Anabaena Picks a Tomato

Anabaena ate a tomato

she picked it without my say-so

it looks rather sour

her expression is dour

perhaps it just needs some pesto

"Chillax" by Almira Fawn

Vitamix - Pecan Butter

Move over peanut butter!  I don't say that lightly; I love peanut butter.  Love, love it.  However, pecan butter made a recent arrival into my life and I now have a new object of culinary ardor.

I've made peanut butter and almond butter successfully.  I have a bag of pecans.  I also have a Vitamix blender (awesome, by the way).  Naturally, I made pecan butter.  There really was no getting out of it.

I didn't expect to be amazed by the outcome, but not only am I impressed with pecan butter, Joe loves it too.  Joe likes peanut butter, but not with the same vehemence that would drive me to eat it with a spoon from the jar.  Plus, Joe doesn't really like pecans.  There is something about pecans that makes him skip over them in a bowl of mixed nuts.  So when I announced that I had made pecan butter he shrugged and nonchalantly accepted the sample I held out to him.  He looked at me wide-eyed and said, "that's pecan butter?  Really?  It's amazing!".

If you want a truly amazing sandwich, pecan butter and pear jam on homemade bread is true bliss.


Pecan Butter:

3 cups pecans, unsalted

in the blender with a tamper

4 teaspoons olive oil

 Place oil and pecans in a food processor or blender.  If your blender has a tamper, use that.  Blend on high in short intervals to prevent the blender from overheating.  Blend until smooth.  Pecan butter is drier than peanut butter, adding oil will make it more spreadable.  Add the oil a little at a time to achieve the smoothness you desire.  The 4 teaspoons was great for me, I could have stopped at 3 and I would have been happy with that too.  How much oil you add will depend on how fine your blender processes the pecans as well.     

It may not look like much, but it's fantastic!

           

A Mean Mustard

Look at that mustard, grrr!

After Mackenson's repeated requests for mustard on his sandwiches in his lunchbox, I decided to try my hand at a homemade version.

We made a few batches before getting a mustard that has a creamy texture and sharp but smooth taste.  It is strong and tangy, but slightly sweet and spreads across the slice of bread like a dream.  In short, we make a mean mustard.



Homemade Dijon Mustard:

6 Tablespoons vinegar
4 Tablespoons mustard seeds
2 Tablespoons horseradish root, shredded
2 teaspoons maple syrup
Pinch turmeric



Place vinegar, mustard seeds and horseradish in a blender.  Process on high until desired consistency is reached.  You may want to add either more vinegar or mustard seeds, depending on the thickness you would like your mustard.  Add the maple syrup (or honey) and turmeric and blend until incorporated.  The sweetness of the syrup is the perfect compliment to the sharpness of the mustard.  Use a spatula to scrape the mustard into a jar and store in the refrigerator.  The above recipe fit into a re-purposed pesto jar, which is about 6 ounces.

Your local Asian food market may the best place to find mustard seeds and turmeric powder.  We used the dark mustard seeds, which have a sharper taste than the lighter ones.  Either type, or a mix, would work well in this recipe.

The Loom

Current project

One of the things we acquired at the recent Mother Earth News Fair we attended in September was a loom made by Lost Pond Looms.  The loom is a wonderful simple tool that takes very little skill and has a high reward.  I love hand woven wares and have a mild fascination with the process of weaving for quite a while.  I went out of my way to purchase several hand-woven Persian rugs during the time I spent in Kuwait, Qatar and Iraq.  Another favorite is a hand woven wool rug / tapestry with a southwest theme I picked up in New Mexico.  Though no one in the family is ready to begin an epic project of a fine silk carpet, we are making some really nice small pieces.  We are starting with woven dish towels and bags.  The results are very nice, very versatile, very usable and aesthetically pleasing.

Our 1st project.  We are using this beauty as a dish rag.

None of us may ever become master weavers, but as far as making something that we all like I think the new loom is a very useful tool that anyone can use.

The Loom.

CPT SCARE

For this year's scarecrow we decided to go with a slightly different theme.  Last year was the first year we made our family scarecrow for Halloween and Thanksgiving (see post).  We went with the traditional coveralls and flannel shirt.  This year the kids found a set of my old Army uniforms and suggested an Army theme.  My old BDUs (Battle Dress Uniform) was still on the hanger, perfectly pressed and starched.  In other words, it was in perfect shape to be stuffed with straw and thrown out into the elements.  The kids suggested the name CPT Scare.  We had a lot of fun putting CPT Scare together.  He now proudly stands in our front yard with his right hand in a pseudo salute to the passers by.

THE LONE MELON

We planted one watermelon plant and a few cantaloupe on our straw bale garden.  For most of the summer our watermelon and muskmelon vines were a disappointment.  In August we noticed that a single watermelon developing well.  This was a nice surprise considering all of our cantaloupe vines on the straw bales only produced softball sized melons.  We got around to picking this watermelon about a week ago after it finally ripened.  This was the very last item harvested from our straw bale garden and was well worth the wait.  Our first taste was with one of our chestnut meals (see post).
 

Puffballs; The Gift

Word of our foraging is slowly expanding to new horizons.  Last week we were talking with a new-found friend (HI MANDI) and telling her about our foraging.  This week she brought us THREE puffball mushrooms of varying size that she had found in a local park.  After some quick research we deduced that they are in fact the purple spored puffball or Calvatia cyathiformis.  There are no poisonous look alikes (see bottom of post) so we went ahead and prepared a few for an evening snack.  We simply pan fried a few to see what they tasted like.  To our joy and amazement they are absolutely delicious.  It is very difficult to compare the taste to anything else, but they have a sweet and savory flavor.  We pan fried (sauteed) and froze what we were not going to eat immediately, and will have the rest with or on our Friday night pizza.  We want to give a big shout out to Mandi.  We owe you (and your husband and kids if you choose) a 6 pack of beer, some handmade soap and maybe even a dinner at our place sometime.  Even when we give you all of these things, we will still get the better part of the deal.  These are quite possibly the best mushrooms ever to cross our palates.


Puffball mushrooms are large mushrooms found in midsummer into the fall.  Large puffballs such as the "Giant Puffball" and "Purple Spored Puffball" can get the size of a soccer ball.  Most puffballs are edible except the "Pigskin Poison Puffball."  The "Pigskin Poison Puffball" will have a dark purple to black center when cut into.  All other puffballs are edible as long as the inside flesh is white.  When a puffball ages the white flesh will turn orange to green and will be past its prime.

Warning:  Though puffball mushrooms are ideal for beginning shroomers, there are a few easy ways to avoid mixing them up with anything else.

Puffballs smaller than a fist  could be confused with immature Amanitas (poisonous), but are easily distinguished when cut into.  The puffballs will have no evidence of an internal stem and no gills.  Amanitas have both.

Poisonous Earthballs  (Scleroderma species) are very hard and are black on the inside unless very young.  Puffballs are quite soft throughout there life.

REMEMBER:  Internal white flesh means you have a treasure to tempt your palate when dealing with puffballs.

DISCLAIMER:  As with all foraged food do not eat anything unless you are 100% sure what it is.  This is especially true with mushrooms.  We highly recommend you get some good field guides and take foraging or mushroom classes if available before starting on your foraging journey.  It can be (and is) a highly rewarding experience, but caution must be exercised for safety reasons.