Great-Grandmas, Balanced Diets, and Cookies

The whole "If your Great-grandma wouldn't recognize it as food, don't eat it" seems to assume great-grandmas with limited culinary experience. My own great-grandmas grew up during the Irish potato famine, the Prague Upheaval, and the American Civil War. I feel sure that not one of those women was a picky eater. I also know that three of them worked as cooks in rich people's kitchens before they took command of kitchens of their own, and my Prague great-grandma was remembered as a notable cook 40 years after her death in 1938.

In What Would Great-Grandma Eat? - The Chronicle Review - The Chronicle of Higher Education, we see some other reasons to wonder about the "great-grandma dictum:"

In 1890, 90 percent of the country's bread was baked in homes. The rest was purchased from tiny neighborhood bakeries. By 1930, this trend had reversed completely: 90 percent of bread was purchased, and purchased from increasingly large, increasingly distant factories. Despite their success, industrial bakers lived in constant fear that bread would lose its place on the nation's tables. Compared with newfangled fruits arriving by refrigerated train from California, or the novelty of modern wonders like Jell-O, bread was just basic. But something remarkable happened during the first three decades of the 20th century. Not only did Americans switch to store-bought bread en masse, but also per-capita bread consumption increased. Modern factory bread wasn't just a more convenient version of the ancient staple; it had taken on new meanings and appeal.

A couple more unrelated food links:

• Five ways to tackle disastrous diets--UN food expert: "The right to food means not only access to an adequate quantity of food, but also the ability to have a balanced and nutritious diet," Mr. De Schutter underlined. "Governments must not abstain from their responsibility to secure this right."
• For those of us fortunate enough to have such things, these should only be consumed following nutritious meals. Coconut Pecan Blondies Recipe | Taste of Home Recipes:

An End to Peaches

2011 was a sadly inauspicious year for trees on our ridge. The stag-horn sumac trees did not fare well in the summer, and this happened in the spring. This poor peach tree has been struggling for years, but every once in a while it would produce a small crop of flavorful (gnarly-looking) fruit. This spring, the wind took it down. I'm saving the last freezer-bag of peach pie filling for a special occasion.

Links for the Teapot

Tee-Ernte und Produktion in Doi Mae Salong, Nordthailand - YouTube:

I don't know why I favor tea. I feel vaguely un-American when breakfasting away from home, but coffee just doesn't start the day for me. Tea has the added charm of coming from a beautiful woody plant. Here's a video of Thai tea production and a collection of tea links: Tea | Letha's Asian Health Secrets:

'via Blog this'

Doing Odd Things With Cake Mixes

I aim to stay away from the highly processed foods of modern life. I have every intention to eat plain foods cooked at home, and here on Droop Mountain, far from fast food outlets and big, variety-filled grocery stores, there's not all that much temptation to stray from the path.

However, I also have a deep-seated need for bargains, so when there's a really good sale on cake mix boxes in Marlinton, I simply must stock up. Besides making "normal" cakes as the box directs, I like to try non-standard variations.

Last month, I made a sour cherry cake that turned out pretty well. I prepare cherry pie filling with our own sour cherries and freeze it for pies throughout the year. It's really simple, although our cherries are small, and pitting a quart of them takes quite a while.

I used a yellow cake mix as directed, except that I left out all the water the box called for, and substituted the quart of thawed out pie filling. The stuff I make is much runnier than canned commercial pie filling, and the batter I got was much wetter than that of a normal cake mix, so it took longer to bake.

I topped it with chocolate cream cheese frosting, and we really liked the results. I'm the only one who likes cherry pie at our address, so this is something I can make for a change. I think next time, I'll try a chocolate cake mix, for, perhaps, a pseudo-Black Forest cake.

Sour Cherry Pie Filling
1 quart (four cups) pitted sour cherries, and their juice
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour

Mix in a bowl, pour into a quart-sized freezer container,
and freeze until you're ready to bake a pie.

(Of course, you could just go ahead and make a pie crust and have
a pie right away.)

Cherry Cake
1 box yellow or white cake mix. (Chocolate might be good,
    but I don't know for sure.)
3 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1 quart of frozen sour cherry pie filling, thawed.

Beat the eggs to mix, add oil, pie filling, and cake mix. Mix
ingredients thoroughly, and pour into a greased 9" x 13" pan.

Bake at 350 degrees F until a toothpick inserted in the center
of the cake comes out clean. My cake took about 50 minutes,
but this will vary depending on how wet your pie filling is.

This winter, I had a few cake mix boxes nearing their expiration date, so I tried a recipe I had "digitally clipped " from Hints from Heloise: Cake Mix Cookies. Here's her basic recipe.

Cake Mix Cookies
1 (18.25-ounce) box cake mix
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil

Choose your favorite flavor--I like chocolate,
and the lemon mix makes tasty lemon cookies.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix only the above ingredients
(although you can add 1/4 cup chopped nuts, raisins or
chocolate chips) in a large bowl until blended. Drop the
batter by spoonfuls about 2 inches apart onto an ungreased
baking sheet. Bake on the middle rack for 8-10 minutes,
watching them carefully. They'll brown quickly, so stand by
the oven for the first batch. 

I made a batch of chocolate cookies with no inclusions, and they were quick to make and tasty, although much sweeter than homemade cookies. For my second batch, I used a yellow cake mix, added a scant cup of chocolate chips, and made the cookies very, very small. A normal-sized drop cookie would have just been too, too sweet. These didn't last long, so I'm not the only one who liked them. Next, I'm going to try chopped nuts, or maybe a little cooked oatmeal, to cut the sweetness and add heft.

When I was a teenager in Iowa, a hot new recipe making the rounds was the "Dump Cake." It was yet another riff on the non-standard cake mix recipe, and I remember liking it. However, I moved to Connecticut for grad school, and Yankees are way too sophisticated for cake mixes. (They go to the store and buy Carvel's or Entemann's, which are, no doubt, all natural and hand-made products.) Anyway, after an evening of ridicule at the potluck, I quit making "Dump Cakes" (a really unfortunate name) and lost the recipe.

However, Heloise has come through for me again this month, with This Cake Is in the Dumps, and, bless her heart, she provides a prettier name, The No-Mix Cherry-Pineapple Nut Cake.

Dear Heloise: I have lost my copy of your recipe for DUMP CAKE. Could you please provide me with a copy? -- Carolyn Stonesifer, via e-mail

I believe you are requesting the NO-MIX CHERRY-PINEAPPLE NUT CAKE, because you just dump the ingredients into the pan. It is an easy-yet-delicious cake to make. This is what you need:

1 (20-ounce) can of crushed pineapple in heavy syrup
1 (21-ounce) can of cherry pie filling
1 (2-layer size) package of yellow cake mix
1 (3-ounce) package of pecans, or 1 cup chopped
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine (chilled works best)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a 9-by-13-inch baking pan. Spread the pineapple with its syrup evenly in the prepared pan. Spoon the pie filling evenly over the pineapple. Sprinkle the dry cake mix evenly over the fruits, then sprinkle the chopped nuts over all. Slice the butter into thin slices, then place the pieces evenly over the top. Bake for 50 minutes or until golden. Serve warm. Makes 12 servings.

This is only one of many unique and delicious recipes in my fabulous four-page cake pamphlet. To order a copy, just send $3 and a long, self-addressed, stamped (61 cents) envelope to: Heloise/Cake, P.O. Box 795001, San Antonio, TX 78279-5001. Extra tip: This cake also can be made with other fruit combinations, like pineapple/strawberry, pineapple/apple, pineapple/blueberry, apple/cherry, etc. Serve it with vanilla ice cream and/or whipped cream. -- Heloise

Peach Pie, Peach Cake, Chocolate Cake

I made a peach pie day before yesterday, using frozen pie filling I made last summer from this very peach, and several dozen others much like it. Our peach trees, like our sour cherries, come on a few at a time--too asynchronous for canning. Instead, I save them up until I have about a quart of fruit, and then I make filling for one pie and freeze it. Pie filling is very easy--prepare a quart of fruit, add a cup of sugar, and 1/4 cup of flour. Stir it up, and pour it into either a pie shell or a gallon freezer bag.

This time, I played around with the pie crust recipe--I substituted half a cup of whole wheat flour for half a cup of white flour. The little bit of whole wheat gave the pie a vaguely "nutty" taste, without making it into unappealing "health food." I believe I'll make the next pie crust the same way.

Not everyone in this household is a fan of pies, so I've experimented a bit with adding my frozen pie fillings to cakes. I usually try to bake "from scratch," but lately, commercial cake mixes have been on sale for $.66 each, and my inherent love of a bargain can't pass that by. I've had good results using a quart of frozen pie filling in a tube cake pan, following directions from Baking with Cake Mixes: Tips for Jazzing-Up Your Cakes:

If changing from a scratch poundcake recipe to one using a cake mix, be sure to add 1- 3/4 ounce package of instant pudding (in a coordinating flavor). Up the eggs necessary to 4. Also be sure to include a total of 1 cup of liquid and 1/2 cup of oil or melted butter.

I mix together four beaten eggs, 1/2 cup vegetable oil, a box of vanilla or butterscotch instant pudding, a box of yellow or white cake mix, and the thawed pie filling. There is usually enough juice in the pie filling to make a reasonable batter, but if the batter should be very dry, add a little water. I bake it at 350 degrees F for 50 to 60 minutes. If you cool it in the pan for half an hour, it usually will turn out more or less in one piece. If it looks ragged, add frosting!

In the interest of keeping track of another favorite pudding cake made in a tube pan, here's another recipe that I like when cake mixes and instant pudding are on sale:

Devil's Food Pound Cake

1 pkg Chocolate Cake mix
1 pkg (4 serving size) instant chocolate pudding mix
4 eggs
1.25 c water
0.5 c vegetable oil

Beat at medium speed for 2 min. Pour into greased tube pan.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 50 to 60 minutes or until toothpick
inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 25 min, then
invert onto plate to cool completely.

Glaze or frost.

Too Much Molasses

Because I've been on an early 20th century bender with my grandma's postcard collection, my old home town, and World War I cookbooks, this World War I era industrial accident seems like the next logical installment to my reading: Molasses, Waist Deep.

Ninety years ago today, a 50-foot tall vat of molasses collapsed suddenly in the North End of Boston, sending a 15-foot tidal wave of syrup into the streets....In the end 21 people lost their lives, crushed or asphyxiated by the most common form of sweetener in the United States at the time. Most were ordinary laborers. Several of the bodies were too battered and glazed to be properly identified. Nearly 200 other Bostonians were injured in the catastrophe. Of the 20 horses that perished in the molasses wave, several had to be shot because they could not be extracted from the goo.

United States Industrial Alcohol, the company that owned the faulty vat, tried to blame the accident on anarchist saboteurs, an accusation that would have been plausible if the tank had not been famously defective to those who lived and worked in its vicinity. Though it was less than four years old when it gave way, the vat had been hastily assembled in 1915 to facilitate the production of industrial alcohol. With the United States escalating it munitions shipments to Britain, Canada and France, USIA and its Boston subsidiary, the Purity Distilling Company, stood to gather enormous profits so long as the war endured; facing competition from major weapons manufacturers like du Pont, Aetna and Hercules, however, USIA needed a tank of its own in Boston, and the ill-fated Commercial Street project was the result.

So that's why Frances Lowe Smith had to find substitutes for sugar and molasses.

WWI Cooking...A Real Adventure

While "googling" for a recipe recently, I ran across a collection of public domain cookbooks, including: More Recipes For Fifty by Frances Lowe Smith. My father recalled for me how, during the First World War, wheat was rationed, so that to buy 25 pounds of wheat flour, you also had to buy corn meal, rye, and some other grains. This cookbook was written to help schools, dining halls, boarding houses, and other establishments cooking for large groups (hence "recipes for fifty") use the "less desirable" grains. The recipes are interesting, although the quantities are a little impractical for my kitchen.

Preface From the very day of America's awakening to the need of conservation, the members of the School of Domestic Science have entered heartily and enthusiastically into each succeeding plan of the Administration for conserving the foods needed by our Allies....

Before the war, we were in a rut in our kitchens. We used wheat, meat, sugar, and fats thoughtlessly and monotonously. Now, happily, cooking is lifted out of this dull routine. It has become a real adventure.

On any new trail, however, we need a guide who has thoroughly explored the danger points and can guard us against them.

Repeated experiments with what, in the first days of the world struggle, we called "substitutes" have produced the recipes in this book. They make a reliable and complete collection of palatable dishes which are not only good in theory, but entirely satisfactory in practice. Boston, June, 1918.

I've tried a lot of recipes that are "good in theory," but produced meals that were a "real adventure." Still, it's good to get out of any ruts one may have in one's kitchen.

Clipping Biodiesel Recipes

I love recipes, especially unusual cooking projects. That's why I've saved these reverences on homebrewed biodiesel, even though I don't own any engines that could burn it. It's just fun to think about. In fact, there's a biodiesel "brewer" in Pocahontas County who already has called dibs on all the used cooking oil produced by area restaurants.

Cool Fuel: Brew It Yourself: Teen's Basement Biodiesel Lab Not So Unusual By Lori Aratani, Washington Post, July 1, 2008

Gabe Schwartzman, a tall, lanky high school senior from Montgomery County, can fill up the tank of his 1980 Volvo sedan for less than $20.

...Over the last several months, Gabe has been hunkered down in the basement of his parents' Garrett Park home, converting used fryer oil from a restaurant up the street into fuel for his car.

Brewing biodiesel, once a quaint hobby for green-minded citizens and budding chemists, is becoming more mainstream. The spike in gas prices is making fryer oil, the messy aftermath of super spuds and mozzarella sticks, a hot commodity. It has even spawned a crime wave. Law enforcement officials have reported a surge in fryer oil thefts. Officials suspect the culprits are finding a ready market for the waste oil.

A resource with detailed references:EPA's Biodiesel Page

Biodiesel is a renewable fuel produced from agricultural resources such as vegetable oils. In the United States, most biodiesel is made from soybean oil; however canola oil, sunflower oil, recycled cooking oils, and animal fats are also used.

To make biodiesel, the base oil is put through a process called "esterificiation." This refining method uses an industrial alcohol (ethanol or methanol) and a catalyst (substance that enables a chemical reaction) to convert the oil into a fatty-acid methyl-ester fuel (biodiesel).

Get started cooking biodiesel with these recipes: Utah Biodiesel Supply's "Biodiesel Production Basics."

Welcome to the wonderful world of making Biodiesel. It's a fun and rewarding hobby where you can make your own fuel to run in diesel engines for a fraction of what regular diesel costs....Biodiesel is most commonly made by chemically altering an organic oil through the use of a catalyst and an alcohol. The chemical reaction that occurs through this process breaks down the oil molecules and replaces the glycerin portion of the molecule with an alcohol molecule. The glycerin falls to the bottom and is drained off resulting in Biodiesel.

The Biodiesel is then typically washed, to remove any extra impurities and is then used as a fuel in a diesel engine without making any modifications to the engine.

Biodiesel is known chemically as a 'fatty acid methyl ester'. Which is just a fancy way of saying it's a product made from Methanol and an organic oil with fatty acid chains in it. It is easily made and has many benefits, including environmentally friendlier tailpipe emissions and improved engine performance.

Apple Cake

About 10 years ago, someone made me an apple cake. I've been looking for the recipe ever since, and this year, with an abundance of apples, I've tried lots of them. The closest approximation of the cake in my memory came from this recipe. It's based on Cathy Anderson's award-winning apple cake recipe, with some substitutions and additions on my part. The cake is very sweet, and very moist, so it tastes fine unfrosted. Sprinkle a little confectioner's sugar over the top if you want to make it look pretty (like a first snowfall). If you must have frosting, the cream cheese recipe from my old Betty Crocker cookbook works better than most of the richer recipes you'll find on the Internet these days. You can definitely overdose on sweetness with this cake.

Apple Raisin Sheet Cake

• 4-5 cups chopped apples (cored, but with peels)
• 1 and 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup blackstrap molasses
• 1/2 cup salad oil
• 1 cup raisins
• 2 eggs, well beaten
• 2 cups flour (1 cup white, 1 cup whole wheat works well)
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F). Mix apples and sugar thoroughly. Add oil, molasses, raisins, eggs. Combine dry ingredients (flour, spices, salt, baking soda), add and stir to mix. Bake in a greased 13x9 inch pan for 1 hour, or until cake pulls away from sides of pan and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out without any batter.

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 3 oz. cream cheese
• 1 Tbs milk
• 1 Tsp vanilla
• 2 1/2 c confectioner's sugar

Blend cream cheese, milk, and vanilla--an electric mixer works best for this. Add the sugar and continue to blend. If frosting is too stiff to spread, add a little more milk.

Adventures in Slow Cooking--A Fascinating Blog

Speaking of "how-to" Web sites, I just happened across this blog: A Year of Crock Potting--A New Year's Resolution to use the Crock Pot every day in 2008. Every day Stephanie photographs her ingredients, gives "The Recipe" and "The Directions," and follows up with "The Verdict." I've found that many recipes on Internet cooking exchanges have typos, missing ingredients, or are passed along because they "should work," so "The Verdict" is a very important component.

Like Stephanie, I love my slow cooker, and I use it several times a week to cook big batches of oat groats (and other recalcitrant breakfast cereals), dried beans, deer roasts, and the odd chunk of meat we find on sale. However, her year of cooking slowly is much more adventurous than my bowls of fancy oatmeal. She has slow cooker beverages, deserts, fondue, quinoa, ethnic entrees and cornbread!

Recycling a Satellite Dish

Another Recycling Idea: Our neighbor made a small gazebo out of an old satellite dish. It's just large enough to keep the rain off a small table and chairs. I've seen them used for bird baths and planters, too, but the readers of /. (slashdot) offered some Alternative Uses for an Old Satellite Dish that really fascinated me, including parabolic microphones, speakers, and antennas. Here are the links I've archived....

• How-To: Build a WiFi biquad dish antenna
• Amateur Radio Astronomy Project Page and Amateur Radio Telescope Plans. How cool, to have your own personal radio astronomy telescope!
• Constructing a solar cooker from an abandoned satellite dish.
• Lyngsat--C band satellite channels; Free to Air satellite

More Messages From the Kingdom of Vegetables

I picked the last cabbage from our garden for cole slaw last week. These red cabbages made small but tasty heads. It was the vivid color that sent me outside in mid-chop to take some pictures.

There's something a little hypnotic about the sliced cabbage pattern. My parrots are very fond of cabbage, but they were afraid of the red cabbage cores--they wouldn't even go in their cages until I removed the scary vegetables. What do you suppose the cabbage told the parrots?

Fun With Sourdough Starter

I've tried making sourdough bread starter several times, following several different recipes, with limited success. A few weeks ago, I sent a self-addressed stamped envelope to the address given at www.carlsfriends.org. Not long after that, I got my envelope back, with a small plastic bag of dried 1847 Oregon Trail Sourdough Starter: The Wild Yeast Born When the West Was Young! It seems that the late Carl T. Griffith used to give some of his family's sourdough starter to anyone who asked, and a group of Carl's friends carry on this tradition.

The starter, although dried, was quick to revive and start growing, and I've used it in several recipes so far. The flavor's great, and the starter is hardy and quick-growing. Following are Carl Griffith's own sourdough biscuit recipe (my first try at biscuits without baking powder) and a nice, easy bread recipe from John Ross.

When you want to bake something, bring the starter up to room temperature, mix in 1 cup flour, 1 c warm water or skim milk and let sit overnight to ferment. The next morning, remove one cup to keep in a covered jar as a starter for use next time, feed it, then do your baking.

Sourdough BISCUITS
1 tb ActiveDryYeast
1 c Sourdough starter
1 1/4 c Water-Lukewarm
5 c Bread flour
1/3 c Sugar
Melted butter or Margarine
3/4 ts Salt

If you desire dissolve the yeast in warm water with a little sugar till bubbly. Sourdough is a yeast but rises faster with added commercial yeast. In a large mixing bowl add sugar, salt, sourdough starter, yeast and flour. Cover; set in warm spot and let rise until double. Punch down and turn out onto floured work surface. Roll out to 3/4 inch thickness. Cut with biscuit cutter. Dip both sides in butter or oil, and place on well-greased baking sheet. Let rise 15 min. Bake at 425 - 20 min. or until golden brown.

Sourdough Baking: The Basics by S. John Ross

• 2 Cups of sponge (proofed starter)
• 3 Cups of unbleached flour
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil or softened margarine
• 4 teaspoons of sugar
• 2 teaspoons of salt

...To the sponge, add the sugar, salt, and oil (the oil is optional - you can use softened butter instead, or no oil at all). Mix well, then knead in the flour a half-cup at a time. Knead in enough flour to make a good, flexible bread dough. You can do this with an electric mixer, a bread machine on dough cycle, or a food processor....treat it like ordinary white or French bread dough.

Let the dough rise in a warm place....Note that sourdough rises more slowly than yeast bread....Let the dough double in bulk, just like yeast-bread dough. When a finger poked into the top of the dough creates a pit that doesn't heal (spring back), you've got a risen dough.

Punch the dough down and knead it a little more. Make a loaf and place it on a baking sheet (lightly greased or sprinkled with cornmeal). Slit the top if you like, and cover the loaf with a paper towel and place it in a warm place to rise again, until doubled in bulk.

Place the pan with the loaf in your oven, and then turn your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and bake the bread for 30-45 minutes. Do not preheat the oven. The loaf is done when the crust is brown and the bottom sounds hollow when thumped with a wooden spoon. Turn the loaf out onto a cooling rack or a towel and let it cool for an hour before slicing.

Some more interesting sourdough resources:

• Sourdoughs International:is dedicated to promoting the resurgence of sourdough bread baking. This site sells Dr. Ed Wood's book, Classic Sourdoughs, and 14 different sourdough starter cultures. It also provides a link to Wood's fascinating research on ancient Mesopotamian breadmaking.
• Sourdough Home: An Exploration of Sourdough. Recipes, advice, and a bread blog--Mike's Bread Shoppe also offers books for sale and classes (in Texas).

Remembering Cabbages Past

The warm weather and the school vacation have given me the chance I needed to start seeds for our garden. Last year, I ordered heirloom garden varieties from Seed Savers Exchange. I like to save my own garden seeds from year to year, and I looked forward to sampling some of the interesting vegetables I saw on their beautifully-illustrated Web site.

Unfortunately, a cold wet spring gave way to a hot, dry summer last year. It's a good thing we don't depend on what we grow as our sole food supply, or we would have starved out. I grew enough beans to save as seed, but the broccoli bolted, the cabbage was puny and so bitter we couldn't eat it, and the tomatoes did truly bizarre things.

Hope once again triumphs over experience, and this year, I ordered more Seed Savers' seeds. I started these handsome cole crops:

Calabrese Broccoli. Brought to America by Italian immigrants in the 1880s. Popular market variety. Tight heads can grow up to 8" in diameter. After the central head is harvested, side shoots follow. 58-90 days from transplant.

I grew this broccoli last year, and it was quite good, although most of the plants dried up and didn't make heads. Between the Tarnished Plant Bugs, cabbage butterflies, and Harlequin Bugs, there wasn't all that much left for us.

Year after year, I've bought cabbage plants at the local stores. Sometimes the cabbage turns out to be brussel sprouts, sometimes it's just some odd-ball variety I wasn't looking for. The last few years, I haven't even been able to find cabbage seed for the varieties that do well for us. That's why I have high hopes for these lovely plants:

Mammoth Red Rock Cabbage. Introduced in 1889. Solid round heads are 8" in diameter and weigh 7 pounds. Red throughout, vigorous and uniform, small to medium core, sure cropper, fine flavor. Excellent for cooking, salads and pickling. 98 days from transplant.

Sweet and Sour Muffins

For years, I made muffins every Sunday morning. They were cheap, quick, and easily varied, depending on what ingredients I had on hand. These "Cranberry Wheat Bran Muffins" were, and still are, a favorite, although I usually can't find unprocessed wheat bran in the grocery stores hereabouts, and cranberries are an infrequent treat. Back in the day, I could get wheat bran extra-cheap in the bulk foods section of my local grocery, but now it seems limited to packaged organic (expensive) product lines, available in rural West Virginia only sporadically.

Recently, a fortunate convergence of circumstances allowed me to make four batches of these muffins. The bran means they don't rise big and fluffy, the molasses and cinnamon give them a strong, sweet flavor, and the cranberries are a sour surprise when you bite into them. As you might expect, they are not a favorite with children.

Cranberry Wheat Bran Muffins

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

1/4 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup milk
1 egg
2 Tbsp. molasses
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup unprocessed wheat bran
1 cup flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 Tbsp. cinnamon
1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries, washed and stemmed 

Combine oil, milk egg, molasses, and sugar. Mix. Add combined dry ingredients. Stir just until completely mixed. Add cranberries. Grease a 12-muffin tin and spoon batter into tin. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.

Pita Bread

A few weeks ago, I was grocery shopping near the Interstate, where they get those city groceries, and I bought a package of pita bread. It wasn't very good pita bread, but it got me thinking about how I hadn't had any in years. After an Internet search, I started testing pita bread recipes. It's quicker and easier to make than I expected, and I love to see the flat bread dough rounds puff up into off-kilter balls in the oven. For me, it's both food and entertainment.

I favored a bread machine recipe because I'm lazy and because room temperature in this house is seldom conducive to yeast incubation. I modified the recipe and directions for better results, and what follows is a recipe that works well for me.

1 cup water
1 tsp salt
1 TBS oil
1 1/2 tsp sugar
3 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast

Place all ingredients in bread pan, select Dough setting and start. When dough has risen long enough, machine will beep. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Gently roll and stretch dough into 12" rope. Preheat oven to 500°F, making sure you have an oven rack in the lowest position.

With a sharp knife, divide dough into 6 pieces. With a rolling pin, or by hand, form each piece of dough into a circle 6 to 7 inches in diameter. Set aside on a lightly floured counter top. Cover with a towel. Let dough circles rest a few minutes. Handle with care while rolling and transferring. Holes and tears prevent them from puffing up in the oven.

Place 2 or 3 pitas on a wire rack. (I'm using the porcelain-covered racks from our smoker. Cake racks will do, but racks out of discarded appliances like toaster ovens are more substantial, and work better.) Place your small rack directly on the oven rack. Bake pitas 4 to 5 minutes until puffed and tops begin to brown. Avoid over-baking, or the pitas will turn hard and brittle. Remove from oven and immediately cover pitas with a damp kitchen towel until cool.

These are recipes I tried, and from which I "developed" the recipe above.

• How to Make Pita Bread by Saad Fayed, About.com's Guide to Middle Eastern Food.
• Easy Pita Bread from Diana Rattray, About.com's Guide to Southern U.S. Cuisine
• Garvick's Pita Bread
• Bread Machine Pita Bread Recipe
• Peppy's Pita Bread

Potato Blossom, Potato Salad

Potatoes are not prized for their flowers. I thought this bud was rather handsome, but it (and all the others) aborted without even opening. To accompany this delicate pink blossom, I have clipped the recipe for "Red, White, and Blue Potato Salad from HINTS FROM HELOISE, Tuesday, August 7, 2007; Page C08. I think a half recipe would be plenty, at least until you're sure you like it.

RED, WHITE AND BLUE POTATO SALAD

2 pounds small redskin potatoes (unpeeled), washed and boiled
1 bunch of green onions, sliced, saving the tops for garnishing
1 can water chestnuts (drained), diced
8 ounces blue cheese, crumbled
16 ounces sour cream
1/3 cup white-wine vinegar
1 tablespoon celery seed
1 tablespoon dill weed
Salt and pepper to taste
Paprika (optional)

Slice just-cooled (but not cold) potatoes and put into a large bowl. Add green onions and water chestnuts to potatoes. Mix blue cheese, sour cream, vinegar, celery seed and dill weed together and pour over potato mix. Stir gently. (Warm potatoes absorb the flavors better.) Add salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle paprika and remaining green-onion tops over potato mix. Chill for two hours or overnight, which is best for flavors to blend.

Planting the Garden

We finally got the garden out last week. I'd blogged about my tomato seeds in April, and I got a very good germination rate from the Seedsavers seeds--much better than I usually get from the standard commercial seed catalog products. The Seedsavers broccoli also did very well.

Calabrese Broccoli

Brought to America by Italian immigrants in the 1880s. Popular market variety. Tight heads can grow up to 8" in diameter. After the central head is harvested, side shoots follow. 58-90 days from transplant.

Tomatoes and broccoli are looking very good in the garden now. We also planted Seedsavers beans and squash seeds. It's too early to expect to see them come up, but I go out to the garden and look several times a day.

Black Valentine Beans

Introduced in 1897 by Peter Henderson & Company. Shiny black seeds and 6" pods. Excellent for use as a fresh snap bean or a dry soup bean. Prolific and dependable plants produce pods borne above the foliage. Bush habit, 49-55 days.

Cherokee Trail of Tears Bean

Given to SSE in 1977 by the late Dr. John Wyche, SSE member from Hugo, OK. Dr. Wyche's Cherokee ancestors carried this bean over the Trail of Tears, the infamous winter death march from October 1838 in the Smoky Mountains to March 26, 1839 in Oklahoma, leaving a trail of 4,000 graves. Shiny jet-black seeds. Green 6" pods with purple overlay, good for snaps and dry beans. Pole habit, 85 days.

In addition to these two bean varieties, our neighbor gave us some seeds from his "Logan Giants" pole beans. We've eaten these in previous years, and I really like them. I overdid it with squash this year, and because these three varieties are all the same species, Cucurbitus pepo, they will cross-pollinate, and I won't be able to save seeds from them. However, it will be a chance to decide what squash we like the best.

Fordhook Acorn Squash

(C. pepo) Introduced in 1890 by W. Atlee Burpee of Philadelphia and named for their Fordhook trial grounds at Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Vining plants with long fruits similar to acorns. Can be eaten fresh around 56 days and used for baking after 85 days. Fruits seldom weigh more than two pounds. Very hard to find.

Golden Zucchini Squash

(C. pepo) Developed by breeders at W. Atlee Burpee from material supplied by Dr. Ovid Shifriss at Rutgers, introduced in 1973. Glossy golden-yellow, cylindrical fruits on productive, compact bush plants. A great addition to any farm market stand or home garden. 50-55 days.

Summer Crookneck Squash

(C. pepo) Semi-open bush plants produce extended heavy crops of smooth light yellow fruits with curved necks, bumped developed after edible stage. Best eaten when 5-6" long. Creamy-white sweet mild flesh has excellent flavor. Keep picked clean to enjoy all season. 55-60 days.

Rhubarb: Petioles of Delight

Last week a neighbor gave us a grocery bag full of rhubarb--that is, the swollen rhubarb petioles, the part we eat. (Celery is the only other plant I can think of whose petioles we eat). The last time I cooked rhubarb, I knew nothing of petioles, or plant anatomy. I just knew my folks grew it in the garden, we cooked it for a springtime dessert, and its leaves were poisonous to farm animals, including me.

I'm sure it's been more than 30 years since I last cooked rhubarb, and I had to check my cookbook for the rhubarb-to-sugar ratio. Since I had a big batch, I also made a rhubarb pie, and, at my neighbor's request, a batch of "Overnight Rhubarb Jam." I was apprehensive about this last condiment, because it features a strawberry Jell-o component, but it turned out to be much better than it sounds. After licking the spoons, the canning funnel, and the cooking pot, I've had a hard time staying out of the jelly jars.

Here are the recipes I used.

Plain Old Rhubarb

The Joy of Cooking calls this "Poached Rhubarb," but to me, this is simply the way we cook rhubarb. The texture is something like applesauce, and I like it best after it's cooled.

1 pound rhubarb
1/2 to 3/4 cups sugar, depending on your taste, and your rhubarb.

Wash rhubarb petioles, and cut into 1/2 inch segments. Place in saucepan. Heat gently and slowly, stirring to prevent scorching, until rhubarb gives up enough liquid to dissolve sugar. Add the sugar, stirring until it dissolves. At this point you can turn up the heat a little. Continue to cook until rhubarb is the texture of applesauce.

You can eat it at this point, but I prefer to let the flavors blend as it cools.

Rhubarb Pie Filling

Wash and chop 4 cups of rhubarb. Add 1 1/2 cup sugar and 1/3 cup all-purpose flour, and mix. Place in your favorite two-crust pie, and bake at 425 degrees F for 40 to 50 minutes.

Overnight Rhubarb Jam

There are four differently-named but identical recipes for this in my Favorite Recipes of Home Economics Teachers: Canning, Preserving and Freezing Cookbook. After tasting it, I understand why it's a particular favorite recipe. Don't let the Strawberry Jell-o put you off.

3 cups sugar
5 cups diced rhubarb
1 3-oz. package strawberry gelatin.

Combine rhubarb and sugar in saucepan; let stand overnight. (This draws water out of the rhubarb, and dissolves the sugar.) Bring mixture to a boil; cook until rhubarb is tender, the texture of applesauce. Remove from heat; stir in gelatin until dissolved. Place in sterilized jelly jars and seal. It may be frozen instead.

Yogurt Recipes From Dr. Bootsie's Test Kitchen

These are the recipes I've worked out for my own personal yogurt making, to go along with the tips and advice in yesterday's post.

Instant Powdered Milk Yogurt
1 1/2 cup powdered milk
Water to make 3 3/4 cups milk
1/4 to 1/3 cup yogurt with active culture

Measure powdered milk into quart jar. Add water and mix until you have 3 3/4 cups milk in jar. Heat jar, uncovered, in microwave, to 110 degrees F. That's about 1 1/2 minutes in my microwave--your milage will vary. Add 1/4 cup to 1/3 cup "live" yogurt--either from storebought yogurt with the label "active cultures" or from your previous batch of yogurt (my favored starter.) Incubate yogurt at 110 degrees F until it thickens. This may take 14 hours with grocery store starter, or as little as six hours with fresh, home-grown yogurt. Refrigerate when it reaches the desired texture and degree of sourness. This slows down, but does not stop yogurt culture growth.

Pasteurized Fresh Milk Yogurt
3 1/2 cups milk
1/3 to 1/2 cup instant powdered milk (to thicken finished yogurt)
1/4 to 1/3 cup yogurt with active culture

First, scald the milk, as described in yesterday's post. Disolve the powdered milk in the hot milk. Allow mixture to cool to 110 degrees F. (You can speed the process by placing your hot milk in your quart jar, and setting the quart jar in a pan of cold water.) Once the yogurt cools, add the live cultures. (Don't put it in too soon, or you'll cook your microbes, and no yogurt will appear.) Incubate yogurt at 110 degrees F until it thickens. This may take 14 hours with grocery store starter, or as little as six hours with fresh, home-grown yogurt. Refrigerate when it reaches the desired texture and degree of sourness. This slows down, but does not stop yogurt culture growth.

Yogurt Thickened and Flavored With Jell-o

If you have developed a taste for grocery store yogurt, especially the fat-free, sugar-free, artificially sweetened and colored types, you can duplicate them at home. Make a package of Jell-o according to directions on box, but leave out 1/4 cup water. Add 1 cup yogurt to partially-set Jello. To duplicate the total grocery store experience, you can pour the mixture into cup-sized containers for individual servings.

Here are a few food science links about factors that affect yogurt texture, and some miscellaneous cool stuff.

• A sample test for high school science teachers from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale

  What process is responsible for the gel-like texture of yogurt?...Curdling is caused by proteolytic enzymes, heat, lactic acid, and other means. Each milk gel consists of a protein matrix, which is modified by lactic acid to produce a smooth yogurt product....Lactic acid bacteria produce polysaccharides that decrease the flowability of the yogurt.

• A taste of culture - culture polysaccharides, flavors, stabilizers and sweeteners

  Next to taste, texture is the most important sensory attribute in dairy foods. Dairy cultures, with the assistance of stabilizers, are responsible for imparting desirable textures. Yogurt cultures produce exopolysaccharides in two forms, as a non-ropy capsule surrounding the cell and as mucoid material that freely moves away from the cell causing ropiness...capsular polysaccharides play an important role in the development of yogurt microstructure and texture. Yogurt made using such cultures has increased viscosity, a more stable structure and a softer texture.

• Foods Under the Microscope

  by Miloslav (Milos) Kaláb, Ph.D., a full-time Principal Research Scientist at the Centre for Food and Animal Research, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Ottawa until August 1995. Then, he continued - part time - in electron microscopy studies of foods and foodborne microorganisms at the Food Research Program in Guelph, Ontario, Canada.