Girl Canned Peaches

This is what happened yesterday while I was sick. I started out canning peaches on my own with the assistance of my 12 year old daughter. I thought I had some indigestion, but that shortly turned into the full fledged stomach flu. I hated to do it, but the peaches needed to be canned, and I was wiped out sick with zero energy and frequent trips to a little room around the corner, so I asked my daughter if she could take on the challenge of 60 pounds of big round Rosa peaches. She was a little scared, but I lay down nearby, worthless, except for my brain. My 9 year old son came in and started washing peaches and the peeling them after they were blanched. My daughter filled jars and loaded them in the canner. She did great! I'm so proud of her! She learned she can do more things then she ever dreamed, turning out thirty-one quart jars of golden bounty.

And I cleaned up the sticky kitchen this morning.

Garden Produce

What have we been eating this summer? Garden produce! This morning I picked:
- orange beets
- celery
- eggplant
- cucumbers
- tomatoes
- zucchini
-okra
- and blackberries, they're big ones, bigger then my thumb!


I have to tell you about the blackberries. The plant came with the garden when we purchased this house several years, but it has never done well. The berries have usually dried out before they were ripe. The ones I tasted weren't that great. Early this spring I told my husband that it was probably time we pulled out that plant, as it seemed to be just a space user. Well, the plant must have heard me because this year there are many huge, juicy berries. I've already put 1.5 quarts in the freezer and there are many more waiting to ripen. There was more snow last winter and more rain this summer and that seems to have made the difference. What a treat! Those berries are about 1 inch wide and 1.5 inches long.

Today for lunch I made a cucumber salad, with fresh cucumbers. And then I made potato okra curry with the fresh okra. The eggplant is going to turn into cheeseless eggplant parmasian. I'll try to come through with recipes soon. Meanwhile eat all the fresh produce you can get your hands on. There is nothing like it. I recommend my Tomato Cucumber Recipe highly, if you've got tomatoes. As always, it's gluten and dairy free, and full of nutrition.

Simple Ranch Dressing

I thought I should post my simple recipe for a vegan, msg-free Ranch Dressing. It is popular at potlucks. I don't think most people know that their not eating something homemade, without Vegenaise or something like that.

Simple Ranch Dressing
by Barbara Frohne
www.wildflowermorningrecipes.blogspot.com

1 cup raw, unsalted cashews
1 cup water
juice from one fresh lime or 1/2 of a fresh lemon
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder

Blend until very smooth.

Once smooth add and mix quickly
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried dill weed

Place in a little dish and serve with a yummy green salad or on potatoes or on beans.

Cauliflower Recipe Request

We are working our way through the cruciferous vegetables. Last night I had two heads of cauliflower which I wanted to experiment with in two different ways, hoping to find a great new recipe for my family to enjoy. I like an Indian style cauliflower curry with cashews, but in spite of what you might think about my daughter, she doesn't. I made roasted cauliflower with Indian spices, and she liked it, but I wasn't impressed. And I made a raw cauliflower salad with the cauliflower processed in the food processor until it resembles white rice, and then I added some lemon and other spices and herbs and green peas. It was supposed to resemble a raw fried rice. All of us thought the idea had some potential, but we didn't like the results. There was something wrong with the flavor combinations.So, I'm appealing to you, my dear readers, for recipe containing mainly cauliflower that might appeal to me whole family. Please remember that it needs to be vegan, gluten-free, msg-free, and low fat. Email the recipe to me (click on "About Me" in the left column to find the email address) and I'll get the family to vote on which one we should try first. If it is a success, I'll share it with everyone on this blog. If it is already on your blog, point me to the link, and if we like it, I'll send everyone to your blog. If we try more then one recipe, and like them, we will give each one the proper credit.

Thank you for your assistance in this venture to learn to love all kinds of cruciferous vegetables.

Roasted Brussel Sprouts

I have noticed that Brussel sprouts are not a popular vegetable among most people. When I talk to friends I have noticed that there are people that like Brussel sprouts, and that usually these people learned to enjoy them when they were children. What made them like them? I think it could be the attitude of their mother and father toward these cute "baby cabbages." My mother taught me that Brussel sprouts were one of the most fun cabbages, and they were made just for children, because they are like "baby cabbages." And who doesn't like babies? The other thing could be the way they were prepared. My mom usually steamed ours until they were soft and easy to eat.

I have tried using the pre-frozen ones you find at the store, and though I patiently gave them several tries, I could never make them have a pleasant texture. If a person thought that they didn't like brussel sprouts, but had only tried to eat ones that were once frozen, they would not have an accurate impression of what they really are like, and I can totally understand why they don't like them.

I usually buy them fresh, looking for the smallest ones, because they are most tender and easy to eat. Though the big ones can also be quite pleasant cut in half with a little salt sprinkled on each side.

My newest discovery in the preparation of brussel sprouts is that they are even more wonderful roasted. And even though my husband and I have very good opionions of brussel sprouts, but daughter not yet been convinced until I served roasted brussel sprouts.

Here is how to make them.

Roasted Brussel Sprouts
Barbara Frohne
www.wildflowermorningrecipes.blogspot.com

Preheat the oven to around 400 degrees. Wash an adaquate amount of fresh brussel sprouts. Trim off a tiny bit of the stem end, and then cut each sprout in quarters, through the stem. Place them on a baking sheet, and if you desire add some slivered onion and thinly sliced garlic. The next part is optional, but if you wish, take a tiny bit of grapeseed or olive oil, about a teaspoon or more depending on how many vegetables you have on the tray, and rub that oil around until everything is coated. Place the baking tray in the oven and cook until they are soft and starting to brown. It might take 15 - 20 minutes. Stir them a couple times. Pull them out and serve, allowing them to cool just a little bit before placing one in your mouth. They can really burn straight out of the oven. You can sprinkle them with salt before serving, or allow each person to put on just what they need. In my opinion, they taste great even without salt, but others in the family need a little.

If you really like roasted garlic, now is a good time to place a whole head of garlic on your baking tray and let it cooked with the vegetables. Once out of the oven, you can let it cool, and use right away or at a later meal.

Gingered Napa Cabbage Salad

I think I've been in a cooking slump caused by spring vacation and a lot of busy-ness. But now I'm getting back on track.

I recently saw a report on some research about cruciferous vegetables and cancer rates. It said that when people increased their amount of unrefined fruits and vegetables that they ate by 20% that their cancer rate went down by 20%. But if for people who increased their intake of cruciferous vegetables by 20% the rate of cancer went down by 40%! Wow!

What are cruciferous vegetables? They are the ones from the cabbage family, including the cabbages of course, broccoli, califlower, turnips, brusselsprouts, radishes, kale, arugula, bok choy, collards, mustard greens, rutabaga, watercress, diakon and more. The next time I went to the store I looked around at all these powerful veggies and realized that I didn't put many of them in my cart. So, now I am trying to make sure we have one every day, and that it isn't the same one. We are branching out and trying new ones and new recipes for the more familiar ones.

What did we eat today? Gingered Napa Cabbage Salad. It was one I made up as I made it, but my daughter said it was really, really good. I know, she doesn't have average taste buds, but this was a new vegetable for her as for my son. What did he say? He was eagerly ate the remains in the salad bowl and asked for more.

Here is how to make it:

Gingered Napa Cabbage Salad
By Barbara Frohne
wildflowermorningrecipes.blogspot.com

1 small to medium head of Napa Cabbage
1 inch knob of fresh ginger, peeled
juice of one fresh lime
1/3 cup water
1/4 cup old fashioned peanut butter
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 TBSP honey

With a large knife, finely slice the napa cabbage into slivers. Place the cabbage into a large salad bowl.

Place the remaining ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. Pour over the cabbage and mix.

Divide into serving bowls. Serves 3 to 10 people. My two kids and I ate it all ourselves today.

Lemon Drop Smoothie

If I don't make a definite effort to keep getting greens into my body every day, it is easy to forget. There are lots of good foods which are fine to eat, but they don't have as many important nutrients as greens. I can really feel it in my body when I eat more greens. And if I start forgetting, I start to suffer. Before I started eating them all the time, I really didn't know how much they could help a person. But now I know they are the most important thing a person could eat.

So, to help us all start eating greens more, I'm going to post a favorite green recipe. It may look green, but it is a fresh vibrant green. And it doesn't taste green at all. My husband has named it "Lemon Drop Smoothie". Because that is what it tastes like.

Lemon Drop Smoothie

2 - 3 large Fuji apples or other sweet apples, washed, cored, cut in large chunks
1 - 2 cups of cold water
1 large handful of washed fresh parsley
3 - 8 leaves of romaine or kale or other dark greens
1/4 of a washed lemon, flesh and skin, minus the seeds (The skin is important. It is what makes it taste like a lemon drop. It is full of nutrients.)

Place it all in your blender jar and whiz it until it is smooth. A Vita Mix can get away with less water. A regular blender will need more water, and it will help if the apples and lemon is cut in smaller pieces. Pour into elegant glasses and enjoy the best breakfast/lunch/dinner/snack you could ever drink. Serves 4

Gluten Free Focaccia - Recipe Review

I am excited to tell about a recipe I tried last night, Gluten Free Focaccia Bread with Tomatoes and Garlic. I found the gluten free blog called Karina's Kitchen. It is so good that we have another loaf in the oven right now. This yummy bread is gluten free, dairy free, egg free, and soy free. It also contains whole grain flours. That is a pretty steep challenge for bread, but with this excellent recipe it is a success.

I did a few things differently, and learned a lesson when making the bread which I will tell you about, and hopefully save you a little frustration.

First of all, don't add extra water to the recipe, even if you think it needs it. It make the bread take longer to bake. After the bread had bake an extra 10 minutes and still wasn't done, I took the bread out and cut it into wedges and then put them on a cookie sheet, and then back to the oven. They were nicely done in another 10 - 15 minutes. And the results were very delicious.

Second, the tomatoes that were thinly sliced were better then the ones slice thick.

Third, I didn't have any millet flour or potato starch. So I subbed in some potato flour, some corn flour a little garfava flour, and some more sorghum flour, and the flour combination worked just fine. It seems that brown rice flour or teff would work just fine too, if that is what you have on hand.

Also, I used an Italian herb mix instead of the basil and thyme in the recipe. And I sprinkled the Italian seasoning on top of the bread too before putting it in the oven.

If you are wishing for special gluten free breads, this one is likely to satisfy.

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Follow up note - 4/28/09

I have made the bread several times since then, and have discovered that it works best when you follow the recipe as close as possible. The potato starch and millet flour are very important.
Substitute only if you have to and you will have better results.

Also, the tomatoes taste yummy baked on the bread, but make the bread soggy. You may wish to add them at the end, or not at all.

Whole Life Nutrition

I am excited to let my readers know that I have found an excellent gluten free blog that features whole foods called Whole Life Nutrition. The dad of the family is a nutritionalist who discovered that he is gluten intolerant during a cleanse. They have many recipes that I am eager to try. The newest one is for Banana Teff Pancakes. Go to www.glutenfreewholefoods.blogspot.com and I also put it over on the side.

About My Waffle Recipe

Note to anyone who has copied down my waffle recipe:

I have removed the baking powder from the recipe, because it is not necessary. They turn out just fine without it. Your waffles will run over the edge if you use the baking powder. You will like the waffles better without the baking powder.