St. Patrick's Day

Man oh man. I am so wiped out from making an insanely good dinner plus dessert.

The Menu:

-Partially whole wheat Irish Soda Bread
-Shepherd's Pie
-Strawberry apple crisp in a home made tart

So for the first:
I took a recipe from a youtube video. I did the 2 cups whole wheat flour instead of the ground flax seed, seeing as how I had no ground flax seed to use. I wanted to add raisins, but I forgot to.
It turned out absolutely delicious anyway. The outside was crunchy, the inside was just the right chewiness. And, it was sweet because of the brown sugar. I used dark brown. Served it on the cutting board with Smart Balance and Soy Garden for buttery options.

The second:
My shepherd's pie is really simple. It's a bag of frozen mixed vegetables cooked with browned hamburger (in small crumbly pieces), topped with mashed potatoes (I brown them under the broiler). Everything gets cooked, seasoned while cooking, and tossed into a casserole dish with the potatoes on top.
Tonight I jazzed it up a little with some Worcestershire sauce, Adobo seasoning, and tomato paste. Because I was making two pounds of hamburger I used the whole can of tomato paste.
I made a ton of this because the bf loves it for quick lunches during the week. I froze the leftovers.
It was a hit.
I used instant mashed potatoes, the ones I use I get from Costco and they're totally happy healthy. Instead of cow milk I used a mix of rice and soy milk. The potatoes came out a little creamier than usual. I also cook them with chicken broth, not water.

Third course:
This one was a challenge. The tart recipe asked for cream, but all I had around was some leftover coconut milk. The recipe said to use a dash. I added a teaspoon because I read that a dash is 1/8 of a teaspoon and that seemed rather small of an amount to me. But even the teaspoon of coconut milk looked like too little. I stuck with it anyway. The dough was dry. It tried its hardest to not hold together. I brushed the outside of the dough balls with some more coconut milk before I fridged them in plastic wrap for an hour.
Rolling one of the dough balls out was not easy. I kept having to flour my pin and the dough kept wanting to crack or lift up onto the pin.
Eventually I got it to roll out big enough. I had to use a pie plate because I didn't have little tart pans. The first 15 minutes of cooking I put white rice in parchment and put it on top of the tart. The recipe said to use dried beans, but I only had rice. It still worked out.
Another 15 minutes with no rice. The bottom puffed a little, but it went down. It actually was rock hard by the time I got to put the filling in it.
The filling consisted of strawberries (sliced), green apples (sliced), white sugar, and cinnamon. It was cooked on the stove top over medium heat. I cooked it too long though, or so I think because the strawberries went rather juice like.
The crumble for the top, which made way too much, was delicious. I told the bf to put some on his yogurt in the morning.
There is some extra filling leftovers as well.

Now I am beat. I didn't work on my paper for school and it's nearly bedtime. Perhaps in the morning?

It's worth it though to see people enjoy the food. The compliments don't hurt either.

I still have one loaf of bread. Maybe I can capture a picture of it tomorrow.

Cabin

I'm hoping that this coming weekend we'll get to go to the cabin up in the woods. The bf doesn't have to work on Friday because it is Good Friday. It's certainly good that he doesn't have to work. 

If we do plan to go up there I'd better start thinking of what I'm going to cook. Now, it's certainly not a clean kitchen. It's very old. There's no running hot water. There is only freezing cold water coming out of the pipes. 

The last bunch of times I've gone up there we've had to take a propane camp stove with us. But now they've installed a gas stove and oven. I'm looking forward to using it. If I plan on baking anything like pies I'll have to get them prepped at home before we go up. I could possibly roll the dough out up there though. I'll just have to take plenty of parchment paper. 

I'm also going to take up my own pots and pans. The ones that are up there are old teflon pans that have been scratched to death. They could make you sick I'm sure. 

There's no electricity either. Not a lick of it. That means no refrigerator. I'll take a cooler. There's a screened in box attached to the back of the house that I'll hide some food in. The bugs will stay out of it and it'll keep it moderately cool. I'll keep things like eggs or milk in the cooler with ice packs.

What would you cook if you were up there? What would you eat in the woods when you have no refrigeration? 

Does anyone actually read my blog?

Bread Time Again

Well, we're just about out of bread (the first batch I baked) and so it was time to make some more whole wheat bread. I used the same Bob's Red Mill recipe as before. I really need to start baking bread earlier than 4pm. It takes me from then until 11pm for it to do all of its rising and cooking. 

I'm really tired. I didn't just bake, I was cleaning the house at the same time. I also made a delicious dinner of salmon, brown rice, and steamed asparagus. 

I am excited to have some of this bread in a few days when I finish out the other loaf. I'll probably put some of it in the bag with the bread I still have and the rest in the freezer. 

Baking my own bread is working well for us. I belive it is saving on money, considering it's not the crap at the grocery store full of HFCS and preservatives. It's next to organic. I would spend 6-7 dollars on a loaf of organic bread at the health food store.  I pay 6 dollars for a 5 pound bag of flour and there are 68 1/4 cup servings in a bag and I use 6 full cups for 2 loaves of bread. Not bad.

Well, I'm gonna finish the TV show I'm watching while the bread finishes in the oven. 

Take care!