Tapioca Pudding

Here's one of my favorite desserts out of Nourishing Traditions. I usually 1.5 the recipe, but here's the original measurements. I also change up the sweetener, usually using honey or maple syrup, and I rarely use the full amount, usually halving it. I think I've become accustomed to things tasting less sweet, so keep that in mind.

Tapioca Pudding

Serves 8

1 c. medium or small pearl tapioca

4 cups whole milk

3 eggs, separated, at room temperature

1/2 t. sea salt

3/4 c. Rapadura

grated rind of 1 lemon

pinch of sea salt

Soak tapioca in milk overnight in the refrigerator. In a separate bowl, blend egg yolks, salt, rapadura and lemon rind. Cook tapioca about 45 minutes in a double boiler over simmering water until very thick, stirring almost constantly with a whisk toward the end of thickening. (I don't have a double boiler that big, so I will either fit one of my smaller pots into a bigger pot with water in it, OR just use a pot straight on the stove-top but keep the temperature very low.) Add a spoonful of hot tapioca to egg yolk mixture and then add warmed egg yolk mixture to the tapioca. Cook about 5 minutes more over simmering water, stirring constantly. Beat egg whites with sea salt until softly stiff and fold into tapioca mixture. Serve well chilled.

Note: I grate the rind off my lemons whenever I use them, and keep the grated rind in the freezer for such a recipe as this!

Citrus Extract

We received a great book at Christmas called The Encyclopedia of Country Living, 10th ed. This book is "the original manual for living off the land and doing it yourself." 'Nough said.

One of the recipes in it was for making citrus extract. At the time that I started this project, I believe it was end of January, early February, and we had some oranges left from a bulk purchase made in December. And I thought, perfect! Between this recipe, and citrus vinegar, I'll be able to squeeze the life out of these oranges yet!

Citrus Extract (p. 382)

1. Peel away the fruit's outermost skin, called the zest. (There's a special tool for this at kitchen stores.) Don't use any of the white pith.
2. Fill a wide-mouthed bottle one-third of the way up with zest.
3. Pour in vodka for the other two-thirds. Soak 2 weeks, shaking twice daily.
4. Strain and bottle your extract.

My notes:

• On zesting your citrus--I have a shredder that has three different sizes of holes. I had been using the smallest zesting holes, which took me forever. An actual zesting tool probably would work better than my awkward stand, I'd guess. I zested a couple oranges a day, then had to stop and rest, and did a few more the next day, just refrigerating my zest in between. And I kept zesting until I had filled my jar 1/3 full. I think I used 10 oranges, maybe? Later, my husband informed me as he zested a lemon, that the next size up of holes worked much easier. Lesson learned!
• Citrus to use--I only used oranges, but you could probably use lemons and limes, too. I don't think I'd use grapefruit, as I'm guessing it's probably too bitter. But I could be wrong, I haven't tried it!
• I was not religious about shaking the bottle, and I only recently strained the zest off, and it's been nearly two months. It smells good, and I'm looking forward to using it in... something. I'll figure something out.
• You could probably save up zest for a long time. We juice lemons often to make our kefir soda, and we started washing the skins well then zesting the lemons and putting the zest in the freezer. Then, whenever a recipe calls for it, I can pull zest out of the freezer. Lemon zest really adds a lot of flavor, by the way!

Triplet Cookies, aka Sugarless Cookies

I'm going to sneak this post under the month of February. Motivation, where have you been?!

Finally going to share with you these awesome cookies. No flour, no sugar. The way it's sweetened is with overripe bananas and dried fruit, which is usually preserved with some amount of sugar. I don't even mind having these for breakfast... which is what happened today!

Oh, and a tip about buying bananas. We only buy them overripe, but have to ask for them as they are kept in the back room at our local grocery store. I ask for the "banana bread bananas" and get them for 19 cents/pound, instead of the 67 cents/pound for the all yellow bananas. And we usually prefer the cheaper bananas anyway because we don't mind a couple brown spots. They only keep green and perfectly yellow bananas on display. So there's a tip for the day!

Recipe from "Healthy Choices" cookbook, my comments/changes in parentheses.

Triplet Cookies (I can't quite figure out why they are named this... the only "three" thing in it is the 3 c. of rolled oats!)

• 2 c. mashed bananas (usually is about 4 overripe large bananas)
• 1/4 - 1/3 c. raisins, currants, or dates (I used currants on this batch because that's what I had)
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 3 c. rolled oats (For maximum nutrient absorption, it's best to soak the oats for at least 8 hours, preferably 12-24. I only got these soaked for about 10 hours, but any amount you can soak it will help make it more digestible! I mixed the oats with about 1/3 c. kefir, and 1/3 c. water. Or you could use 2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar and the rest water. For more discussion on the whole soaking of grains concept, you can visit here.)
• 1 Tbsp. ground flax seed (I grind this in our coffee grinder, which I cleaned out. But if you want a little extra buzz, just keep those leftover coffee grounds in! ha!)
• 1/4 c. unsweetened shredded coconut

Mix bananas, raisins, salt and vanilla together thoroughly. Add remaining ingredients and mix all together. Very easy. Place teaspoon sized balls (used cookie scoop) on parchment papered cookie sheet and bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 30 minutes or until done. Makes about 2 1/2 dozen.

Orange Vinegar

I found this link about making citrus vinegar by simply taking your leftover citrus rinds, putting them into a glass jar, and filling it up with white vinegar. In this jar is some de-zested lemon peels, and some grapefruit peels. My jar isn't quite full here.

Wait till the vinegar starts to smell like citrus, and pour out! Talk about easy! And getting the most out of your purchases!

I used it for adding to my wash machine for my diapers. I think it helped, but it's been hard to tell since we have an HE wash machine, and I've been battling with it to get my cloth diapers fully clean. But that's a post for another day!

Or the author of the site, Crest Cottage Creations, suggests diluting this citrus vinegar half and half with water, and putting it in a spray bottle to use with baking soda for cleaning. She says it's an excellent degreaser. If you haven't tried using vinegar and baking soda to clean with, I highly recommend it!

Simple things

From January 13, 2011. Andrew is making himself laugh. It's the simple things that can bring a smile to our faces.

It's usually about now when the winter seems to take forever, and spring can't come soon enough. We've had a couple warmer days of lower 30s and there's been some melting snow, but the temperatures will soon dip down into single digits.

So the simple things will have to make us happy for now. Simple toys and simple nourishing food.

Yes, I'm still cranking out the goodies... bread, noodles, crackers, pitas, a few cookies, cake, rolls, cornbread, soups, casseroles, meats, vegetables. We've been eating well out of our freezer this winter, and I am already thinking about what I want to go in my garden for this year.

I have some sugar free cookies that I want to post soon. But I really need to focus on some other projects that I've been wanting to do this whole winter, but haven't pushed myself to do... making a no-sew rag rug. If I ever complete that, I'll share photos!

I feel lost is I'm not making something in the kitchen. But part of me wonders if I don't busy myself in the kitchen so I don't have to focus on other things that I'm not so good at... like updating baby books. Ack.

Speaking of which, maybe I should go work on those.......

Judah/Andrew/family update

We need a post about the boys!

The last post about them was for Andrew's first birthday in October. And we're already nearing the 15 month mark (Jan 22). In between then and now, there was hunting in early November, and an early Christmas present from Ohio grandparents: a jeep!

Thanksgiving Day, 2010. At Great Grandma's.

Just before Christmas, my brother Tyler came to visit. He helped butcher chickens. We also went sledding on the only hill in the area, Bemis Hill, which is in a state forest. Boy was it cold out!... But what am I saying?! It's still cold out! I think the high today is supposed to be -6 degrees Fahrenheit!

Here, Judah just opened a present from Grandma Linda and Grandpa Allan... it's a Fishing Game! The picture is a little blurry... it was hard to keep Judah still.

Andrew likes to look at books.

Sledding...we all fit!

Andrew's expression at Tyler makes me laugh.

Judah likes helping me hang up clothes on our indoor clothesline.

We opened Christmas presents on the 23rd, as we had Christmas Eve service with our church on the 24th at our house. Judah got Star Wars underwear, pretty exciting.

Andrew wasn't nearly as excited about opening gifts as Judah was.

Andrew holding a book I got...hmm, is it any coincidence it's about stain removal? ;-)

Christmas Eve meal: Lutefisk, Lefse, Rommegrot, peas, mashed potatoes.

Christmas Day at Great Grandma's. After this we traveled to Iowa.

Then we arrived in Iowa on Saturday night. Next morning we opened gifts, went to church, then had a family gathering.

Andrew got a new bib!

Musical entertainment at Great Grandpa and Grandma Armbrecht's...

Then after a few days in Iowa, it was to time to start on our way back home, but not without a stop to Mankato!

And now we have mid-winter cabin fever.

Judah found Daddy's toy crossbow... he's pretty good! Andrew would run and get the balls.

He's not always happy, see?

Andrew is "flying Lutheran"... see the words on the plane by Grandpa Merseth?

And that should catch you up to now! We're all happy and healthy. The boys love going outside in the snow, although the bundling up and bundling down time usually takes longer than the actual outside time, since it's so cold! We are still enjoying our log cabin, though I need to be diligent about keeping wood in the stove, especially now that Jeff is at work during the day, and even putting in overtime. He's been leaving at 5am to get to Polaris by 5:30 to work until 3:30. It's a long day that leaves him exhausted. He's supposed to move to 2nd shift in a week or two. Oh, and we need to find another place to have church at, now that we can no longer use the Roseau Electric Cooperative. Until we find a place in Roseau, we'll be having church at our house. Never a dull moment!

Orange Cake recipe

We got some citrus in bulk back in December, and now we're hurrying to get it eaten up. So I was looking for ways to use up some oranges, and I came across this recipe in Nourishing Traditions, which calls for the juice and rind from two lemons and two oranges. While it was a little putsy to grate the rinds off four citrus (hey, a little physical activity never hurt anybody), the results were quite tasty. Waiting for this cake also takes patience. I

t took one day to soak the flour, letting the cake cool overnight, and then waiting another 24 hours (at least) to let the juice soak into the cake before it was ready to eat. But it was so wonderfully moist and had such a pleasant citrus taste.

Orange Cake

from Nourishing Traditions, my adaptations and comments in parentheses

2 1/2 c. freshly ground and sifted spelt, kamut or whole wheat flour (the flour I used wasn't freshly ground, but I get it from an organic mill in the area, and they grind flour fresh and then we keep in cold, so until I can afford a grain grinder, this will have to suffice)

1 c. piima cream or creme fraiche (I only had kefir, so that's what I used)

1 c. whole plain yoghurt (this I did have!)

1/2 c. water

1 c. butter, softened

1 1/4 c. Rapadura (This is the commercial name for dehydrated cane sugar juice. I don't have that brand name, but I did use some organic cane sugar, processed in the same manner. And actually, I only used 1 c. I usually go on the skimpy side of sweeteners, because I don't like things too sweet.)

2 eggs (from our chickens, of course!)

1 t. baking soda

1/2 t. sea salt

1 t. vanilla extract

grated rind of 2 oranges and 2 lemons (if these aren't organic, make sure you scrub the waxy coating off the rind. Yuck.)

1 c. crispy pecans, finely chopped (I didn't have any, so I used finely chopped crispy cashews. I put them in my food processor and grated them just long enough to powder them. Any longer would've made them into a nut butter!)

juice of 2 oranges and 2 lemons

1/4 c. of whey (I made some by straining some kefir.)

1/2 c. raw honey (I only used 1/4 c.)

1/4 c. of brandy or dry sherry (this is optional, and I didn't use it because I didn't have any)

This delicious cake incorporates the principles of both lacto-fermentation and enzyme nutrition. The flour is soaked in cultured cream and yoghurt and, after cooking, the cake is soaked for another day or so in a mixture of oranges juice, lemon juice, raw honey, whey and brandy or sherry. This imparts enzymes to the cake along with flavor and moistness.

Mix flour with yoghurt, cultured cream and water. Cover and leave in a a warm place for 12 to 24 hours. (I started the soaking process mid-afternoon on Day 1.)

(Evening of Day 2.) Cream butter with Rapadura and eggs. Beat in baking soda, salt, vanilla and grated rind. Gradually incorporate the soaked flour and fold in the nuts. Pour batter into a well-buttered and floured fluted bundt pan or angel food cake pan. (I used an angel food cake pan.) Bake at 300 degrees for 1 1/2 hours or more, or until toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool. (overnight)

(Midmorning of Day 3.) Place lemon juice, orange juice, honey, whey and optional sherry or brandy in a container and set in simmering water until honey is dissolved. Slowly pour this mixture over the cake until the liquid is absorbed. Cover with a towel and leave at room temperature for 1 or 2 days. (Cake will look like it's swimming in liquid, that's okay, it will soak in eventually.)

(Noon of Day 4, liquid had soaked in and I was ready to eat!) To serve, loosen sides with a knife. Turn over onto a serving plate and tap pan until cake falls out.

This cake was moist and tasty, though the 3-year-old didn't seem to like it... he said it was "tough." I wonder if he got a piece of nut that he wasn't expecting. From the picture, you may be tempted to frost the cake, but I'd say resist the temptation, it doesn't need it! Also, I was glad that I skimped on the sweetener, I liked it, and so did my husband. If you are used to sweeter things, you may want to use the full amount.