Easy as Pie Test Kitchen

Quick cole slaw

There are a few foods I'm not crazy about unless I make them myself. Orange juice is one. (I'm not sure why, since it's not like it has a lot of complex ingredients.) Cole slaw is another. I'm not a huge fan of store-bought or restaurant slaw. Maybe because I know how fatty it is. Here's my slimmer version:

Cole slaw
1/2 head cabbage, thinly sliced
4-5 radishes, thinly sliced
1/2 can crushed pineapple
2 tablespoons pineapple juice (from the can of pineapple)
2 tablespoons mayonnaise (vegan if you're avoiding eggs like me)
1 teaspoon cumin
1/8 teaspoon pure stevia extract

You can chop the cabbage and radishes in a food processor. I got a mandolin for Christmas, and it requires less work to wash the the processor, so I used that instead. Combine the cabbage, radishes, and pineapple in a salad bowl. In another smaller bowl, stir or whisk the pineapple juice, mayonnaise, cumin, and stevia until the mayonnaise is dissolved in the dressing. Pour the dressing over the top of the veggies and toss the salad.

Ode to my little garden

I planted some organic, heirloom herbs seeds a few weeks ago because I'm a glutton for punishment. Oh, and because I LOVE being able to just grab whatever seasonings I like from just outside the door. Even though I planted them too deep, 9 of my 12 seed types managed to sprout. Two of them promptly withered because I put them in direct sunlight for at least 8 hours on a particularly hot day. I'd actually given up hope on two more (peppermint and stevia). I decided to do a post-mortem on the seeds that didn't sprout by digging through the dirt looking for roots, and found two little sprouts clinging to the sides of the cup. They're really, really tiny and fragile-looking, so I moved them to the window sill. Can you see the stevia plant at on the left?? It's the lone seed of 20. Brave little stevia plant!

A few days ago I moved my bigger sprouts to pots. I think it was a little too early for some. The dirt crumbled around them and they wound up all tilty and falling over, like the parsley below. It's been like that a few days but doesn't appear to be dying yet...

Some look really good, though. Especially the stuff I bought at Home Depot. :) 

 

I'm particularly excited about my pineapple sage, since I fell in love with it at first bite.

Here's my itty bitty basil:

I followed some signs for a plant sale down the street a few weeks ago, and found myself at a suburban home that doubles as a nursery and goat farm. Now I know why we hear goats at night sometimes. I don't know what kinds of plants these are, but one of them is not doing so well. I love the succulent, though. The flowers are so bright the camera couldn't quite handle them. See if you can guess which of the plants below is the one that is thriving under my black thumb and which is the one that is not doing so well.

 
 

Then there are the Home Depot plants, which I've managed to keep looking good since Saturday. There's even a mini strawberry already growing on the strawberry plant. I can't take credit for that one since it was already there when I bought it.

 

Some kind person even left me a gift for my garden by the dumpster the other day. I'm not sure who left it. But apparently he or she is the of person who likes to make the afternoon of someone who gets excited about things like cat hair-covered bakers racks abandoned next to dumpsters. Must be a secret admirer. That's the only reasonable explanation.

Ghosts of tuna past (more appetizing than it sounds)

This recipe is a little reminder of summer for all my snow-bound friends. Heck, it’s even been a little wintry here in southern California. By “wintry” I mean a little rainy and below 60 some days. Please don’t throw snow at your computer screen.

 

A few months back, a co-worker wrangled this tuna off the California coast, and I ran home and cooked it ASAP. Fresh tuna deserves to go from ocean to stomach with as little cooking as possible in between. I am not brave enough to prepare my own fish completely raw, however, so pan-seared was the way to go. Fresh caught fish is an occasion at the Walton household, so I bought some of these decorative-looking mini mixed greens from Trader Joe’s that always remind me a little of alfalfa. Turns out they’re not just pretty, but yummy, too. I seared the tuna and made some pickles to top it with rice vinegar, as well as a little horseradish sauce I made. (Trader Joe’s didn’t have wasabi, which probably would have been better.)

 

Pickles

1 cucumber, cut in small cubes or slices

1 very small red onion, or 1/2 a medium red onion, chopped in small pieces

1/4 cup rice vinegar

1/2 teaspoon salt

 

Mix ingredients in a metal or ceramic bowl. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. (I just whipped this up and stuck it in the fridge the night before.)

 

Sauce

1/4 cup mayonnaise (I can’t eat eggs, so I use vegan mayo, which is better than the real store-bought stuff IMHO)

1 1/2 tablespoons rice vinegar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon hot chili sauce (I prefer Sri Racha, but I’m sure Tabasco would do)

2 tablespoons horseradish

1 tablespoon lemon juice

 

Tuna

Tuna

Sesame seed oil

 

Pat the tuna dry and sprinkle with pepper. Heat a skillet over medium high. Add the oil, then the tuna. Cook the tuna on each side until it is golden—usually under a minute.

 

Serve tuna topped with pickles and horseradish sauce.

Lard??

I knew do-it-yourself food traditions have been making a comeback in this economy. I hear a lot about canning and gardening. But now I've heard about rendering your own lard at home twice in is many days. I've never even cooked with lard, let alone made it at home. Apparently when it's made right, it's low in un-saturated fat. It's supposed to be healthier than trans fat by far. Go figure. I'm going to have to find some and try it out. Do any of my readers use lard? Any tips for me?

And you thought they'd already thought of frying everything already...

Where I grew up in rural Ohio, the county fair was a big deal. I didn't raise animals, but a lot of my friends did, so I'd go check out the animals and maybe catch the demolition derby. The Los Angeles County Fair down the road from where I live now, is a bit, um, different. (More couture, less manure.)

Regardless of where you live, there is something about fair food that gets everyone salivating. I saw a photo of one popular fair food this year--the deep-fried chocolate strawberry in waffle batter-- and thought I HAD to try it. Here's a wheat-free, cane-sugar free version.

Inform people about your allergies with class

Want a discreet way to help friends remember what you can't eat or let the chef at a restaurant know what to leave off your plate? Print up some business cards with your allergies listed on them. You can even print them for free at Vistaprint.

It's also a great way to let teachers and other parents know about your kid's food allergies. Vistaprint has some cute kid-oriented patterns.

Stevia seeds have arrived!

They're so stinking tiny! (They're in the bag in the photo below. I included a spice jar for comparison.) I hope I don't lose them before I have a chance to plant them this weekend.

California herb garden

I like to grow and kill plants. I gently carry them home with such joy and optimism. They usually last a few months before I go away on vacation or just get busy and forget to water them. Today, I found the carcass of my mint plant. In the self-watering flower pot. That pot is supposed to be like a plant buffet! I don't know what could have happened! Maybe it over-indulged?

Nevertheless, I am a crazed do-it-yourselfer, so when I heard you could grow stevia, I decided I must give it a try. My seeds are on their way now. Stay tuned for the arrival and planting of the seeds, most likely out of season. Oh well. I live in California.

PS If you do not know what stevia is, it's a natural calorie-free sugar substitute that works really well unless you use a lot, and then it leaves a weird aftertaste in your mouth. Although, maybe if you use fresh leaves, it doesn't have an aftertaste? I don't know. I guess I will find out. It's awesome if you're like me and can't eat sugar and prefer to avoid artificial sweeteners (except Diet Coke).

Almond butter the right way--not for the weak of thumb

Since I'm on this anti-candida yeast diet, I pretty much eat meat, veggies, some nuts, and a few grains. No sugar (which rules out normal peanut butter) and even then peanuts are "not recommended" because they often contain mold. I eat almond butter on rice cakes a lot for breakfast. Filling, rich, and portable, but expensive! If you go through almond butter like I do, $7 for an 8-ounce jar adds up. So you can imagine that when I saw a 3-pound bag of almonds at Costco for $10, I thought, "Gee, I have a pretty good food processor. Almond butter can't be that hard to make." I read around online, and there are 3 basic steps to making almond butter:

1. Roasting the almonds
2. Grinding the almonds
3. Adding oil and salt

Most of the instructions I read said that almond butter is SOOOO much better if you blanch the almonds first, so of course I had to try it. Blanching almonds involves covering them with boiling water to loosen the skins, then peeling the skins off by hand, nut by nut. One recipe I found said it takes 5 minutes to peel 10-15 ounces of almonds. HAHAHAHAHA! It took me an hour and a half to peel the 10 ounces or so you see here. Maybe there's some magic trick to getting the skins loose enough so they just slip off, but I don't know what it is. If you actually do want to try this at home, find a good movie to watch first, or bribe your kids to peel the almonds for you.

I then roasted the naked almonds by putting them in the oven at 350 for 8 minutes on a baking sheet covered with foil. I also roasted some with the peel on just for a taste comparison. I put the blanched almonds in the food processor for about 7 minutes. I did not need to add oil to those--the butter was pretty creamy without it. I did add about 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt. I did the same to the almonds with skin, although I did need to add about 2 tablespoons of sesame oil to get that butter to be more creamy plus a little stevia extract. As always, a little stevia goes a long way, so taste as you add it.

The result? Lots of almond butter for about $5. You can compare the $7 jar size to the amount I made on the left. I'm guessing I made about three times as much butter for 2/3 the cost. Oh, and the almond butter from the blanched almonds is SIGNIFICANTLY tastier than the stuff with skins. The skins are kind of bitter. I'm pretty sure the store-bought stuff has skins in it, too. I bet if I tried to buy almond butter made from blanched almonds, it would be $15 for 10 ounces. It's labour-intensive, like that coffee processed by cats. So, really, I saved myself $15 or so. Hm. I'm still trying to explain the benefits to my blistered thumb.