March 2005 Archives

Palm oil is clearly the best solution. It's versatile. It's healthy, since saturated fats are better than trans fats. The cost, as well, is better.

I think it is a good choice. I use palm oil myself. Use it anywhere you would use shortening, and eliminate the trans fats!

Visit Gernot Katzer's Spice Pages for a very informative site on spices around the world. It includes the spice names in many different languages as well as lots of other information on the various spices.

(I found this at TulipGirl's blog.)

Edit: Revised to include link in body. Link was in the title on Blogger.

I just planted some more seeds (indoors): Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, Italian flat leaf parsley, and curled parsley. I'll be starting more seeds next weekend.

Most of the tomatoes are up. The ones that are up are: Abraham Lincoln, Black Cherry, Black from Tula, Black Zebra, Blondkopfchen, Brandywine, Ghost Cherry, Gold Medal, Green Zebra, Jaune Flammé, Large Red Cherry, Matt's Wild Cherry, Pineapple, Purple Russian, Stupice, and White Wonder. Dr. Lyle, Louisiana Pink, Patti's Italian Paste, Persimmon, and Pink Ping Pong are not up yet. Hopefully they will be up in a few days. The Rosa Bianca eggplant is up, but the Long Purple eggplant is not. One snapdragon has come up so far. Maybe those seeds were too old.

Look for peppers and various herbs next week.

I made some Buffalo Wings last night. Simple to do if you have a deep fryer. Heat the oil to 350°F. (I use organic palm oil for frying.) Cut the wings into 3 pieces by cutting at the joints (this takes a bit of practice to get between the bones). Discard the wing tips (or save them for soup stock). Fry the wing pieces for 10-12 minutes. Drain and toss with wing sauce. I use Anchor Bar Wing Sauce. The "Hotter" and "Suicidal" sauces are dairy-free. The "Original" sauce contains margarine, so I don't use that one. Some grocery stores carry these sauces. In the Twin Cities area (Minneapolis/St. Paul), I have found the sauce at Cub Foods.

You could also use your favorite hot sauce, or use barbecue sauce instead. Once the wings are done, heat the oil up to 375°F for some fries!

I planted tomato seeds and eggplant seeds yesterday. This is 9 weeks before the "last frost" date here (using May 23). They should germinate in a week or two. In about 2 weeks I'll be starting other plants. Spring is getting closer!

I almost have all my seeds. I still need to buy some more squash seeds, but those don't get planted until it warms up, so no hurry on that.

I bought some seeds at local stores, but most of them came from two mail-order sources: TomatoFest and Heirloom Seeds. Prompt shipping on both, but TomatoFest's shipping charge seems a little high, especially since they put the seeds in an envelope and mailed them with 60 cents postage. Heirloom Seeds had lower shipping charges and packaged the seeds in a padded envelope. The seeds are cheaper at Heirloom Seeds, too, but that is mainly because most of their seeds are not certified organic, while TomatoFest sells only organic seeds. All seeds from both companies are open-pollinated (no F1 hybrids).

We ended up buying two varieties of sweet corn. One is white, and one is yellow. I'll try to keep them from crossing, and it should be easy to tell by the color of the kernels if they crossed or not. Hopefully, we will have a good crop of sweet corn this year, along with a huge crop of tomatoes.

Whole Foods opens new concept store in Austin, Texas. This store is 80,000 square feet, "which is broken up into enticing, food-centric lands, la Disney." Sounds interesting. If anyone reading this has been to the store, I'd appreciate any comments.

This recipe is originally from The Post Punk Kitchen, but I have modified it to be soy-free. The recipe is also dairy-free and egg-free (so it is vegan).

• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1 Tbsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp. ground allspice
• 1/8 tsp. ground cloves
• 1 cup pureed cooked pumpkin (fresh or from a can)
• 1/2 cup ricemilk or other dairy-free, soy-free "milk"
• 1/2 cup canola, sunflower, or safflower oil
• 2 Tbsp. molasses

Preheat oven to 400°F. Grease muffin pan. Mix dry ingredients together. Mix wet ingredients in separate bowl and add to dry ingredients. Stir to combine. Fill muffin pan and bake for 15-20 minutes for standard-sized muffins or 27-30 minutes for jumbo muffins. Muffins are done when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

This recipe makes 12 standard muffins or 6 jumbo muffins.

I'm not crazy about cloves, so I leave that out. Make sure you have canned pumkin, not canned pumpkin pie filling.

Enjoy!!

I made some popcorn last night, using the West Bend Stir Crazy Popcorn Popper as I always do. I use unrefined coconut oil, which gives the popcorn a flavor similar to movie theater popcorn (they usually use butter-flavored coconut oil). This popcorn popper has a stirring rod which keeps the popcorn from scorching on the bottom and also helps to get all of the kernels popped. I usually end up with very few unpopped kernels. After the popping is done, unplug the unit, put the cap on the top of the cover, and flip the whole thing over. The cover is now the bowl! Add some salt and enjoy! If you want butter on your popcorn, you can place it on the top of the popper while the corn is popping, and it will melt and drip down onto the popcorn. We enjoy it with just coconut oil and salt!

If you can't find the coconut oil, check your local natural food store or health food store. You can also order it through Amazon.com: Oil, Coconut, Unrefined, Org., 14 oz.

Last night, I made black-eyed peas in the pressure cooker. Quick and easy. Black-eyed peas do not need to be soaked, and they cook in about 10 minutes in the pressure cooker (once the pressure cooker has reached full pressure). They also stay whole, so you don't end up with mush.

Basic instructions: Sort and rinse black-eyed peas. Put in pressure cooker and cover with water. Bring to high pressure and cook for 10-11 minutes. Remove from heat and let pressure drop naturally for a few minutes to finish cooking. Do not add salt before cooking, as this may toughen the skins. You may add other seasonings and vegetables such as onions and peppers. Tomatoes should be avoided, as they can toughen the skins of the black-eyed peas. Tomatoes and salt can be added after the black-eyed peas are finished cooking.

Lorna Sass has a couple of recipes in her cookbook Great Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure, along with more information on cooking black-eyed peas and other dried peas and beans. Pressure Perfect : Two Hour Taste in Twenty Minutes Using Your Pressure Cooker is another good book by Lorna Sass. This book includes many recipes for cooking meat in the pressure cooker, too.

I am busy planning my vegetable garden for planting this spring, after 4 years without a garden. I'm going to have a fairly large garden with a large variety of vegetables and many varieties of tomatoes. I'll try to keep updates posted here.

There is nothing else quite like vegetables fresh from your own garden. You can't get produce any fresher, and the flavor is wonderful. Your investment in seeds, plants, garden supplies, and time will pay off with large harvests. If you have never planted a garden before, or it has been a long time since you have, I encourage you to plant something this year. Maybe you don't have much space. You can still plant a couple of tomato plants, for example. Even if you live in an apartment, you probably have room for a small pot or two of herbs. (Fresh herbs have a much more complex flavor compared to the dried herbs!) So take some time and discover the joy of growing your own food this year!