Oregano

When we first planted our herb garden, I found a little potted greek oregano at our local indie nursery. It was astonishingly fragrant and I figured a greek variety might do well in our mediterranean climate. Little did I know.

That first year the mint moth caterpillars got to it. I had to hack the entire plant down to the ground and it didn't put out too much in the way of foliage. Year two, I went on the offensive, when I first noticed the moths I cut it way back and applied BT. The plant thrived. We used a bunch for fresh cooking and in early fall I cut the plant back and got 1/2 pint jar full of dried leaves. That was last fall.

This winter/spring the plant went WILD. In February I cut it back and got another 1/2 pint full of dried leaves. Now, the mint moths are on the loose, so it's time to cut it back again.... This morning I trimmed them back and got this:



Yes, that's a standard full sized colander! Holy cow... I have every expectation that I'll harvest that much again in both July and October now that the plant is established. Seriously, I'm going to be giving it away, take my oregano please! And it's the most intense oregano you've ever smelled or tasted.

Since I'm going to have dried oregano coming out of my ears one way or the other, I decided to use a little of it (like 1/3 cup chopped) to make an infused olive oil. We also had some fresh lemons from a neighbor, so I used the zest from those as well. Doesn't look that pretty, but I have a feeling it's going to taste completely amazing.



(Yes, I'm aware that there's some small chance that infused oils can harbor botulism. But the risk is primaraly from root herbs like garlic, not from leafy ones like oregano. I'll probably refrigerate it after a few days anyway, just to be safe.)

Wicked

My birthday is on Monday, and for my party this weekend, I'm cooking up something very, very wicked. A cherpumple!

Yeah, I know, it's terrible. For godssake, the thing has been featured on this is why you're fat! It's been described as a "stunt dessert" and the dessert equivalent of a turducken. As much as I'm all about healthy food... I also love making crazy "stunt" food. I've made a turducken twice before, and frankly, the cherpumple looks 1000 times easier. So I had to ramp up the difficulty a bit...

Instead of store bought pies, boxed mix and tubs of frosting, I'm doing it all from scratch. No corn syrup, no hydrogenated oils... just a pile of sugar, white flour, butter, eggs & cream cheese. Oh and a little bit of apples & pumpkin.

I'm really only making a semi-cherpumple, 2 layers (apple & pumpkin) because I'm a little worried about the stability of a 3 layer. Structural stability is my big concern overall... I'm using a sturdier pie crust than my mom's traditional recipe (the cream cheese pie crust from Mad Hungry again), using circles of parchment paper in the bottom of the pie pans and I'm arranging the apple pie to be fairly flat and stable.

For the cake, I've split a basic yellow cake recipe in half... the pumpkin pie will be in a standard yellow cake, while the apple pie will be in a spice cake. That took a bit of tricky math to split the dry ingredients, but at least the recipe called for an even number of eggs.

And I'm going to punk out on the frosting... I asked my mom to make her 7 minute icing. I'm a little concerned it will not be as stable as a cream cheese initially, but it does firm up into more of a merengue. My cream cheese frosting recipe is just too darn messy to make.

All of that and frankly... it's still way less work than a turducken. Deboning the birds was just a total pain.

I'm back... pop, pop, pop!

I'm back and it's canning time!

Last year we had a bumper crop of jalapenos, so I tried making pickled jalapeno rings and jalapeno jelly. The jelly didn't go over so great (turned out fine, but we don't really eat that much sugary stuff around here), but the pickled jalapenos were a smash hit! A friend of ours, who's a connoisseur of all things hot and spicy, tasted one and exclaimed "WOW... these have terroir!" And they really do, I don't usually like taco bar pickled jalapenos, but these are quite tasty.

First things first, even if you're ultimately going to use another recipe, you'll want to check out the instructions from the National Center for Home Food Preservation. Rule #1 of canning, either read the Ball Blue Book, or NCHFP for the food you're planning to can. And do a quick review of the basics for hot water bath canning before you start.

That being said, I think their recipe is too fussy. I get firm pickled peppers without using pickling lime. I don't like using salt for a few reasons, partially it's healthier, but partially it's because these are often served alongside salty foods like nachos, carne asada and salsa and I think they're more refreshing unsalted.

Instead, I use a variation on this Pepper Fool recipe. It's pretty simple, herbs, peppers and vinegar. No need for anything fancy, full strength vinegar is acidic enough to take care of the Big Bad Botulism. I slice the jalapenos into rings, use sprigs of strong greek oregano straight from the garden, and double up the garlic. Terroir? Yeah, I think we've got that!

Today is actually my second round of jalapeno pickling this year... I did 5 half pints earlier in the season. Today I processed a full pound and a half (48 chiles) into 3 full pint jars! And believe it or not, we still have chiles on the plants!!! :-o What can I say? Chiles and eggplants just love our microclimate.

Jalapenos ready for slicing & pickling:


Canning set up, left side is my water bath canner, back right is a saucepan full of vinegar, front right is a saucepan of hot water for the lids:


Finished pints of peppers:


This little lady was pickled all by herself (like the oddities in science class). I didn't think such a modest girl would be comfortable mixing it up with the other hotties.

The joys of a kitchen scale

IMG_6561
Originally uploaded by thatgirljj

My kitchen scale is by far my favorite tool in the kitchen. I first got it to measure portion sizes, you know, figuring out what a 4oz piece of chicken really looks like, instead of going by restaurant portions. But it's oh so much more useful than that, especially for baking. Take the chicken pocket pies I made for dinner tonight.

When I went to the store on Sunday, I thought to myself "Oh, I have enough butter for the piecrust," then of course when I looked today, I had less butter than I thought. Poop. If you're new to baking, here's a tip. When you're cooking you can eyeball it, when you're baking, you need to measure properly or it will be a disaster. Thankfully, I had a substitute, I've been using coconut oil for pan frying lately (it's very stable at higher heats), and I knew that as a saturated fat, I could substitute it for a small amount of the butter in the pie crust. Time to pull out the trusty kitchen scale... 8 tablespoons butter should be 4oz, I had about 3.2oz, I just scooped some coconut oil in for the rest, and popped it in the food processor. Man, I LOVE making pie crust in the food processor, it's so much easier than by hand.

BTW: The pies in question were from the totally amazing cookbook Mad Hungry: Feeding Men and Boys. There's only 4 in the picture because the others went in the freezer for the Bearded One's lunches. Beats the pants off a hot pocket, I'll tell you that much, they were pretty damn tasty.