the produce in it, but everything but the onions is from the freezer case at the store! Usually it's really easy to have all the ingredients for it on hand, but I'm not sure when I'll be able to make it again because supply often isn't keeping up with demand right now at the grocery store. At least I have a little more freezer space.

[Wunderkind_Lucy]

And those cranberry walnut biscotti sound lovely, Wunder.

They were quite delicious. My mom used to make them, but she says that she'll pass the baton on to me now.

The trouble you and Wunder have been having with zesting citrus... I wonder if it's because the fruit has wax on it? I always have trouble with getting waxy green stuff stuck on my hands when I have to cut up a lot of zucchini, but I don't have this problem when I'm able to get organic zucchini, and organic zucchini aren't waxed but conventional ones are. It might be the same with citrus fruit. Maybe give it a really good scrub with a brush before zesting next time?

We've switched over to organic, so I don't think it's wax as much as it is the shape of the lemon and its thickness. I should also probably invest in an easier-to-hold grater like this. Our upright one works better than the mini one, but it's hard to get the zest that's stuck in the holes.

That vegetable soup sounds lovely, Rose. My mom hasn't made vegetable soup in a while, and we've been searching for a different recipe so that we can use organic ingredients (we used to just use one of those seasoning packet soup mixes). Speaking of soups, I love when we have a seafood boil the week after Thanksgiving because my mom takes the leftover crab and shrimp as well as the leftover fried turkey and makes a yummy seafood turkey gumbo!

Right now, I'm trying to figure out my options for making a birthday cake. I'm thinking either a coconut cake or perhaps a Boston cream pie. I wanted to do a German Chocolate cake, but I'm out of cocoa.

~Wunder

[SnowAngel]

What kind vessels do you guys use to make that much kefir on a daily basis, SnowAngel? A couple of 64 oz mason jars, or one big gallon size jar? I am both intrigued and impressed.

Three quart jars. Our kitchen has quite a few jars on the counter-tops, in addition to the kefir jars we have three 1 gallon jars with kombucha, two quart jars with ginger bug, currently 4 jars of mead, and an ever changing array of jars with fermenting foods (cabbage, apples, etc.).

A couple weeks ago we got most of our food co-op order which arrived sooner than expected, but no wheat until sometime in May. We have plenty of corn, so we've been making cornbread at least once a week. I am trying to find a cornmeal biscuits that doesn't use wheat flour or too much butter (since butter is hard to get enough of right now), I've been unsuccessful thus far. I have a great need to make biscuits and gravy. So I'm leaning toward trying my regular buttermilk biscuit recipe with corn flour in place of wheat.

I'm getting ready to make a batch of marshmallows. Since I last posted here, our Bosch mixer quit working after 18 years, so I am going to use the new mixer for the first time. The last batch I made with almond flavoring and beet powder, very yummy, but the beet powder turned a funny color after a few days. I think I need chocolate marshmallows today.

SnowAngel

[SnowAngel]

Still waiting for the wheat, in the meantime my dad did include in the food co-op order a rather large bucket of peanut butter which we have been enjoying very much. We may not have wheat bread, waffles, or cookies, but we do have oat waffles and cookies, and apple slices.

These are some of our April kitchen creations:
Chocolate Marshmallows
Coffee and marshmallows
Raspberry Danish and Blueberry Danish, these were made by a pair of my siblings. It was well worth using some of the last wheat flour.

SnowAngel

[fantasia]

Happy Cinco De Mayo! I made very Tex-Mex tacos for dinner tonight, with all the fixin's. Yum!

[Meltintalle]

I've been watching our rhubarb plant, waiting for it to be big enough to pick some stalks... and a couple days ago I picked enough to make half pint of rhubarb jam.

The recipe I found recommended letting the pieces sit in sugar overnight to release the natural pectin, so I did, and the result is delicious! Super easy, too... cut the rhubarb, soak the rhubarb, pour the resulting juice into the pan, simmer, add the rest, and cook it down into a spreadable consistency.

Almost as easy as apple butter.

[Wunderkind_Lucy]

I've been watching our rhubarb plant, waiting for it to be big enough to pick some stalks... and a couple days ago I picked enough to make half pint of rhubarb jam.

Sounds yummy! I've never had rhubarb jam although I've had strawberry rhubarb pie.

I've been doing a lot of baking lately. After a disastrous attempt at macarons (they tasted good but did not look very much like macarons), I decided to go back to some normal recipes. Last week, I made some more biscotti. I really like eating them with a cup of Earl Grey tea or cafe au lait.

We had a ton of spotty bananas, so I decided to make some banana nut muffins plus one batch of peach streusel muffins. I ended liking the peach ones the best because they tasted like peach cobbler in muffin form!

~Wunder