Strawberry Fields, er Sorbet Forever

Now, I'm definitely blaming my good friend Rosie Hawthorne for this one. After reading her blog post about making home made ice cream, I just had to dig out my ice cream maker and run to the store for the fixin's for strawberry sorbet. Well, first of all, I had to find a new recipe for strawberry sorbet, because we had decided that the recipe I had made last year to be entirely too sweet for our tastes. Finally I found this one and decide to try it. Now I could run off to the grocery store.

First I make the simple syrup: 1 cup sugar in 2 cups water. Bring to a boil and heat for 5 minutes. Take off the heat and set aside.

These are the rest of the ingredients: lemons, an orange and 1 quart fresh strawberries.

Juice the lemons and the orange so that you have 1/3 cup each of lemon and orange juice.

Clean and cut the strawberries.

In a food processor or blender, puree the strawberries until smooth.

I chose to do this extra step in order to remove many of the seeds from the strawberries. Use a rounded spoon, such as a serving ladle to press the puree through a sieve. Remember to wipe the outside of the sieve with a spatula to get all the fruity goodness.

This is a step that takes a bit of patience and muscle, but the results will be worth it.

Back to the simple syrup: add the lemon and orange juices.

Then add the strained strawberry puree.

Mix and place in the refrigerator to cool for 2 hours.

Meanwhile, the ice cream maker's freezer bowl has been in the freezer for the past 24 hours.

Now, despite what some Food Network hosts may tell you, do not pour anything into the freezer bowl until after you have turned the machine on. Doing otherwise may damage the machine.

After about 1/2 hour, the sorbet is finished.

It is at a soft-serve consistency right now. If you prefer your sorbet to be firmer, cover and place in the freezer for an hour or so.

Dessert is served! And this recipe is a keeper. The sweetness of the strawberries is nicely tempered by the addition of the citrus juices, rounding out the flavors of the sorbet. I win!

Been Beading Again

A few days ago I let you in on one of the reasons that I had not been blogging much recently. Well, I've been doing it again.

Inspired by my earlier efforts at making kit jewelry, I took the next step: doing my own piece. For this first time I used the directions from one of the kits, but purchased a pendant and beads in a different color pattern. Baby steps here, folks.

I started with the pendant, because it would be easier to match the beads to that rather than the other way around. As I earlier reported, I found a faceted piece of labradorite, which is a type of feldspar. This particular stone is mostly green with a shock of blues when the light hits it just the right way. To coordinate, I picked three different seed beads: dark green iris, brown iris and black opaque. I also picked out a package of 6mm round black plastic beads. I purchased a package of 8 mm gold colored jump rings for the pendant (only one was needed). Also needed, but already on hand was beading cord, a beading needle, bead clamshell tips, and toggle clasps. Interestingly enough, it was more expensive (about $15, even on sale) to purchase the individual items, rather than the kits ($10 each or $5 each on sale when I got them).

I found it very useful to tape the end of the necklace to a yardstick and then to mark the stopping point with a post-it flag that was also taped down. This kept the project secure while I worked. As the 6mm beads were to be randomly spaced, I found it very useful to place scotch tape on the bottom of the yardstick, with an edge sticking out and up. The tape then held the beads for each string in the position I wanted them. The rest is detailed in the kit directions.

My "work space". Note the tape at the end of the yardstick that holds down the end of the project, the tape that holds the bead and the post-it flag that marks the end of the project.

I used the same directions from one of the kits. Click on the picture to see my notation. The devil is in the details.

And the results of several hours of beading. As you can see, I made a matching bracelet.

I'm pleased. And I even remembered the end bead this time.

Do you see how the light captures the colors?

This has been fun, but I think I'll take a break from beading for a little bit.

Beans, Take Four

Another day, another way to cook some of my seemingly never-ending supply of home-grown green beans. My husband's friend also gave us some lovely potatoes from his garden, so we'll incorporate those in tonight's dish too.

Here we have the home-grown potatoes, some home-grown green beans, a store-bought shallot and two slices of bacon.

First I trimmed the ends of the beans and blanched them as usual.

Meanwhile, I cleaned the potatoes and cut them in bite size pieces before placing them in water to prevent discoloration.

Drain the potatoes and green beans and pat dry before tossing with the bacon and 1/2 of a shallot that has been sliced lengthwise.

Add kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper. I also tossed in the extra sprig of fresh rosemary and a couple of thyme stems that were left over from the pork loin that I was also making for tonight's dinner.

After about an hour in a 350 degree oven, the potatoes and green beans are ready to serve. Hmm, some of the green beans were more well-done than others. Note to self: should have turned the pan.

Oh well, it was still good and it was a nice combination. In fact, my darling daughter liked it so much that she claimed the remainder of the dish for herself.

I can't wait for... that watermelon fizz. Er, no. That's not it. I can't wait to see what kinds of green bean dishes Rosie Hawthorne comes up with for me.

Marilyn and the Beanstalk

A friend of my husband recently gave us a sack of home grown green beans. A sack of green beans that weighs about three or four pounds. Now, how can just the three of us eat these lovely green beans before 1) they go bad and 2) we get sick of eating green beans?

When I told my darling daughter that I needed to find some more recipes for making green beans, she asked why as she loves our usual method. As good as that recipe is, I am thinking we need just a bit more variety than that.

With that thought in mind, I present you with two variations.


Bean dish number one:

Aren't these home grown green beans beautiful? I trimmed the stem ends.

Then cut the beans in half for this particular dish.

A quick blanch and the beans are spread out to dry for an hour or so.

I pulled out this pre-made batter mix and opted to add water rather than beer for the liquid.

A bit more water and we have a quick tempura batter for the beans.

Heat your oil to 350 degrees and keep an eye on it. The temperature of the oil will go down as the beans hit the oil. I found that by the time the temperature began to rise again, the beans were ready to be pulled out and drained.

I had some leftover batter, so I fried that too. Darling daughter was happy with her mom.

These were good. Next time I will skip the blanching part as the water that was still trapped in the beans made the oil splatter something awful. Live and learn.

And now on to the rest of our lunch.

One of the things I miss most after learning that I am allergic to chicken is going to my favorite Chinese restaurant. But as most of the menu is chicken, I have found it to be a wholly unsatisfying experience to eat only the things I can safely have while staring miserably at all of my formerly favorite dishes. This has left me with the task of finding decent recipes that I can make at home, substituting either turkey or pork for the chicken.

I found a recipe for Two-Onion Pork Shreds that sounded similar to Pepper Chicken, so we will try this.

My local grocery store only had bone-in thinly sliced pork chops, so I started with that.

I trimmed off the fat (and fried that up as a treat for the cat and the cook - nothing healthy about that!) and cut the meat away from the bone. I then sliced the meat into 1/4 inch wide strips.

On to the marinade: The recipe called for 1/2 teaspoon Szechwan peppercorns, but as that particular ingredient was missing from my local grocery store, I substituted coarsly ground black pepper. Per instructions, I carefully toasted the pepper over medium low heat until the aroma of pepper filled the air. And it's not a bad aroma at that.

The marinade consists of:

1 teaspoon cornstarch

2 teaspoons soy sauce (I always use low sodium soy sauce)

2 teaspoons white wine (the recipe called for dry sherry, but that I have not gotten around to purchasing any for my pantry)

1 and 1/2 teaspoons canola oil

Mix together with the peppercorns and pour over the meat. Allow to sit for 30 minutes.

I grabbed three rather pathetic "green onions" from my garden along with the remainder of the vidallia onion I had in the fridge. As you can see, my "green onions" decided to skip that step and went immediately into the "let's form an onion bulb" step. They still taste good though, in case you were wondering.

And we've sliced the white onion into slivers while the greens of the onion were cut into two inch pieces.

Mise en place for the remainder of the dish: soy sauce, white wine, red wine vinegar, sugar, garlic, dark sesame oil and the marinated meat.

The sauce is mixed:

2 teaspoons soy sauce

2 teaspoons white wine

2 teaspoons red wine vinegar

1/2 teaspoon sugar

2 cloves garlic, minced

Heat some canola oil in a skillet and cook the pork over high heat until no longer pink.

This happens quickly, so don't walk away.

Add the white onion and cook for one minute.

Add the green onion tops and cook for another 30 seconds.

Add the sauce and cook for another 30 seconds. Finish with 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil and remove from heat.

And we have our finished dish.

It wasn't bad as is, but needs more pepper (or the right kind of pepper) for the dish to really sing. I will keep looking for a good recipe to replace my pepper chicken.

Bean dish number 2:

Again I am cooking for just two, but this time my husband is joining me in our evening repast.

I trimmed and then blanched some more green beans at the same time I was doing the beans for the earlier dish.

I decided to do spicy garlic green beans for dinner. In deference to my husband's mild tastes, I drastically reduced the amounts of sesame oil, garlic and red pepper flakes. Here we have sesame oil, garlic, red pepper flakes (mine need to be replaced as the flakes are more brown than red now) and green beans. Salt and pepper will season the dish later.

Heat a pan over medium-high heat and add 1/2 cup water and the beans. Heat until the water has evaporated.

I then added 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil, one garlic clove that was thinly sliced and 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes.

Continue to cook for another minute or so, being careful to not let the garlic burn.

These were good, but I greatly prefer to oven roast my green beans. Also, two green bean dishes in one day is a bit much. My husband seemed to enjoy the dish, even if he did pick around the garlic and red pepper flakes.

Alas, even after making several green bean dishes this past week, I still have quite a few sitting in that bag in my refrigerator.

Now, I find myself wondering: what would Rosie Hawthorne do?

Keeping Busy

They say that idle hands are the devil's workshop, so in an attempt keep out of trouble, I have taken up beading. I found some jewelry making kits at my local Hobby Lobby and purchased two as they were on sale for 50% off. That makes sense, right?

Not too shabby for my first attempt. The necklace took most of a day to make, while the bracelet and earrings went much faster.


And my second attempt. I have yet to make the earrings, but haven't decided if I want to deviate from the kit's design on those yet. I've already gotten compliments from strangers on my nice jewelry.

Well, this has been fun. I purchased a labradorite faceted pendant bead yesterday along with some coordinating beads so that I can make yet another necklace and matching bracelet and earrings. I could get into this.

After the Storm

An early evening storm rolled through this evening. After the rain stopped, I stepped out on to my back deck and watched as the clouds moved away to the south east.

If you click on this picture, you can see the fog rising in the hills behind our neighbor.

Remember, all of these clouds were to the south and south east of me. The pictures were taken at about 8:45 pm.

Now, besides a rainbow, what could be prettier after an evening rain?