Monthly Archives: July 2016

Cookbook Spotlight: Cooking Up a Storm

Cooking Up a Storm Cookbook

Cooking Up a Storm: Recipes Lost and Found from the Times-Picayune of New Orleans

Edited by Marcelle Bienvenu and Judy Walker
2015, 368 pages, Hardcover

When Hurricane Katrina ripped through New Orleans in 2005, many residents lost their homes. Along with their homes went all the contents, which included countless regional recipes from the Times-Picayune. These recipes had been clipped from the newspaper, saved, and cherished for generations.

To preserve the city’s culinary legacy, the people of New Orleans banded together to recoup these lost recipes, one by one. This book is a collection of the recipes recovered as a result of this effort. Each recipe has a story.

In this cookbook, you will find an impressive range of recipes, including appetizers, drinks, special Lenten dishes, and desserts. These foods are eaten as part of everyday life in the Big Easy. The recipes are favorites from both home kitchens and restaurants. Nothing says “comfort food” like Louisiana cooking!

This cookbook truly is a work of love and a symbol the city’s residents’ determination to recover from, and triumph over, extreme adversity.

Learn How to Make Creole Cream Cheese

Love cream cheese? Then be sure to check out How to Make the Best Cream Cheese in the World, featuring a recipe for Creole Cream Cheese from Cooking Up a Storm. Creole Cream Cheese is a unique, regional breakfast food that is served in a bowl and eaten with a spoon. You can sprinkle some sugar on top, or shake on some salt and pepper, or top it with your favorite fruit. No matter how you serve it, Creole Cream Cheese is a nutritious and satisfying food.

Why not make some and tell us what you think in the comments section at the bottom of this page?

Hat Tip!

We wish to thank a lovely customer of ours named Libby W. for bringing this unique cookbook to our attention. Libby kindly shared her recipe for Creole Cream Cheese with us, so we could share it with y’all. Thanks, Libby!

How to Make the Best Cream Cheese in the World

cream cheese cover

When it comes to cream cheese, there’s nothing like the homemade kind. It is more delicious than even the most popular store brand. The superb flavor of homemade cream cheese comes from quality ingredients.

Did you know that when you make cream cheese at home using a recipe that calls for cheese cultures, you can even tweak the flavor to suit your taste? Make it mild or aromatic (and slightly sharper) — it’s entirely up to you!  The flavor just depends on which of the recommended cheese cultures you choose. Continue reading →

Sun Dried Crispy Italian-Flavored Tomato Chips

crispy tomato chipsSolavore in actionNow you can use the power of the sun to dehydrate your favorite foods! Our Solavore Sport solar oven works beautifully as a dehydrator.

With the Solavore Sport, it’s very easy to make a crispy tomato chip that has the perfect amount of flavor and crunch! These chips make a great snack all by themselves. Or, you can use them as a delicious addition to other foods.

Crispy Italian-flavored tomatoes, beets, and sweet potatoes

Crispy Italian-flavored tomatoes, beets, and sweet potatoes dehydrated in the Solavore Sport

burgerCrumbled tomato chips add zing as a tasty topping for casseroles, like macaroni and cheese. Or, you can use them as condiment at the table to sprinkle over a baked potato, a bowl of soup, or any other favorite foods. Crispy tomato chips are simply sensational on grilled cheeseburgers. Simply add a couple of slices on top of the cheese while it’s melting to take your burger from “everyday” to “gourmet.”

 

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Homemade Italian Seasoning

Ingredients

1-1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. dried marjoram
1 tsp. dried thyme
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1/2 tsp. dried rosemary
1/2 tsp. dried sage

Directions

Italian seasoningPlace all the ingredients in a small bowl and stir well. Use immediately, or transfer into an airtight container and store for future use.

Yield: About 5 tsp.

 

 

© 2016 www.HomesteaderSupply.com

Book Spotlight: Year-Round Indoor Salad Gardening

indoor salad gardening book

Year-Round Indoor Salad Gardening: How to Grow Nutrient-Dense, Soil-Sprouted Greens in Less Than 10 Days by Peter Burke

Published in 2015, 192 pages

Get ready for a low-tech, no grow-lights approach to an abundant harvest of microgreens!

This book shows how you can grow all the fresh salad greens you need for the winter months (or throughout the entire year) with no lights, no pumps, and no greenhouse. All you need is a cupboard and a windowsill.

Longtime gardener Peter Burke was tired of the growing season ending with the first frost. Due to his busy work schedule and family life, he didn’t have the time or desire to bother with high-input grow lights or greenhouses. Most techniques for growing what are commonly referred to as microgreens left him feeling overwhelmed and uninterested. So, he set out to find a simpler way to grow salad greens for his family indoors.

After some research and diligent experimentation, Burke discovered that not only was it possible to grow nutrient-packed microgreens indoors, but it was easy, too! He didn’t even need a south-facing window. And he already had most of the necessary supplies sitting in his pantry. His result: healthy, homegrown microgreens at a fraction of the cost of buying them at the market. His secret: starting them in the dark!

Burke refers to sprouted seeds grown in soil as opposed to jars as “soil sprouts.” His method encourages a long stem without expansive roots, and provides delicious salad greens in just seven to ten days–much earlier, and with a lot less work, than any other growing method. Indeed, of all the ways of growing immature greens, Burke’s is the easiest and most productive technique.

So, forget about grow lights and heat lamps! This book is a revolutionary and inviting guide for both first-time and experienced gardeners in rural or urban environments. All you need is a windowsill or two. In fact, Burke has grown up to six pounds of greens per day using just the windowsills in his kitchen!

Year-Round Indoor Salad Gardening offers detailed, step-by-step instructions to mastering this method. It’s so easy, it’s impossible to fail! This book tells you what supplies you need to have on hand, including tools and accessories, seeds and greens varieties, soil and compost, trays and planters, and shelving. It also covers harvest and storage, recipes, scaling up to serve local markets, and much more.

Q&A: What is early cheese blowing?

Gail asked  My cheddar cheese looked just fine while I was making it. But later, when it came out of the Ultimate Cheese Press, it looked like a sponge with lots of holes throughout. Why did this happen? And is this cheese safe to eat?

Early Cheese Blowing

Example of early cheese blowing

Jerri’s answer  This is called early cheese blowing. There are two reasons why it can happen.

One possible cause is coliform bacteria contamination. These pathogens can infect milk when sanitary conditions get compromised during milking or milk processing. You don’t want to risk getting sick, so THROW OUT THE CHEESE!

The second possibility is yeast contamination, which is most likely to happen when you’re baking fresh breads and making cheese in the kitchen at the same time. Again, I recommend you THROW OUT THE CHEESE!

The latter situation is easier to remedy. If you’re baking yeast breads while making cheese, add your lactic culture to the milk when it’s still cold, just prior to the first heating to start making cheese. This way, the lactic cheese culture will grow faster during the initial heating of the milk. If any yeast does get into the milk, it won’t be able to grow and ruin your cheese.

Q&A: Why won’t my mozzarella cheese stretch?

A customer asked Help! My mozzarella cheese won’t stretch!

Stretching Mozzarella Cheese

Stretching mozzarella

Jerri’s answer Acidity is the key for the stretch in mozzarella. Not enough or too much acid will result in hard curd floating or disintegrating in the water. The pH of your slab needs to be between 5.0 and 5.2 for it to stretch well when kneaded in hot water.

And the ripening of your slab is very dependent upon the weather. It can over-ripen in hot weather, or under-ripen in colder weather. One trick to standardize your mozzarella making year round is to ripen your slabs in the refrigerator for 16 hours.

Would you like to try making mozzarella the old fashioned way at home? Our REAL Italian Mozzarella Kit makes cheese with authentic Old World flavor. The mesophilic and thermophilic cheese cultures we use to make our mozzarella are imported directly from Italy.

Mozzarella Cheese Making Kit