First Corn Harvest

I plucked the first of our corn last night, and this is what i have to say about it.

Firstly, delicious! We ate it mostly raw, warmed under the broiler a bit, with salt. Sweet sweet sweet!

Secondly, one of the cobs i harvested was empty inside - there was sign of nasty bug entry, and all the kernels were eaten off inside. I'm thinking corn earworm? Any other ideas? I recently learned a great tip over at Not Dabbling In Normal to remedy them: mineral oil placed on the tip of the cob after the silks wither. I'll be doing that today or the next to the remaining cobs in hopes of deterring more bandits. This harvest of 4 small ears yielded 1 pound 8 ounces.

The nasty, immature cob - a good cob, but with clearly 'messed up' kernels: 

any musings on the cause of the irregulatity? 

Served with (store bought) veggie burger and garden onions.

Thirdly, the Casino variety is doing MUCH better than the Sweet Treat variety. I plan on letting one cob mature completely and harvesting it as seed corn. My goal for next year is to plant only (or mostly) seeds saved from this year's garden, more on that later. Casino's cobs are fuller and more mature. The little Sweet Treat i plucked was more like 'baby corn' and not sweet at all.

Fourthly: nothing goes to waste around here! The girls each got their own cob to play with at the end, picking out the last minuscule bits of corn our human teeth couldn't get out, and dispatching that not so great cob of immature corn that i wasn't too keen on eating.

Overall: i think corn is worth growing! My placement seems to be facilitating its pollination alright. There are a few stragglers at the corners not developing overly well, but that's to be expected. I'll wait another week or so before harvesting any more to see if the cobs plump out a bit more, but i'll be watching those casino cobs closely: don't want them getting tough!

Delicious Homemade Granola

Who knew making granola was so easy? The benefits of making my own are many:

• I know what's going into my husband's stomach, and it's all good stuff
• It's fresher than you could possibly get in the store
• I can pick and choose each ingredient that goes in
• I can adjust the amounts to make a batch that's just the right size to last the week and fit into the container

lots more. but that's a start. I worked off of a recipe i found online.  I didn't have all the ingredients he used, and would rather use locally sourced or on hand stuff anyway. I also changed the sweeteners around to be more healthy and low glycemic. The process was super simple and i could do several other things while the grains were cooking.
I think next time i'll try this with some mixed rolled grains, not just oatmeal. But this is sure tasty! (I would have put in raisins, but hubby said no thanks)

• 2 cups rolled oats (preferably organic)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp salt (i used fine sea salt)
• 3 T plus 1 tsp veg. oil (i used safflower this time)
• 1/4 cup honey (i mixed honey and agave nectar - would have used all agave but it's a bit spendy. Be sure and use local honey)
• 1/4 Rapadura
• 1 tsp vanilla (i snuck some almond extract in there also)
• the recipe calls for assorted nuts and fruits, i used what we had: about a cup of chopped walnuts and pecans plus some flax seed and hemp for omegas.

Preheat to 325. Toss the oats, cinnamon and salt together. In another bowl mix the wet stuff.  Add the oats to the gooey stuff and mix with your hands well, squishing into several balls and scraping the bowl with a rubber spatula. Spread oats evenly on a pan lined with parchment.
Bake 10 minutes, remove and flip, add nuts
Bake another 5 minutes, remove and flip, add flax and hemp
Bake 10 minutes,  remove and cool. Add fruit now if you're using any.
Let cool completely and transfer to an air tight container. Try not to eat it all now.

Should keep about one week. As if we can keep our hands off that long! This stuff is so good - great balance of sweet and salty. The recipe called for hazelnuts, which i'd loved to have used if i had any. Someday we plan on raising an orchard with filberts and other nuts that i can't wait to use in recipes like this. We have a pecan at this house, but naughty squirrels ate all the nuts before they even got ripe.

A brekkie of granola may not be as satisfying as porridge, but sometimes you need to give the husband something a little sweet to keep him happy (and to thank him for being such a great guy). Plus the house smelled like oatmeal cookies for hours afterward - you can't beat that!

Do you have a favorite granola recipe?

Rapadura - a Natural Sweetener

Man is it ever gross outside. We may not be getting the "Snowmageddon" down here in Austin, but we're getting plenty of rain. It's stayed in the 30s all day and is just down right nasty out there. The chickens would like to go on strike if they had their way: poor things are positioned right over the back yard roof runoff. Blecht.

Anyhoo- thought i'd curl up with some warm tea and tell you about Rapadura.

I learned of it while reading Nourishing Traditions and planning the Lox recipe. The recipe called for Rapadura, a certain kind of cane sugar. As an fyi: it's no longer called rapadura in the stores, the company (Rapunzel) changed the name to "organic whole cane sugar," in case you're looking for it.
Apparently, folks with low tolerance to sugar, like myself (headaches, highs, lows, depression, tooth ache, you name it) can handle rapadura more easily. It is also made in a more sustainable fashion. See their fancy little illustration:

Jo Whitton over at quirky cooking posted this nice little description recently.  Tastewise, i find it to taste a bit like molasses, but not as potent. Kind of a blend of 'sugar in the raw' and molasses: kind of "brown" tasting, not overly sweet. I mixed it with some regular sugar and cinnamon and it makes a great cinnamon toast blend. It has a very good taste combo with the salmon, i'll be using it in my next grilled salmon marinade with soy sauce and garlic (you'll have to wait for it to stop raining to get me out on the grill, haha). Also nice sprinkled on oatmeal. I don't find it to be quite sweet enough to replace my (very dirty habit/addiction to) sweet-n-low, i'm trying agave nectar for that use. I might grow some stevia plant this year too - dry that and sprinkle into my tea: might work. I don't like the idea of stevia powder as it must be processed an awful lot.

The benefits of rapadura come from the very minimal processing of the sugar cane. Most other sugars are separated - white and molasses, then turned into various things and shoved back together. Rapadura is never separated and thus has greater nutritional value (2% Vitamin C, 11% Iron per teaspoon). I also like that they compost the cane stalks - a nice touch.

It's still sugar. You still shouldn't over do it. But at least it's a 'whole' sugar and not some stripped down white stuff.

What's your favorite sweetener?

Quinoa Stuffed Bell Peppers with Turmeric, Raisons and Tofu

Wow.
Making this dish, though relatively easy, made me feel like one of those circus performers who balances the spinning plates on long sticks... But really it was pretty easy and forgiving as all get out. We both loved this dish, and were happily surprised and pleased with my experimental venturing into flavors/ingredients that don't normally find their way into Miranda's kitchen.
This recipe uses a pan, a small pot, and a baking tray - but the extra dishes are worth the result.

Ingredients:

• 7 Golden Bell Peppers (mine are homegrown and rather small- you could probably serve 2 regular sized bell peppers a person instead)
• 1 Habanero, roasted with the bells
• 1/4 cup Golden Raisins, chopped
• 2-3 Cloves Garlic
• Half a block of Tofu, diced into small cubes
• 1/4 medium sweet onion, finely diced
  
• 1 cup Quinoa cooked in 2 cups Veg Broth
• Pinches: Cumin, Curry, Cardamom, Pepper
• 1/8 - 1/4 Tsp Turmeric
• Generous Salt
• 1 Tsp freshly chopped Cilantro
• Splash Mirin (rice wine, or sweet white wine)
  

Chop all ingredients first to be ready to toss in here and there as needed.

Prepare the Bells by removing the tops (set aside for serving) and seeds. Place upside down on a baking pan, drizzle with olive oil and bake in toaster oven on the convection setting at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes, turning the pan halfway through. When softened and browned to your satisfaction turn off oven and allow Bells to cool slightly, in oven or on counter. Roast the habanero with the Bells for a while, then chop up and add to the sauteing onions etc.

While you are preparing the bells set 2 cups veg stock and cup quinoa to boil. Cover and turn down to simmer for about 15, 20 minutes. When done, simply stir up a bit, recover and turn off heat. Add the raisins at this point. The quinoa is perfectly happy to wait for you to finish everything else.

While the quinoa is simmering and Bells are roasting - Saute Garlic, Onions, and Tofu (and habanero) in a pan over medium/high heat. Add all spices except the cilantro. Saute uncovered, stirring often until onions get soft. Once onions are completely softened, add a splash of mirin and cover and turn heat to low. This mixture will wait until you are ready for it.

When all the members of this ensemble are ready to your satisfaction, preheat the oven back to 375. Stir the Quinoa into the tofu/onion mixture and add the cilantro. Taste and add generous amount of salt as needed.

Position the peppers hollow side up, you may have to trim the bottom a bit, or squish down to create a flatter bottom. Stuff the peppers with the Quinoa mixture, sprinkle a little salt on top and place the pepper tops to create little lidded pepper receptacles.
Place peppers back in oven - be sure the rack is low enough to facilitate the taller peppers with their tops, and heat up until sizzling and lids have softened, about 3 minutes.

Carefully remove from oven and place the peppers on plates. You can also serve the extra filling, if any to the side. These could also be a side dish to a meat entree, perhaps a nice glazed chicken breast - but the Quinoa is super high in protein and perfectly acceptable for a light, vegetarian main course.

Quite pretty, if i do say so myself. The garlicy salty tastes combined and accented the sweetness of the peppers and the raisins in a really nicely balanced way. The habanero adds a nice bite of heat here and there, but also its unique flavor goes along super well with the turmeric. Don't be put off by the complicated sounding nature of juggling those 3 components - they really all are happy to wait until you're ready to put them all back together and reheat.

Might be pretty to serve with some sauteed or fresh cherry tomatoes to add a little red to the otherwise yellowy hue.