Worst Promise Ever

So we did again make the Kimchi Soup and I did again forget to take pictures. I also made Gluten Free Matzo and Matzo ball soup. It was my second time making it and for some reason the recipe I used for the Matzo didn't work quite as well as before.

I have been trying to get my hands on Cybele Pascal's book from the Library again, but every time I look for it it's at another branch. A conspiracy I wonder!

We had a 'shrimp boil' of sorts by cooking shrimp and fish in a metal pan on the grill the other night. To which I added a roasted root vegetable medley. I have never roasted beets before, but we had some from our last CSA pick up a few weeks ago that I wanted to use so they wouldn't go bad. So I cut up six beets, ten short carrots (just slightly longer than my middle finger), a sweet potato, two Japanese yams, and a white potato, drizzled them will olive oil and sprinkled on pepper, garlic, and Bell's seasoning. I baked them in the oven at 375 deg F for 45 minutes. At about 35 minutes I drizzled them with more oil and mixed them around to make sure they baked evenly. The Japanese yams got dark spots on them as they oxidize almost immediately after peeling, so next time I think I would try to leave the peel on. But I wasn't sure how well I could scrub them.

This got me thinking and inspired me to get out into our 'garden.' Spring and summer are coming, I planted a head of garlic that was happily growing in the kitchen, an onion that we let sit too long (I don't know if it will make it, but I'm hoping), and spruced up our pepper plants. Our basil looks half dead and half ready to go wild so we will see what happens with that as well. I'm looking forward to finding some ways to use up the last of our Kimchi. After which I am going to experiment with making whole cabbage Kimchi. I couldn't do this before because our container wasn't the proper size to do so, but now we have a specific one.

I'm looking forward to coming up with some other things to do with spring and summer crops. I'm really hoping that by my birthday I'll be able to treat myself to an Excalibur Dehydrator and a Vitamix blender. Not that we honestly need more kitchen appliances (seriously, our kitchen is tiny) but I want these to make fruit jerky, smoothies, cashew cheese, and other raw food applications.

I have a theory that Summer in Florida is a good time for raw food. Simple, low heated foods that don't add to the insane heat of the scorching sun. But theories are just that!

Today marks the beginning of my work week, so it's likely the kitchen finesse will not be happening again until next weekend, but we will see!

Super Secret Tuesday #1

So this is a hodgepodge post catching up from where The Adjacent Shelf Rebooting Days 3-5 left off and including my new Tuesday blog: Super Secret Tuesday.

We have gotten a bit off track with the Reboot, substituting too many store bought juices and green super food powder for freshly made juices, and eating more non-Reboot foods such as eggs and chicken. We're on the path back away from that, but were still more mindful of our choices as we made them.

I don't have as many juicing pictures as I would like but we've recently tried some new ingredients:

Fennel - new to use this go round, it's nice in small quantities.
Jalapenos - Very tasty, but easily overpowered as a strong flavor.
Sprite Melon - we were told it's the taste of a pear with the crunch of an apple, but all we got was honeydew.
Fresh Herbs - this wasn't entirely new as we have used mint before, but this time we branched out and have added Dill and Rosemary, as well as the Fennel
Mango - we added some fresh mango to a juice we made for our friends this past weekend, and it was very tasty.

Tomorrow afternoon I plan on sitting down and typing up a Reboot post that will help those who have asked me, learn from the many things we have learned in this process. But for today this posts main focus is my new adventure in allergy free cooking:

Super Secret Tuesday and What's on Hand Thursday

Not very catch names, I know but that's not the point. The point is to expand my chef-i-ness (yes I just made that up) and my overall culinary skill around allergy free eating since this house is made of foodie gourmands. So here's the parameters:

Super Secret Tuesday:
1 - New ingredients may be purchased within monthly food budget.
2- Recipes from the Web or cookbooks may be used.
3 - Food must be Dairy, Gluten, and if possible Soy Free. Preference is for Vegan or Fish based dishes only.
4 - Try to use only whole grains if necessary, staying away from processed grains and using Quinoa, Brown Rice, Wild Rice, etc. if needed. If necessary white rice may be used sparingly.
5 - Smaller portions!!!!
6 - Dessert included, but see Rule #5

The idea for Tuesday is to allow myself to find recipes and explore, which I did (you will see below) - learning from the many other Vegan and Allergy Free pioneers that have come before me. This will give me new techniques and tricks to use for Thursdays.

Why is it called Super Secret you ask?

Because Logician, my food guinea pig, who must suffer through my cooking will not know what dinner is until it happens. He had no idea what dinner truly was until it was set before him last night. It was a lot of fun.

What's on Hand Thursday:

1 - Only necessity based ingredients that will be used for more than one meal may be purchased (i.e. if I've run out of Quinoa, Brown Rice Syrup, Vinegar, etc).
2 - No cookbooks or web based recipes may be used unless recalled from memory. Cookbooks and Web are only allowed to be used for measurement conversions or substitution tips (i.e. dried herb for fresh)
3 - Food must be Dairy, Gluten, and if possible Soy Free. Preference is for Vegetarian, Fish, or Free Range Local Farmer purchased Chicken or Eggs.
4 - Only whole grains may be used and are limited to Quinoa and Brown Rice.
5 - Smaller portions!!!!
6 - Dessert may be included but is not necessary. Refer to Rule #5.

The idea of Thursday is to really use the food we're bringing into this house. We have a pantry full of stuff and too often find ourselves going out to eat because we're too (Insert status here) to cook. NO MORE! In our move to a conscious kitchen it's time to be in the kitchen more.

Super Secret Tuesday #1: 06/19/2012