Do you ever "tweak" recipes?

I bought this Fannie Farmer Cookbook in 1969 in Spokane, Washington.  I was 20 years old and had a summer job working for the United States Forest Service in Sandpoint, Idaho. My co-worker and I visited Spokane and went into a book store and I spied this book. I had never had one before. I wish I could remember what I paid for it. My mom used it for a year or two and then when my husband and I got married, she gave it back to me. By that time she had used it so much that the binding was failing and she put duct tape on it. I have added to that over the years.

Our daughters and I referred to this wonderful, basic, cookbook constantly. In fact, this book is how I learned to cook. My mom had taught me how to bake when I was growing up, and so I knew how to follow a recipe, but I didn't really know how to cook

This morning I had some bananas that were hopelessly ripe.  I didn't want to throw them away, so decided to make banana nut bread. The best recipe I've ever had for that is the one in this cookbook because it does not call for any oil.  Here it is. (Notice how dirty the page is!)

In order to use the recipe, I needed to "tweak" it because I no longer can eat wheat, and don't use eggs. Here is what I came up with:

BANANA NUT BREAD

3 ripe bananas, well mashed

6 Tablespoons aqua faba (the liquid from cooking chickpeas)

2 cups whole grain spelt flour

1/2 cup honey

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup finely chopped English walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 F

Using an electric mixer, mash the bananas well.  Use the mixer to also beat the aqua faba until it is foamy and add that to the bananas. Add the honey and mix well.

In a separate bowl, combine the spelt flour, salt and baking soda.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until everything is combined well.

Stir in the walnuts.

I used olive oil spray on my loaf pan and poured the batter in and smoothed it out. Bake for about 50 - 60 minutes until the loaf tests done with a toothpick.

It's delicious and nicely soft and moist!

Do you like Rice Pudding?

         I have tried, many times, through the years I've been married (52) to make "Rice Pudding."  It has NEVER turned out very nicely and I have used several different recipes. But now, I finally have a way to make it that is EASY and it WORKS!!! 

SLOW COOKER RICE PUDDING

I made this in a small slow cooker (a.k.a. "Crockpot"). 

Combine in the slow cooker:

1 cup rinsed white rice

2.5 cups milk (I used homemade soymilk)

1/2 cup pure maple syrup

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup rasins

Stir that together, put on the lid and cook on "high" for about 3 hours. 

Stir, and taste and see if the rice is nice and soft.

Add 3/4 cup of additional milk and

1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract

Stir well

This is wonderful warm, but also really yummy cold.

I am so pleased. I'm only 75 and finally learned how to make good rice pudding.  :)

A button lamp - posting again!

 This is the time of year that we start into the season when it's not unusual where we live to have power outages.  Here is a way to have some light, even if you don't have even a candle!

I just ran across this picture... and wondered if you have ever heard of a "button lamp." Many years ago, we got this idea from one of Laura Ingalls Wilder's books called The Long Hard Winter. These are easy and fun to make and if you ever find yourself with no electricity, no candles... nothing to make light with, please remember this! All you need is a small glass dish or saucer, a button - not a plastic button, but one made of shell, glass or wood, a small square of cotton fabric, a piece of string and a match to light it with! The reason you don't use plastic is that if the flame contacts the button, you will have a cloud of toxic and not very nice smelling fumes coming off of it.

Cut your cotton fabric large enough to wrap tightly around the button and use the string or thread to tie it on, leaving the little pointy ends sticking up. Then, put some sort of oil or fat (Ma Ingalls used axle grease I think!) into your dish... don't use very much. You don't want to drown the flame. Put the wrapped button into the fat and get a little bit of it on the "wick" and then light it! This makes a very satisfactory light in an emergency.

One time, many years ago, the power went out. The children got busy making button lamps. We had several of them (more than we needed!) lit and happily giving light to our home, and then of course the power came back on! We were sincerely disappointed!

"Gluten Free" - chapter 2 - Not really.... Spelt bread

 

    The most dissapointing thing about going "gluten free" for me was not having "real" bread. I've been making our bread, almost exclusively, since 1972. Yes, I'm that old. At one time, when all of our children (6) were still at home, and we had another boy living with us, we would make 15 loaves of whole wheat bread all at one time, once a week. I have an enormous stainless steel bowl we used for that.

    I had read that some ancient grains, such as Spelt, could often be tolerated by people who are sensitive to wheat. I ordered a bag of organic whole grain Spelt flour from www.Azure.com, and so for the last week, I've been using it. I am very happy to tell you that it is not giving mw any trouble! Spelt DOES have gluten, but it is different, in some way, than the gluten in our modern wheat. Spelt is technically wheat. It's just thousands of years old. 

    The bread is very simple to make and is delicious. It is more tender than typical wheat bread. This bread rises in the bowl and then in the pan, but does not rise any more when you bake it. It makes very nice toast and sandwiches. I do not know how long it would "keep" because I sliced it, put small pieces of parchment baking paper between the slices so they won't stick together, put it in a freezer bag and into the freezer. That way I can take out just what we need and either let it thaw or make toast. 

    I found the recipe and instructions on YouTube and here it is: https://suemareep.com/how-to-make-spelt-flour-wholegrain-bread/

    I did not use the stand mixer like she did. I just worked the dough for maybe 2 minutes with my hands. I used 1 Tablespoon of olive oil in the dough, but I did not grease the bowl or my hands like she did. When I formed the loaf, I just put a little water on the counter so the dough would not stick. Also, I ended up using just a little more water than she did so the dough seemed right. Like any other flour, I imagine spelt flour can vary in the amount of water needed.

    I've also been usinng the spelt flour in other things that call for flour, like my cornbread. I'm very pleased. Thank you, Sue Maree P. !!!

   

    

"Gluten Free" - I thought it was silly, until.... Chapter 1

 

 

I don't know when the current "gluten free" craze began, but for the longest time, I thought it was just another trend that would fizzle out.  Now... I've had to repent of that attitude. I have no idea what portion of the population might be sensitive to gluten. It may be that it's being overdone. Nevertheless, I discovered not long ago, that I am gluten sensitive. For a few years, off and on, I had been having episodes of extreme achiness in my body. It was not sore muscles. It didn't seem to be connected to anything I was or was not doing. It "came to a head" a couple of months ago. I was riding with my husband in his pick-up truck one evening. The pain was exquisite and intense and I was thinking "What is this???  I eat a very clean diet. I go to the gym 3 times a week. My bloodwork came back perfect. I really try hard to take care of myself, so WHAT in the WORLD is going on?"  Then it came to me. "Gluten."  Aha.  Yes.  Perhaps... so I went home and eliminated gluten from my diet. Within 2 days, all of that pain was gone. And it has stayed gone. I have been experimenting with making long fermented sourdough bread, and the jury is still out on that. 

I'd like to share with you some of the things that I've been cooking and eating instead of the grains that have gluten in them.  The first chapter is - 

CORNBREAD MUFFINS

1 cup cornmeal (I use the freshly ground from what we grow in our garden)

1 cup almond flour

3/4  teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon sugar

5 teaspoons aluminum-free baking powder

1 Tablespoon ground flaxseed (I grind mine fresh and keep it in the fridge. I use a little electric coffee grinder) - this is the egg substiture

1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce (oil substitute)

1 cup soy milk 

Mix the dry ingredients

Mix the wet ingredients

Combine well

This will make 12 muffins. Bake at 425 F. for about 15 minutes.  Check to see if they are done by tapping the top to make sure there's no liquidy stuff in the middle. I use pan spray on my muffin tin. This is one of two times I ever use oil  in cooking anymore!  The other is when I make Belgian waffles.  I spray a little on the waffle iron. If you have the little paper liners, you could use those.

My favorite way to eat these is with Navy Bean soup. OH... that's heavenly!  Sometimes I put a little honey on a muffin. These keep well in the refrigerator for a few days. My husband likes to break the muffins up into his soup. 

Tiny laundry tip....

 

I ran across this idea online and can't remember where. For some time now, I've been using just "Dawn Platinum" dish detergent to do my laundry. I add only 1 or 2 teaspoons of the liquid to a load of laundry, depending on the size of the load. I am very happy with the results. My clothing is getting cleaner than I think it ever has and also is softer. I don't use fabric softener. I have 4 wool dryer balls. Now, I do need to mention that I have a water softener, so I don't know how well this would work with hard water. I try to buy my Dawn when it's on sale and so each load only costs 2 cents or 4 cents. It's amazing. I do hang my laundry to dry part of the time, but not always. In the wintertime, I use a drying rack near the woodstove. In the warmer months, I have clotheslines outside that I use a lot. However, if there is a streak of rainy weather or I'm very tired or in a hurry, I use the dryer. After all these years of buying and sometimes making my own laundry soap/detergent, I am so happy that I've discovered this.

A tiny tip about bar soap....

Here is a bar of my homemade soap (sitting on a slice of luffa gourd so it can drain.)  This is what I almost always use to wash my hands and face at the bathroom sink.  Now here is an extremely tiny tip. This time of year where we live it gets very warm and humid and the soap absorbs water and can become so soft it will fall apart. When it gets a little soft, all you have to do is just take the bar up in your dry hands and rub it on your skin a little.  THEN add water and lather up. It saves the soap!