Crust-less Pumpkin Pie in the Crock Pot

I couldn't resist kicking October off with a little pumpkin-y treat.  I don't know if it's suddenly seeing all the gourds and pumpkins at the farmer's market, or just the general crispness in the air, but I always start getting into a spicy, pumpkin-ish mood right about October 1st.

I've made this crust-less pumpkin pie before in the crock pot, and have gleaned a few "tricks" to apply to this "treat". 

Trick #1  Grease that crock pot beforehand, or you'll be soaking it all night.

Trick #2  I like to place paper towels under the lid to avoid making the pie all soggy from the condensation--that can be applied to all manner of "baking" in the crock pot.
 

Thanks for that tip Sandra Lee (I've seen her do that on her show before with breads and cakes made in the crock pot).  Since this is a pie and not a cake, it's probably not super vital...it's "wet" anyway, not "dry" like a cake, but I like to keep the pie a little drier.

Trick #3  Cook this on low, not high.  If you make it on high it tends to burn the edges.

Trick #4  It's easy to make this pie dairy free, sugar free, and gluten free, just swap out the milk for coconut milk, and coconut oil for the butter.  I used Sucanat (unrefined dehydrated cane juice) instead of refined sugar, and reduced it from 3/4 cup to 1/2 cup.  It was not super-sweet, which was perfect for me.  The original recipe is already gluten free; it calls for Pamela's baking mix (but that does have small amounts of dairy in it, so if you are dairy free, use another baking mix).

Trick #5  Stephanie O'Dea (the author of the cookbook I was using:  Make it Fast, Cook it Slow) recommends touching the pie to check for doneness, but it is hot, very hot, so if you want to use the back of a spoon instead, that will avoid any finger burns from hot, undercooked batter sticking to your finger.

Trick #6  This took me 3 1/2 hrs on low, in my 4 qt crock.  Yours could be different.

Trick #7  Making this pie without refined sugar, and reducing even the dehydrated cane juice, I felt pretty good about letting this be breakfast the next morning!  Pumpkin, eggs, spices, coconut milk...it's all good, and makes a delightful breakfast cold from the fridge.  Also goes beautifully into the lunchboxes for a lunchtime treat.

Trick #8  This recipe is made in a 4 qt crock, (not a 2 qt. as I stated earlier...), but sometime I may try it in a 6qt.  It would be thinner and reduce the cooking time...)

Trick #9  Which brings me to my last trick...make this early.  It is way, way better fully cooled, not hot.  It has the perfect consistency the next day in fact.

Now for the recipe.  There's no point really, in me re-typing this thing when you can read it directly off of Stephanie's website, so I will link it for you right HERE .

Oh guess what?  Stephanie's new book just came out!  365 Slow Cooker Suppers.  I am a fan.  I pre-ordered it weeks before the release date, and then kinda forgot about it, but lo and behold, it arrived on my doorstep right on the release date.  It was so fun--like a little unexpected gift arriving, from me to me.   This book had great color photos and all the recipes look good, but I kinda missed the really fun, more "unusual" stuff like desserts, and even crafts! that were in her last two books.  I'm kinda quirky about crock pots that way.

Luv Stephanie's earlier books too Make it Fast, Cook it Slow, volumes 1 and 2.  She has such a fun, girlfriend-like writing style.  Two caveats though...as usual, like with EVERY slow cooker book on the market, cooking times, for chicken especially, are way too long--about double.  Go figure.  I have no idea why that is.  Are my crock pots just unusually hot or what??!   Also, sometimes Stephanie will put frozen food into the crock, but other sources (America's Test Kitchen) says that putting frozen food into the slow cooker is a food safety no-no.  Apparently the food needs to get up to 140 degrees by two hours, or it's a food safety risk.  And as far as I'm concerned, it would mess up cooking time and risk shock/cracking of my pot...so I never put frozen food in it.  But having said those two things...Stephanie is one of my very favorite cookbook authors.  Most everything I've made out of her books have been huge successes, AND, the best part...EVERYTHING in all of her books is gluten free--woo hoo!

Enjoy your first taste of pumpkin season.

Quicker-than-the-drive-thru Turkey Burgers

Whoa, I just realized it smells like Thanksgiving around here, two months early...I made turkey burgers for dinner, and at the same time I have a crust-less pumpkin pie in the crock pot.  Oh my, it goes well together.

Remember that weird shopping phase I went through last month?  Here are the owl paper plates I bought for no particular reason whatsoever.

Here's a quick and healthy meal for you, my dear "Dinner, Done" fans.  I make these for my family about once a month, but I really should make them more often than that, because everyone's crazy about them, and they are so ridiculously fast and easy.  You can make them big (bun-size) for dinner, but they also work fantastic as a breakfast "sausage", just make them a little smaller, and stick them in the fridge for a quick morning re-heat.  Making them smaller also increases their cuteness factor by 200%.

Here's my "recipe":

• 1 egg
• 1 lb ground turkey (I use dark meat free range ground turkey from U.S. Wellness Meats. )
• 1 tsp. poultry seasoning
• 1/4 to 1/2 tsp. Herbamare seasoning (an all-purpose salt and powdered vegetable seasoning; delicious!  available at most health food stores...) 
• 1/4 tsp. ground pepper

Mix well and form into patties (4 burger-size, or 6 small breakfast sausage size).

Heat some oil in a pan (medium-high heat), and fry burgers, about 5 minutes per side, until no longer pink inside (I use a meat thermometer to check for proper internal temp of 165 degrees).  You may want to just brown it for a couple minutes on each side, then reduce heat and cover to finish cooking.

One important thing...if you are using a stainless steel pan, make sure you give each side enough time to brown and self-release, meaning, you shouldn't have to pry it off the pan to flip it...it should be fairly easy to get a spatula underneath it.  You should not have to jack-hammer away at it to get off the pan.  Also, make sure you have used enough oil on the pan.  Here's what I mean:

If you are like me, and get impatient, and start prying the burger free of the pan, you get a burger that looks like this...

 

However, if you are patient, you will be rewarded with a gorgeous, perfectly browned burger that looks like this:

When the burgers are done, you may want to add a slice of cheese and let it melt on while you toast a bun.  (Also, whenever I take the burgers out of the pan, I will put a couple inches of water into the pan and let it simmer while we eat dinner.  That way it's super-easy to clean up.)

Now for the really complicated part: 

Slow Cookin' Mama's Gourmet Mustard Sauce: 
(This is so gourmet it may be difficult to follow, but please, try to stay with me...)

• One dollop of mayonnaise
• One squirt of Dijon mustard

Mix together. 

Plop a spoonful on your burger. 

Set burger on a toasted bun.

Grab some sliced veggies and dip. 

Eat and smile, because, my friends, dinner...is done.

This was Hubby's turkey burger, with pepper-jack cheese, on a gluten free bun. 

Caramel Apple Crock Pot Party

 

 

Look what I found at the farmer's market for .50 each!  Aren't they adorable?  Gourds are so fun and interesting, and a great, cheap way to spruce up a plain old houseplant for fall.  My favorite is the one laying along the front/center.  It looks like a pipe, and makes me feel like I'm in the Shire (You know...Middle Earth, where the Hobbits live...).

 

My cousin Jan hosted a fun fall party last week.  She used her crock pot to warm up some caramel candy (the individually wrapped Kraft brand caramels) and set up a make-your-own caramel apple station.

 

The caramels have to be unwrapped of course, but after that it's super easy to just toss 'em in a crock (2 or 3 qt size) add a little water to thin, and heat on low, covered, for 1 1/2 hrs.   (This qualifies as the best excuse ever to get myself a new, cute little 2 qt crock!  :)   

 

Guests picked their own apple, right off of Jan's back yard tree, but if you don't have a tree, maybe it would be a fun thing to load everyone up and head to the u-pick farm for an afternoon of apple picking, then  home to eat some chili, all warm, ready, and waiting in your 6 qt crock, and end the day with this caramel apple station.

 

Start with clean dry apples, and add a lollypop stick securely in the stem end for a handle.  Jan got her sticks at the grocery store (sometimes this time of year they will have caramel apple supplies...if not you can probably find them at a craft store in the cake decorating section).  Then use a spoon over your crock of warm melty caramel to drizzle it on the apple.  If you want to really dress it up, you can set out a variety of toppings.  Jan used chocolate chips, almond slices, M&M's, and sprinkles. 

 

When the apples are done they need to stand and cool/firm up a bit.  Jan used waxed paper, but said that it still stuck to the apples.  She suggests maybe using some oil or butter on the paper to avoid sticking.  For that matter you could probably use butter on foil, or parchment paper too if that's what you have handy.

 

 

 

 

I'm inspired to schedule some fall fun for my family.  Thanks for sharing Jan!

 

So you may have noticed an uncharacteristic "quietness", and a distinct lack of blogging activity here at "Dinner, Done" the last few days...I've been testing my way through recipes, slow and steady, but nothing great to report.  I made "Sweet and Tangy Red Cabbage" from the Healthy Slow Cooker Cookbook.  It seemed promising; healthy and seasonal.  It looked gorgeous going into the pot:  red cabbage, apples, cider vinegar, sugar, craisins...but alas, it wasn't very good coming out of the pot.

 

Before...

 

And sadly...after.

 

  In fact, I wish I had just added some oil to it, NOT cooked it, and tossed it as a raw cabbage apple slaw!  That would have been good, but cooked, it was just not very tasty I'm afraid.  Hubby liked it ok, and ate some.  I tried it and severely disliked it.  And we were the only two who even cared to give it a taste test.  So, that's test #20 for you.

 

On the other hand...I made a minestrone out of Slow Cooker Revolution which was quite good.  It's nearly gone, so I'll be back to report on that one later this week.  I've also got some gluten free, and dairy free crustless pumpkin pie in the works in my (current) 2 qt crock (which has an extremely annoying habit of gathering so much condensation around the rim that it bubbles and "clangs" as it cooks...perhaps it is time for a new, and cuter, 2 qt crock)...so check back and I'll give you the full run-down on those two things and whatever else crops up this week.

 

Meanwhile, happy apple picking!

 



Veggie Packed Meatballs and Spagetti Squash

Where we live there's a sweet little lake.  It's one of the things I love best about living here.  Nearly every day my dog and I go out to check it out.  The lake and surrounding area inform me about what's going on in the world.  No, it does not inform me about things like political scandals and multi-million dollar Hollywood divorces ...I mean the REAL world...things like the weather, and the seasons.  The color of the water, and the texture of it's surface tell me about the wind and the sun.  The big leafy trees along the edges tell me about the slow but steady and constant changing of the seasons:  I love the hopefulness of tiny new buds that pop up just when you are wondering if it will ever be warm again, followed by a vibrant time of bright green leaves.  Then comes this time of year, when every day it's something different...slightly lighter green, to pale yellow, to golden, to red and brown...then a big wind, or the first snowfall will come, and we'll be heading in to the season of bare crackly branches, encased in ice.  Even then, you'd be shocked and amazed how much LIFE there is around the lake, even in the dead of winter.

Year round the wildlife here thrills me.  I love watching the ducks (such conscientious little parents) as they dutifully, fastidiously, raise their fuzzy babies into that awkward summer adolescent stage--half fuzz, half fathers--and finally on to maturity as fall approaches.  We get big herons here, eagles (one time a huge golden eagle came to perch on our front porch!) bright blue Stellar jays, quail, woodpeckers, pheasants, rabbits, racoons and turtles.  Once, many years ago, a young bear even came walking down one of the streets in our neighborhood!  Someone caught a picture of it.  It made the front page of the newspaper.

Yesterday was a day I've been looking forward to for weeks...the first of the HUGE Canadian Geese started arriving.  They stop here every year to rest up, preen, eat, and gather strength to continue their migratory path to Florida, or wherever they are heading, to wait out the snow and the cold.  I saw a flock of 12 along the shoreline, and heard their honking conversations with one another.  By this time next week I will start to see their V shaped flight patterns regularly throughout the day.  Sometimes they are so low overhead I can actually hear the wind rushing through their feathers as they skim right above my dog and me.  The lake is my "homepage" on reality.

The end of September, my friends, is squash time.  And nothing goes better with spaghetti squash than meatballs.  Now, I have a beef with meatballs (if you'll pardon the pun!).  In my opinion, meatballs really need a carb-y binder, such as breadcrumbs or oats.  Without that, they are hard, like little tough golfballs.  So the paleo (grain-free) meatball recipes I've found, while I LOVE the addition of veggies, have left me wanting.  However, the traditional carb-filled meatballs can be dicey for me, digestively.  Both gluten free breads, and even certified gluten free oats can cause me trouble.  So what to do?  Somehow I needed to combine the tender bite of a carb-y meatball, with the veggie power-punch of a grain-free meatball.  Enter:  soaking the oats. 

I've read that soaking grains in water, with an acidic medium, such as lemon juice, vinegar, yogurt or whey can significantly reduce the phytic acid, and sort of "pre-digest" the grains, making it much easier to actually absorb and use any nutrients the grains have to offer, while mitigating the trouble they can cause.  So I did that.  I soaked my oats overnight in filtered water, with organic cider vinegar, then rinsed and drained them, and proceeded with making meatballs. 

This is a recipe I just started putting together, so it was my first experiment with it, and I think it could use some tweaks, but I'll  go ahead and give it to you as is, and you can play with it yourself.  It was a hit; my family said that these were the best meatballs I've ever made. 

So, for what it's worth, here it is:

2 lb ground beef
1 cup pre-soaked gluten free oats (but next time I will try to reduce it to 1/2 cup)
2 eggs
1 grated carrot
1/2 grated zucchini
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp garlic powder

I used a medium size cookie scoop to portion the meat into meatballs, and then baked at 375 degrees for about 35 minutes, until they were fully cooked and no longer pink inside.

I know there are better meatball recipes out there, but this one was quick, low fuss, and met my criteria of being BOTH full of veggies, AND tender and juicy, AND it had a carb-y binder that did not mess with my belly...score!

I freezer tested these, and they came out beautifully.  Simply thaw in the refrigerator and re-heat, gently (I had one in the microwave, and zapped it for 30 seconds, perfect--tender and moist.  When I did one for 1 full minute it really, really dried it out and made it hard, so just reheat enough to heat through, but don't turn them into meatball-jerky.  These are IDEAL little meaty, veggie-filled packets for the  lunchbox, perfect with a container of marinara or ketchup for dipping, IF your students have access to a microwave for re-heating. 

So next time I make these, it's gonna be meatball mania--I'll make dozens and freezer, then throw 'em in ziplocks and freeze, for some super-fast future dinners.

Now for the spaghetti squash.  There's no easier way in my opinion than microwaving 'em.  Simply:

1. Wash and dry the squash.

2. Use a sharp knife and poke it full of nice deep holes for venting the steam.  Be extremely careful!  Spagetti Squash are round and not very stable!

Here's me poking a hole with my right hand, while taking a picture with my left!!  Yikes...do as I say, not as I do! :)

 



3. Place the squash in a microwave-safe dish and microwave for 6 minutes on one side.

4.  Use oven mitts, or towels (IT'S VERY HOT!), to flip the squash over, and microwave another 6 minutes.

It should be getting kinda soft at this point.  If it's still rock-hard, go ahead and turn it a 1/4 turn and go another minute or two, but keep checking...don't just set it for 6 more minutes and walk off.  Especially when you don't have enough ventilation holes in it.  Or you will have a fun time of cleaning exploded squash off the inside of your microwave.  Don't ask me how I know that.

5.  Now let it sit for quite a while until it's cool enough to work with, then cut it in 1/2 and remove the seed with a big spoon.  Then use a fork to pull out the flesh of the squash--it comes out in delightful spaghetti-like ribbons, so very fun!

If you want to see a video tutorial of this process, check out this excellent one at www.cleananddelicious.com.  That is where I learned how to microwave a whole spaghetti squash, and I seriously love doing that.  To me it's just WAY easier than cutting it in 1/2 when it's hard, and spending the time to oven bake it, but if you want to do that there are oven directions under the video tutorial.

Top your squash with a few meatballs and some sauce of your choice.  This will be my SUPER-easy dinner for nights I just do not want to cook, once I get my meatballs in the freezer.  Then it's just heat meatballs, zap squash, open marinara jar, and serve. 

Voila: dinner, done.

Breakfast Egg Cups for the freezer

Want a quick (and I mean quick) way to get some nourishing breakfasts into the freezer?  And frugally "gather up the fragments" at the same time?  Actually, these little individual quiche are not just for breakfast, but could go in the lunchbox too...or could be a snack, or even dinner in a pinch.  Last but not least of all their virtues...they are absolutely adorable.

Hi, you cute little things!

 

I've seen recipes for these all over the place, but it's pretty much a non-recipe...you just use whatever bits of veggies, meat, and cheese you have leftover, put them in muffin cups, add beaten egg, and bake.

 

This batch of a dozen egg-cups (as I call them...some people call them crustless mini quiche) was made with:

 

• 1/2 of a shredded zucchini (use whatever veggies you have, the more the  better, fill the cup)

• about 1/2 lb cooked ground beef (but I would reduce to 1/4 lb next time for a dozen cups)

• a sprinkle of cheddar cheese

• and 10 eggs, beaten with salt and pepper, or whatever seasoning you like.  (For this batch I used about 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp pepper.)

 

 

No need to grease the pans if you have a non-stick pan...



 

Just layer in your veggies, then your meat...

 

And top it with shredded cheese of your choice.

 

These come out of the pan beautifully.

 

 

 

That's pretty much it.  There are some very important tricks to this though.  It took me a lot of experimenting to discover how to best make these things!  And I will be happy to share that hard-won knowledge with you, to save you the time, expense and frustration of having to make the same mistakes I've made.

 

1.  These need to bake at a relatively low temp.  I set my oven to 300 degrees.  Most recipes say 350.  But if you do that they will poof up, and then promptly FALL when you take them out...so unattractive.

 

2.  You need to pretty much fill up the muffin cups with the veggies, meat and cheese, and then you just sort of "fill in the airspace" with the beaten egg.

 

3. It doesn't take much, only about 3 T. of beaten egg per cup.

 

4.  Leave about 1/4" headspace at the top of the muffin cups, or they will overflow.

 

5.  Bake just until eggs are set, NOT browned.  I bake at 300 degrees for 20 minutes, then turn the oven off...and let them stay in the oven another 5 minutes, for a total of 25 minutes.  Then take them out, and allow them to cool somewhat before removing cups from the pan. 

 

Refrigerate your egg cups, and then enjoy the extra time to sip some coffee in the morning!  You get a yummy protein-packed breakfast, with no dishes, and no work in the wee hours, hallelujah!  Nothing better than that in my book.

If you want to eat the egg cups the next morning, just wrap them in a paper towel and microwave to re-heat, about 20 seconds or so.

I freezer tested these last night, and did a side-by-side comparison this morning:  The plate on the left is the frozen one, reheated in the microwave for 1 minute, wrapped in a paper towel.  The plate on the right is one that was not frozen, just refrigerated, and then re-heated 20 seconds.  No discernable visual difference.

Then the cut in half view, and the taste test...frozen on the left, fresh on the right.

They tasted pretty much the same, so WINNER!  These freeze just fine.  However be sure not to over heat them in the microwave, or they will get dry and shriveled.  Experiment to see exactly how long you need to do them in your microwave to heat through--could start lower than 1 minute and see how it goes.  Just make sure to let them cool after removing from the microwave...especially the frozen ones heated for one full minute.  It will be SUPER hot, and release a lot of moisture.  No burnt fingers and tongues on my watch, ok?

Next time, I will use more veggies, and less meat. This batch was really too meaty in my opinion, and kinda "heavy".  I ate both the test cups this morning and now I'm overly full.  Next time, I will eat just one, and it will be plenty!  My hubby, and anyone who is very hungry, could probably put away two of them, or maybe more, in the case of teenage boys!  But my hubby is bigger and stronger than me, and he needs the protein to fuel weight lifting (his idea of a good time...?!), but as for me, the most weight I ever lift is my 6 qt. slow cooker full of food, and the occasional 45 lb Australian Shepherd for a quick snuggle.

So what are some other possible combinations?  Ham, Swiss and peppers or pineapple?  Sausage and red peppers with cheddar?  Beef and broccoli and carrots with pepper jack cheese?  You are limited only by your imagination, and what you have in the fridge that needs to get used up.  Egg-cup on, my friends.

 

#19 Turkey and Lentil Soup--WINNER!!

Next up on the auction block:  One delicious pot of red lentil soup.  Any firstborns out there with a birthright to barter?

Red lentils always remind me of Esau, in the Bible, the book of Genesis.  Esau was described as "red" and "hairy", and "a skillful hunter; a man of the open country".  One day, when he came back to camp quite famished, after a long day of hunting, he sold his birthright (as the firstborn) to his brother Jacob, for...you guessed it...some bread and some lentil stew.  Now, one of two possibilities exist; either:

a.  Jacob was some kind of crazy-awesome chef, or
b.  Esau did not appreciate the value of his birthright!

We know in fact, that the answer is b.  The Bible states that Esau "despised" his birthright.  It doesn't really tell us anything about Jacob's mad cooking skills, but I'm guessing he probably knew his way around a pot and an open fire.

Now as for me...thankfully, I did not have to use a pot over an open fire to cook my lentils...just a 6 qt slow cooker.  And I'm not planning on selling my soup; I'm just going to eat it. 

Unless someone offers me the right price...then I may consider selling.  But you better hurry...it's almost gone already.  :)

I started out to make "Turkey Sausage and Lentil Soup" from Healthy Slow Cooker Cookbook, by the American Heart Association.  I have loved most everything I've made out of this book.  As long as I ignore all their "fat free" nonsense, and make my own decisions about ingredients.  I would have to say that it's one of my favorite crock pot cookbooks, because they've won my heart with all the fresh veggies.

However, in the case of this recipe, I made so many BIG, and significant changes, that actually, what I made was not the same recipe at all.  My major alterations include: using ground turkey instead of turkey sausage (and double the amount), using red lentils instead of brown, using fire roasted instead of regular canned tomatoes, I used dehydrated carrots and onions instead of fresh, and most significantly, I completely changed the spices and seasonings...and the preparation directions...and the cook time.  So basically, it's a whole different recipe. 

Here's my version, adapted from "Turkey Sausage and Lentil Soup", Healthy Slow Cooker Cookbook.

Slow Cooker  Size: 6qt.
Slow Cooking time: about 5 hrs. on low
Makes:  A LOT, about 4 quarts

Start with:

1 T. dehydrated onions (or one small or medium onion, diced)
1-2 T. dehydrated carrots (or 1/2 to 1cup fresh diced carrots)
4 c. Chicken Stock (homemade preferably, no salt)
4 c. water
1 lb. red lentils (sorted, rinsed, and soaked in water overnight--drain off soaking water, and rinse in a mesh strainer or colander before adding to soup.)

Combine above ingredients in 6 qt slow cooker, turn on low, and check in about 4 hrs. to see if lentils are soft.  They should be quite soft in that amount of time, if they have been soaked overnight.)

When lentils are cooked, add in:

1 14.5 oz can Fire Roasted tomatoes (Muir Glen)
about 6 T. tomato paste
2 tsp Italian Seasoning
1 tsp Poultry Seasoning
1 tsp basil
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp of salt, to taste...may need more
1 lb. cooked ground turkey

Allow it to simmer as long as you want to combine flavors...about 1/2 hr to 1 hr?  Don't go too long or your lentils will turn into mush, which is fine, but not quite as attractive.

Serve.  Refrigerate leftover soup.  It just keeps getting better in the fridge!  The next day it will be even more flavorful and re-heats for a beautiful, filling, warming, satisfying lunch.

Here's what the T. of carrots looked like going in:

And here's what they looked like after cooking in the soup.  Isn't it just like magic how they pop right back up?  Dehydration never stops delighting me!

This soup tastes just like fall holidays to me.  I buy my ground turkey from U.S. Wellness Meats and I love it, it has a very REAL turkey flavor, and makes the kitchen smell just like Thanksgiving while it's cooking!  I cooked the turkey on the stovetop just right before adding it to the soup, so both soup and turkey were hot. 

Regarding soaking lentils...most recipes I've seen do not call for pre-soaking.  But I do it anyway.  I have a sensitive tummy, and long pre-soaking of legumes helps me digest them better.  I've had no digestive ill-effects from this lentil soup at all.  But if you do not want to pre-soak you can just sort (for any shriveled lentils, stones, or other foreign objects), rinse, drain, and add to the pot.  That will lengthen your cooking time.  The original recipe says 8-10 hrs on low.  However they also say to put the tomato products in during the cooking time, so that may be slowing it down too.  I learned the hard way:  it's best to wait until your legumes are fully cooked before adding in any tomato products!  Tomatoes will slow, or even halt the cooking of your legumes.

Next time I make this soup I am going to add in some finely chopped spinach, or some of my home-dehydrated kale flakes.  I think it will look pretty, not change the flavor really, and pump up the nutritional value of this soup.  I think also I need to get some celery chopped up and tossed on the dehydrator.  It's super-handy for tossing into soups as well.  I will also be using 2 T of dehydrated carrots instead of 1 T. 

Speaking of dehydrating carrots:  I bought 7 more pounds of fresh, fragrant carrots at the farmers market yesterday.  They are going on to the dehydrator today, as both slices (for soups all winter...I will peel and chop today, and reap the benefit of conveniently tossing in a few tablespoons of carrots, ready to go, all winter!) and I will also do "shreds" of carrot, for adding to meatballs, muffins, breads, wherever I can sneak them in.  I just found a very helpful dehydration resource on the internet:  www.easy-food-dehydrating.com.    I will be using the instructions I found there to do the shreds--the page is linked for you right here.  I was wondering how I was going to pre-treat those tiny shreds...I couldn't imagine blanching such small pieces of carrot.  The video I linked answers that question...toss shreds in a bowl with a bit of lemon juice, then dehydrate on fruit roll tray covers.  Easy!

Wasn't this a simple soup to make?  I loved it, and it's going to go into the winter rotation around here.  No need to sell your birthright when this soup is so easy to make yourself!  Enjoy. 

Raw Sheep's Milk Cheese, first day of fall, and MORE Italian Prunes

Autumn decorations came out of the boxes today...

Interesting day at the market yesterday.  I bought something totally new and fun:  raw sheep's milk cheese.  All I can say is...sublime.  Just, sublime.

As I may have mentioned before, dairy and I aren't always the best of friends, but, in moderate amounts, and fermented or cultured, I can tolerate a bit.  This sheep cheese is a hard cheese.  To me it was richer, tangier and sort of buttery-er than a hard cow's milk cheese.  Some of these precious jewels were actually cured for a YEAR.  I bought one that is cured wrapped in leaves and coated with herbs.  It was a luxury and a splurge.  I paid $8.00 per block for these little tastes of heaven, and they were worth every.  single.  penny.

Not that anyone cares, but I have to say it made a very satisfying lunch, along with some of my dehydrated walnuts, and some fruit I bought at the farmer's market--a pear, and a pluot  (a plum/apricot hybrid).  It was a fall-ish, quite September-ish lunch.   Simple, fitting fare for the weekend of the autumnal equinox. 

 

This year the official first day of fall is September 22nd, today, at 4:44 PM, according to the farmer's almanac.  On their website they share a delightful little poem that describes this change of seasons beautifully:

It is the summer's last great heat

It is the fall's first chill: They meet. 

  --Sarah Morgan Bryan Piatt 

 

Does that describe the time of year perfectly, or what?

 

I'm telling you, I think Italian Prunes have got to have the shortest window of availability of any fruit I know.  There was one vendor selling them last Saturday, and they were still a bit green, and yet this week, there was one vendor selling them, and by the time I got there mid-morning there was only 12 lbs left, perfectly ripe...and that was all they had for the season!  Yikes.  So my other plans for the afternoon went out the window; I jumped on it, and bought all 12 lbs.

I wanted to show you another option for quickly getting those little things dehydrated and stashed away for winter munching.  (Who am I kidding, these will be gone by the end of October.)  If you want to be quick, you can just slice them in 1/2, pull out the pit, and then, one technique, which I used here, is to "pop the backs", which is kinda like flipping them inside out.  Alternatively, you could use a toothpick and poke holes in the skin.  A third option, according to some sources, is to just cut them in half and throw them on the tray...however, I haven't tried that, and I'm guessing it would take longer for them to dry that way.  (My most reliable source The Dehydrator bible, recommends the toothpick technique, and to tell you the truth, I can't recall where I learned the popping the back technique.  It's hard to remember...all my favorite books and websites start to blend together after a while.)

Step 1--wash, dry and slice Italian prunes in 1/2.

Step 2--Pop them inside out.

 

 

 

 

Step 4--Lay them skin side down, and dehydrate at 130 degrees.  Surprisingly, they took a little less time in the dehydrator than cutting the prunes into 1/6 ths!  Start checking them at about 15 or 16 hrs, but depending on lots of factors (size, humidity, etc) it may be up to 19 or 20 hrs..

 

One thing I like about this technique is how quick and easy the prunes were to prepare.  One slice around the middle and the job was done!  The pit pretty much just falls out.  Another thing that makes this way preferable is that the finished prune is round; no sharp, pointy tips like you get with slices.  I think this is the way I will go from now on.  Here's what it looks like when it is done dehydrating.

This is week I will (Lord willing...) finally be able to get into my "regular" school-year routine, now that my delivery-subbing gig is over, and a few other extra obligations and commitments I took on at the same time.  So...whew.   Look for at least one bulk freezer cooking post this week (spoiler alert: meatballs...) and at least two crock pot posts (I'm going to attempt lentils again, a different recipe.  I just can't leave them alone with a failure hanging out there!) 

 

Happy first day of fall.