Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Homemade Pizza, Wheatberry Salad, and Jam

One reason I love summer so much is the abundance of fresh, home-grown ingredients available for cooking. Here are a few recipes for things I've made recently.

Bread maker Pizza Crust

I got this recipe from my sister when we visited her in Rochester, and she got it from a co-worker. It's funny how good recipes make their way around...

¾ C warm water from faucet
1 T oil
1T sugar
1 T dried milk
½ t salt
2 ¼ C bread flour
1 t dried yeast

Use the dough cycle in your bread maker (mine took about an hour and 24 minutes).

I added fresh pesto, spinach, mozzarella, parmesan, cherry tomatoes, and sweet pepper.

Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes, or until crust is brown.


Wheat Berry-Black Bean-Edamame Salad

My mom found this recipe in a magazine and she thought it was delicious.

Serves 6 (3/4 cup servings)

4 C water
½ C dry wheat berries
½ of a 15-ounce can of black beans, rinsed and drained
1 C frozen, shelled edamame, thawed
1 C chopped tomato
½ C chopped red onion
3 T extra virgin olive oil
2 T red wine vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine water and wheat berries in a medium saucepan, bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer 55 minutes or until wheat berries are tender. Place in a fine mesh strainer, run under cold water to cool quickly, drain. Combine the wheat berries with the remaining ingredients in a medium bowl. Serve immediately or cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate up to 8 hours in advance.




Jam

The harvest season has begun! I used the following recipes to make about 20 jars of jam. These recipes are from Aunt Dee's Caldwell Family Cookbook, which was given to us when we visited Colorado for a family reunion.

Rhubarb Jam

4 cups finely cut rhubarb 4 cups sugar
1 package Strawberry-flavored Jello

Mix sugar with washed rhubarb in a bowl and let stand overnight. Put in a heavy kettle and cook until rhubarb is tender (about 10 minutes). At this point I like to add about 2 cups of fresh berries. I’ve even substituted raspberries for the strawberries and used Raspberry-flavored Jello in place of the Strawberry Jello. Add flavored Jello; stir until mixed and Jello is dissolved. Pour into hot sterilized jelly glasses or jars. Seal with covers or pour hot paraffin over top of hot jam.

AMISH RHUBARB JELLY
5 cups cut-up rhubarb 1 cup crushed pineapple (canned)
4 cups sugar 3 oz pkg Jello (Raspberry, Strawberry or Orange)
Stir together first three ingredients. Put on heat and stir till all juicy. Boil 15 minutes. Add Jello and mix in. Seal in jelly jars with paraffin. Refrigerate if desired.


Thursday, June 24, 2010

A Little Patio Project

Busy. Why is the summer so busy? It seems like the winter takes so long, and I wait so patiently for summer, and then the summer just flies by. No time to write!

Last week we completed a project for my 85-year-old grandparents, who live in a condo where they have a 10' x10' patio area to customize however they'd like. The "before" picture below shows that the weeds were getting to be too much to maintain. We filled in the space with patio block. It took a half day to load and then unload about 500 pounds of brick and sand, and a twelve hour day to remove the plants, rocks, extra soil, level and fill in with sand, and lay the bricks.

Who would have thought that revamping such a small space could require so much time and money?! The final cost for supplies was around $450. But they are happy with it, and that is all that matters.

While we were there we got to experience the uniqueness of condo life, as various neighbors visited throughout the process, observing and offering insights (mostly positive, fortunately!). Grandma made a pork roast, cookies, jello, and strawberry shortcake...the weather was beautiful...Although those long hours were very tiring, I think there is something very satisfying about doing challenging, physical work, especially when you know how much it is appreciated.

Before: Too many weeds and too much maintenance required!


In progress: Extra plants removed, filled in with sand and leveled:


Final product: Bricks in, azalea bush boxed in, locking sand applied to the bricks:

Another view of the final product:

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