November 17, 2012

Gleanings of the Week Ending November 17, 2012

November 17, 2012/ Gwen Morrison

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article:

Fresh Cranberry-Orange Relish - Something a bit different to do with cranberries this year. I already blogged about it earlier this week….great recipe

What we die of - data is from the UK…interesting data and way of presenting it

Preschoolers' Counting Abilities Relate to Future Math Performance - counting….not just rote memorization of numbers

Do we only use 10% of our brains? - a medical myth

Face-Washing Tips for Healthier-Looking Skin - from a dermatologist. Sometimes we do too much.

The Bifurcation of Bling - spending shift from ostentatious product to ones less visible to the world as individual/people get richer

Earlier End of Life Care Discussions Are Linked to Less Aggressive Care in Final Days of Life, Study Shows

In Australia, A Total Solar Eclipse - video from 11/13

Second Most Common Infection in the U.S. Proving Harder to Treat With Current Antibiotics - Urinary tract infections from resistant bacteria increased over 30% between 1999 and 2010….high levels of antibiotic overuse in the southeastern part of the US during the same time period.

Answers to the Fall 2012 eBird/Swarovski Photo Quiz - you can take the quiz or just look at the pictures and read the notes about the clues to identify the bird

November 12, 2012

Connecting Recipies

November 12, 2012/ Gwen Morrison

It is the time of year to try out some of the luscious recipes that seem to be everywhere you look. This past weekend I started out making Fresh Cranberry-Orange Relish. It tasted even better than I anticipated but it made a very large amount. I decided to use it for part of the fruits in a modified Golden Stollen recipe and also added it to give more spunk to the soup I was making for lunch. And then I made half a pumpkin custard in a grab-it to use up the half can of pumpkin not needed in stollen. So - it was quite a day for cooking experiments...and all a domino effect started by the relish!

As usual - I was not a stickler for following either the ingredients or the directions in the recipes.

For the Cranberry-Orange Relish, I used 2 oranges rather than 1. I cut the ends of the oranges off before I cut them into eights. My food processor was big enough to hold everything so I put all the ingredients in it at the same time and processed until everything was more finely chopped than shown in the picture on the Wegman’s web page. So far I have eaten it by itself (what a treat it was using a spatula to clean up and enjoying ever last bit of the relish left in the bowl!), stirred into soup, and in the golden stollen. And there was still enough to put in the freezer too.

The Golden Stollen was in my last Gleanings and I had commented about attempting to modify it to be gluten free. As a first experiment, I replaced the 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour with teff flour. I used olive oil instead of butter and honey instead of sugar. I decided not to add nuts since the teff flour already has a nutty flavor. Instead I added 1/3 cup of the cranberry-orange relish. For the cup of dried fruit, I cut up dried prunes and apricots along with crystallized ginger. Raisins were used to fill up the cup. It ended up being slightly skewed toward the crystallized ginger. I simple stirred the dough thoroughly then mounded it onto a cast our griddle (picture on the left above). It cracked a bit as it cooked. I brushed butter on it when it came out of the oven but did not add the powdered sugar (picture on right above...after I had cut several sample pieces from one end). I told my husband it was a new pumpkin bread recipe and he tried it - and liked it….a first for my attempts to entice him to enjoy gluten free breads.

Of course - we both enjoyed sharing the small pumpkin custard for our dessert that evening.

Find some great foods of the season to be part of your celebration of the season!

January 24, 2012

Recipe of the Week: Orange Zest

January 24, 2012/ Gwen Morrison

orange zest.png — I enjoy eating oranges more than orange juice so I almost always have a few in the refrigerator. After noticing how expensive orange peel was in the spice section of the grocery (and thinking of reducing food waste) - I decided to always collect the zest off the orange before I ate the inside. After trying several different techniques, this is the one that works best for me.

Wash the orange with soap and water and let it dry before starting.
With a sharp knife peel off the outermost layer of the peel (the orange part). I always play a game with myself on how long a ribbon a peel I can get.
Place in a small food processor and process it until the bits are the size you want. Sometimes I leave it with variable sized pieces. Other times I continue until it is all relatively small bits.
Let the peeling air dry on a plate, breaking up occasionally if the bits are clumped.

Oftentimes the orange will be thin skinned enough that what is left of the 'skin' after the zest is removed can be eaten along with the pulp so only the thickened ends of the skin is left as trash.

So far I have not had to worry about storage of the orange zest because I use it for cooking pretty quickly. As long as it is thoroughly dry, it could be stored in a the cabinent with other spices. Here are my favorite ways to use orange peel: