Crafty Post: Plastic Bag Dryer

As you may recall from the tour of my kitchen post, we wash and reuse our plastic bags. That day I took all those pictures was a good day when there weren’t 20 bags sitting around, because once they go over there to dry, I tend to just leave them there. And then they get dirty again, because they fall on the floor. It was really frustrating.

At the First Alternative Co-op in Corvallis one day we had seen a bag dryer that we really liked, but for whatever reason didn’t buy it at the time. I think it was one of those things where Mr Pine Nut said, “I could MAKE something like that,” and of course, it never actually got made.

At long last, however (perhaps my tidy husband finally had it with the avalanche of drying plastic bags?), Mr Pine Nut made me a bag dryer. He went outside and about half an hour later came back in bearing this:

A few branches from the apple tree he’d been pruning a few days prior, a couple blocks of wood, and the faucet handle from the bathtub in the hideous house we tore down on the property: my new bag dryer. It’s so pretty and everything is CONTAINED and my windowsill looks SO MUCH BETTER. Thank you, Mr Pine Nut. <3

An Ode to White Beans, Cooked Carrots, and Rice

On Sunday I did a pressure-cooker load of white beans* and a large pot of brown rice.

On Monday I made stroganoff with blended white beans, the last of my moo-free seitan from “Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day”, and some other stuff, and we ate it over rice with some salad.

On Tuesday we had something. I don’t really remember now what, but I know it involved beans and rice.

On Wednesday I cooked vegetable stock. I also made a soup with rice and white beans and carrots and blended up the stock ingredients after they were done cooking and stirred that into the soup.

On Thursday we ate the rest of Wednesday’s soup and I did a crockpot seitan using some of the previous day’s veggie stock.

Today, Friday, we’re finishing the last of the beans and rice, cooked in the seitan cooking broth with some fresh carrots and frozen zucchini thrown in.

It makes my week so much easier when I do beans and rice on Sunday.

___

*Can someone PLEASE explain to me the difference between Great Northern and Navy beans? Is there a difference? THEY ALL LOOK THE SAME.

Vegan MoFo #3: A Tour of My Kitchen

I’m not posting about a recipe specifically today, even though I did work on one. You’ll read about it later. Today was a catch-up-on-chores and do-ALL-the-things kind of day and it’s now 5pm and the first chance I’ve had to even consider doing a post at all.

I saw someone else post about what they considered essential in a vegan kitchen, so I decided to take pictures of mine and share them with you as my contribution today. I talked about my kitchen a little bit in a past post, but this time I’m going to show you inside my cupboards. Bear in mind that this is a 29′ trailer and so I’ve used every inch of space as efficiently as I can, if not in the most TIDY fashion.

This is my staples area. On the top shelf are a variety of containers with screwtops. Left to right we have barley, nooch, sugar, black beans, mixed rolled grains, pinto beans, bandaids, and a flour sifter. (Bandaids there because GooGoo can’t reach them.) On the bottom shelf there are garbanzo beans, white flour, wheat flour, rolled oats, granola, and a crockpot. These are all the staple foods we use the most.

Next over we have brown rice, cocoa powder, bag of cocoanut, instant clear jel, and bread pans on the top shelf, and a mishmash of Pyrex lids, cooling racks, muffin tins, and baking sheets on the bottom. And a bonus pennywhistle, because Mr Pine Nut sometimes plays during or after mealtimes.

Top shelf: gluten flour, box of matzo, half the popcorn popper, tapioca pearls, popcorn, and an empty space where the pressure cooker is kept when not in use. Bottom shelf: pie pans, Pyrex cake/casserole pans, electric skillet, small saucepan and skillet. The electric skillet is an amazing thing to have in this tiny kitchen.

Under the staples cupboard (the first picture), we have a toaster, food processor, olive oil, and blender. And a drying ziploc bag. Because yes, we’re the crazy cheapskates who wash and reuse them until they shred or break open at the seams.

This is the cupboard over the sink. Big spice containers of cinnamon, onion powder, basil, and parsley up here; baking soda/powder, cornstarch, Ener-G egg replacer, oil, salt, soy milk powder, peanut butter, liquid sweeteners…

Cookbooks! Tomato powder! The other half of the popcorn popper! And random cans of beans, olives, and jarred salsa!

This is the (currently rather paltry) fridge door. All I have in here at the moment is tahini, Nucoa, yeast, liquid smoke, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, and hot sauce. I think those are peanuts in the bag.

Again, this is rather a paltry example of in-fridge supply. Usually I have loads of Pyrex full of cooked rice and beans and leftovers. Loads means “more than the four in this picture”. Those are tomatoes and cabbage from our garden and that’s hickory-smoked applesauce on the top shelf. *

And finally, the crowning glory of my kitchen: the spice drawer!!!1! This is the top layer.

And this is the bottom layer. It’s like a puzzle that has to go in just so, or the drawer won’t close. I LOVE MY SPICE DRAWER.

___

*Actually, it just burned in the pan, but rather than throw away a Rather Large Batch of Applesauce, we’ve been eating it bravely for some time now and alternating it with Non-Hickory-Smoked Applesauce.

Random Bullet Points

Do you like bullet points? Whether you do or not, I have some for you.

• I use ginger fairly regularly, but not quite often enough to use up an entire ginger root before it spoils. So I grate it up and freeze it in a plastic container and scoop out what I need as I need it. Just don’t pack it down, or it’ll be really hard to scoop out.

• Despite the recommendation to Not Keep Garlic or Onions in the Fridge, I do anyway. They last longer and onions produce less tears streaming down my face if they’re cold. Also, if I have more garlic than I can use (think those big bags of pre-peeled cloves from Costco), I do the same thing as I do with ginger: I press it all and pop it in the freezer and scoop out bits as I need it.

• I LOVE discount grocery stores. In our area we have two Grocery Depots and a couple Grocery Outlets. Good things can be found at both, but I prefer Grocery Depot myself. When they have shelf-stable non-dairy milks, it’s 79 cents a quart, and it’s usually feast or famine with it because they only get what they’re given. (Things that are getting close to expiring, have damaged boxes, or the like.) One time they had Sabra hummus for 50 cents a container and once they had frozen tofu 4 for $1. I can deal with deals like that.

• Did you know that unfrosted strawberry pop tarts are vegan?

Just Milling Around

My bowls of grains waiting to be ground: white wheat, rye, white wheat again, and red wheat.

One thing we do in our household is grind our own grain. It’s pretty cheap to buy 25-50 pound bags of wheat, oats, or other grains. We store them in plastic 5-gallon buckets in our shed with tightly sealing lids – you can get these sorts of buckets and lids from a paint shop.

First we tried the Family Grain Mill.

Positive things about the Family Grain Mill:

• You can get it with a handcrank option, if you’re the hippie homesteading disaster-preparedness type.
• It makes very nice flour.
• It’s easy to wash because it comes apart.

Negative things about the Family Grain Mill:

• It took a  r e a l l y  long time to grind enough grain just for one batch of bread (2 loaves). I think it took the better part of an hour. I don’t recall now exactly how long, because that was 3 or so years ago, but I remember feeling like it was NOT worth my time to have to constantly replenish a hopper that was as slow as molasses in January just to make one batch of bread.
• The milling part is metal. This isn’t a bad thing as long as you have sorted through your grain first to make sure there are no stones in it, because rocks will really do some serious damage to steel mills if you don’t take the time to sort out rocks.

After using the Family Grain Mill for a few weeks we got tired of how slow it was in comparison with my mother-in-law’s old Magic Mill, and so my husband went on eBay to find one of those for ourselves: the old kind with the stone mill, that Magic Mill doesn’t actually manufacture any more. He soon found one for a good price and we’ve been using that one ever since.

This is our Magic Mill.

Positive things about the Magic Mill:

• It’s really fast. I can grind up several kinds of grain and fill various bags/canisters in the same amount of time it took the Family Grain Mill to just do one canister of one grain.
• It’s got a stone so while I still try to pick out rocks I’m not as worried about it as I would be if we had a steel mill.

Negative things about the Magic Mill:

• This is about mine specifically: because it’s older and been used, the stones don’t come quite as close together as they originally would have, due to wear. My husband was able to tinker with it to get the stones a little closer, but it’s something to be aware of if you do buy a used one. The flour is still very usable but if I want it super super fine and fluffy I run it through twice. (I rarely bother, because it’s really not that big of a deal.)
• It’s a little harder to clean out thoroughly than the Family Grain Mill, which all came apart for washing. If you’re on a strictly gluten-free diet you won’t want to buy a used one, because it’s impossible to get every speck of flour residue out. I brush mine out with a bristle brush or (dedicated) toothbrush and call it good. For reference purposes, the picture I posted above was taken between grinding flour and brushing out flour residue.

I also find my small coffee grinder indispensable, pictured in this post. You can find them at thrift stores. (Just make sure they don’t smell strongly of coffee, or everything you grind will smell like coffee.) For small quantities or things such as nuts or flaxseed that can’t be run through the flour mill, this little apparatus is wonderful. I’ve used my blender, but the coffee grinder works far better.

I asked my friends what kinds of grain mills they have and here’s what I learned from them.

• My husband’s parents have the Magic Mill (an older one than ours). You can look at what Magic Mill currently has available or check eBay for an older model.
• Carol and Tom have the Ultramill that they bought at Bob’s Red Mill several years ago. They are pleased; usually grind corn and wheat in it.
• Peter has the Country Living grain mill. This is a hand-crank one. They’ve had it over 10 years and like it.
• Joy has a K-Tec kitchen mill that her mom bought about 17 years ago. It is a steel mill, doesn’t take up a lot of space ( about the same as a 4 slice toaster) and when you aren’t using it, the mill pan fits over the motor and stores the cord, etc. As far as speed, she hasn’t used any other mills but it seems fast to her. The only negative is that it is loud! Otherwise, they haven’t had a bit of trouble with it and would buy it again.
• Esther’s is a NutriMill. She’s had it since she got married and thinks it does a good job but has nothing to compare it to.

Do you use a grain mill? What kind do you have, and how has it worked for you?

Gigantinormous Bowl + Waffles.

About 15 minutes from our house is a charming little shop called Shoppe of Shalom. It is owned and run, interestingly enough, by relatives of some friends I had during my time in Idaho as a child. What a small world.

Anyway, it has been my dream for many years to own a Very Large Stainless Steel Popcorn Bowl. I have memories of visiting friends during my childhood who had such bowls and watching my friends’ mothers deftly tossing popcorn in these bowls to coat them with the butter and toppings, and I wanted to be such a skilled popcorn genius as this myself. (I love popcorn. I love it best with olive oil, salt, and onion powder.)

So, for our third anniversary, my husband and I went to the Shoppe of Shalom and treated ourselves to a Very Large Stainless Steel Popcorn Bowl.

The cat was fascinated by his reflection, and my daughter found it to be a wonderful depository for her inflatable beach ball. I didn’t get too many chances to actually use it for popcorn, however, because we didn’t often have popcorn when we had ravenous hordes at our house. It’s even been used as a camping bathtub for my daughter during the summertime.

Then we moved from our deliciously spacious townhouse to this 29-foot travel trailer, as I’ve previously discussed, and I find that in my limited space I’ve actually used the bowl more often than I did in my big kitchen. I’ve mixed granola in it, and filled it with snow during a snowstorm-caused power outage to melt for water, and made quadruple-batches of bread in it.

Or quadruple-batches of waffles.

Here’s the thing. I love waffles, but they’re so time-consuming for the results you get out of them. (Maybe I’m just too impatient.) So I find I’d rather dedicate an entire afternoon to cooking waffles one at a time for 5 minutes each and then putting them in the freezer so that we can get 8 times the breakfasts (or suppers) out of the effort. The Very Large Stainless Steel Popcorn Bowl is perfect for doing gigantic batches of waffles.

This was one of my first successful vegan adaptations, from some recipe I found somewhere. It’s a basic waffle – yummy, healthy, light, and fluffy. You’d never guess it has no eggs. A single recipe makes about 6 ten-inch waffles.

Egg replacer equivalent to 4 eggs (if doing flax eggs, this will be 12 T water+4 T ground flaxseed)
2 c rice or other non-dairy milk
1 1/2 c water
1 c olive or other veggie oil (you can substitute 1 c pumpkin puree for the oil or replace half the oil with applesauce if you want a lower-fat waffle)
2 c white flour
2 c whole wheat flour
2 tbsp plus 2 tsp baking powder
2 T brown sugar or liquid sweetener
1 tsp salt

Get your waffle iron heating.

Beat egg replacer on high speed for 2-5 minutes until fluffy (this is only if using Ener-G, and it’s optional, really. The flax eggs work fine without beating them first.)

Add remaining ingredients and blend just until smooth.

Pour approximately 1 cup of batter onto the waffle iron and let it cook 4-5 minutes. You can eat them hot off the pan, keep them warm in the oven until the batch is done, or let them cool on racks for freezing.

We top it with fresh hot applesauce, or cornstarch-thickened fruit sauce, peanut butter, and sometimes nothing at all.

Life With the Pine Nuts

So, I’ve been sick for several weeks (or has it been months?) now. My immune system is basically worthless, it seems. I’ve always dealt with sickness dragging on for way longer than most people, but in the last few months I’ve had one thing after another with no reprieve. I think I’m on the mend now… fingers crossed. Pregnancy may be partly the culprit; I’m getting some bloodwork done to find out if there’s any other issues that may need to be addressed to strengthen my immune system.

I’m not going to share a recipe today. I’m going to invite you into my kitchen and give you a peek at how I live, because I assume I’m not the only nosy person out there who likes to know how other people live.

First of all, let me explain that since about June of last year I’ve been living in a 29-foot travel trailer with my husband, my toddler-human-child, and an adult-cat-child. We’re in the process of building a house, but it’s taking a while. My kitchen space is very cramped and working there is a challenge, but I’ve been able to make it work.

Dishes pile up. They are fruitful and multiply behind my back. All I have to do is make peanut butter toast and the kitchen looks cluttered. It’s ridiculous and frustrating. What you see here is typical morning kitchen: last night’s dishes plus this morning’s dishes.

But when it’s cleaned up, it looks quite presentable (outside of the stupid tile counters with deep grout lines – what WERE they thinking?)

As you can see, I have an AMAZING quantity of counter space. :-X

What appliances do I have? The trailer came with a pretty decent-sized fridge/freezer unit. I have a propane stovetop and oven. I have an electric skillet. I had a convection oven that my toddler ripped the door off. My father-in-law fixed it and then I baked some scones in it at 450 and apparently that was too hot for the adhesive and the door fell off when I opened it. So I am back to my propane oven, which doesn’t bake very well. Something tells me we’ll be eating flat bread for a while rather than loaf bread.

I meet the counter space challenge a couple of different ways. The sink came with two cutting boards that nest perfectly inside, so I can create a little bit more space to set tubs of flour, large bowls, or cooling racks. There is also a slide-out cutting board and the stove has a cover, which I put down to stack my washed dishes on to dry. I also use that stove cover to set my electric skillet on when I’m cooking a meal just in that. Our dining table is extendable as well, so I often use that area for my cooling racks if I’m doing a large batch of baked goods.

We do have a fairly reasonable amount of cupboard space, though, and that has been really nice. While I did have to pack away the majority of my stuff, we have enough dishes and silverware to get by, and room for the toaster, the blender, some pots and pans, and lots and lots of foody stuff.

My spice drawer is pretty much a puzzle that needs to be put back together just right to get the drawer shut, because when I was trying to choose what spices to bring along, I ended up bringing all but maybe one or two. I simply could not get by without my turmeric, curry powder, cayenne, chili powder, taco seasoning, chicken seasoning… and all the others.

It’s not always easy, but I manage. I adapt. I try not to think too much about the big kitchen that’s waiting for me in our new house, because then I’d have to deal with massive discontent.

Do you have any challenges in your kitchen? How do you meet them?

Delicious Homemade Bread Anyone Can Bake

Someone once said:

If girls were taught how to cook, especially how to make good bread, their education would be of far greater value.

(Boys can benefit too!)

Now, how about a recipe using delicious grainy goodness?

I’ve had a lot of issues making bread. Most people have. But because I usually can’t bring myself to shell out $4 or more for a loaf of bread that’s actually reasonably healthy, I’ve made it myself. With endless issues. It sank. Or it was gooey. Or it felt like I should sell it to the third little pig for his house. You name it, it’s happened to me. I tried all the recipes friends and family would throw at me and checked out book after book from the library, and while I’d occasionally get a freak good result, the frustration and failure was monumental. I gave up for a long time and my husband took over the breadmaking for several months.

UNTIL I BEGAN USING THIS RECIPE, and I have never had a failed loaf of bread since (even though I continued on to modify it slightly, because that’s how I roll).

The measurements in black text make 1 loaf. The numbers in red are a double recipe for 2 loaves. I recommend making just one loaf for starters.

Ingredients:
1.5 (3) c warm water (if you’re going by a thermometer, 105-115 degrees; I just stick my finger in it)
1.5 (3) Tbsp sweetener of choice – agave, honey, or sugar
1.5 (3) Tbsp yeast
1/4 c (3/4c) ground flaxseed (optional)
1.5 (3) Tbsp olive oil
1.5 (3) tsp salt
1.5 (3) c white flour
3-4.5 (6-9) c whole wheat flour

Instructions:
Place warm water in a large bowl. Add yeast and sweetener and whisk to dissolve yeast. Let sit for about 5 minutes, until you see the yeast bubbling and frothing rabidly on top of the water. (This is called proofing the yeast, to make sure it’s alive and functional.)

Here is my yeast with three blops of brown sugar.

Now I've added the 3 cups of warm water and whisked it up.

IT'S ALIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE

Add flaxseed, oil, and salt. Add the white flour and stir 1-2 minutes. This will help develop the gluten to make a light loaf of bread.

Adding in my ground flaxseed, oil (corn oil in this case), and salt.

Add remaining whole wheat flour about a cup at a time until you can handle the dough without it sticking to your hands. [I don't really count the cups I put in; I just add until it feels right, because it seems to vary depending on weather and temperature and other factors.]

Knead the dough in the bowl or on a floured surface for 5-10 minutes. Add flour as needed to keep dough from sticking to your hands. Place dough in an oiled bowl, cover with a clean, damp towel, and let rise in a warm place approximately an hour until doubled. [Just keep an eye on it, because I find it often will double long before an hour hits, and you want to not let the yeast die out. 30-45 minutes is usually what I do.]

Stirring in my flour

It's all kneaded and ready to rise. (Yes, the picture is blurry. I have lousy lighting conditions in my current place of abode.)

Punch down the risen dough and knead a little to work out air bubbles. Shape into a loaf (or two loaves) (or divide dough into 12-16 equal blobs and shape into buns!) and place in oiled bread pan (or cookie sheets for buns). Cover with towel again and let rise 30 minutes approximately, until nearly doubled. Preheat the oven to 350 during this time. [It will continue to rise the first minute or so in the hot oven, sometimes quite dramatically!]

After rising for a while, it's ready to punch down and shape into loaves!

Here I've cut the blob of dough in two equal parts.

You can squish the bubbles out by hand if you like; I usually roll it out and then roll it up tightly.

In the loaf pans ready to rise the second time.

Ready to go into the oven to bake!

Bake the loaf for 30 minutes, until golden brown and sounding hollow when tapped on the bottom. [After about 30 minutes, I take the loaf out of the pan and just put it right on the oven rack for another 10 minutes or so. This gets a good crust on the bottom and seems to help keep the bread from being soggy.] (Buns usually go 20-25 minutes, and you can just turn them upside down on the cookie sheets to crisp up the bottom.) Cool on a cooling rack.

Out of the oven, cooling on a cooling rack!

I also let the bread sit out at least overnight before putting it away. 24 hours would be ideal. It really cures it nicely.

In my next post, I’ll share some substitutionary ideas you can try out once you’ve mastered the plain template above!