Salad Dressing Snob

Oh, for a salad.

Oh yeah! Now that's a salad!

I love a garden salad.  It is one of my very favorite foods.  Ranch is my favorite kind of dressing but I have a problem with store bought varieties.  I think it's the preservitives I can taste but I don't know.  I know I don't like it though so I make my own.  This is what I have been putting in most recently:

Ranch Dressing

1 cup mayonnaise

1 cup Greek yogurt

oregano

onion powder

dried parsley

minced garlic

paprika

ground red pepper

salt

pepper

I just start putting spices in the mayo and yogurt blend until it tastes good.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I used my pumpkin patch pumpkin to make enough of Jennifer's Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies III from allrecipes.com to eat as many as I wanted and have some leftover to freeze for another day.

Yum.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies III

Ingredients

• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon milk
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions

1. Combine pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil, and egg. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon, and salt. Dissolve the baking soda with the milk and stir in. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and mix well.
2. Add vanilla, chocolate chips and nuts.
3. Drop by spoonful on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for approximately 10 minutes or until lightly brown and firm.

Quilt Cookies

My mom is a quilter and prefers cookies to cake so for her birthday I made her some quilt cookies.

Now, having done this, I have a few things that I would have done differently. I would have rolled the dough out on the tray and then cut the squares out so they would sit more uniformly next to each other. I also would have made it so the border could have fit all on one cookie sheet so I didn't have to use pieces. I also would have decorated it on the tray I was presenting it on. There was a lot of cookie shuffling going on.

When Life (or the Food Co-op) Gives You Lemons...

I got 10 lemons from the food co-op and my mom was about to toss her five out so I grabbed them. My children love lemonade so I made lemonade. I've only made it from concentrate before so I was happy to try it fresh.

I cut the lemons in half.

I have an automatic juicer but I lent it to my sister when she had a million and a half apples to deal with so I had to borrow my mom's not so automatic juicer. In the end, because I only had 15 lemons, it was probably just as fast to do it this way because I didn't have to peel them all. I first squeezed as much juice as I could out of a half over the top of the juicer to collect any seeds that may have fallen out and then I stuck it on the juicer and pushed while twisting it back and forth.

While I was doing this, I was thinking of an episode of Caillou where he makes juice with his grandma. I think they had a grapefruit and a lemon they were going to use. What kid wants to drink grapefruit and lemon juice?! Good thing Caillou decided he wanted orange in it too. Really, I was thinking that I wished I had paid more attention to the show so I would know the proper way to use the juicer. It worked out okay though because as I was thinking those deep thought about a children's educational cartoon these

turned into these


There were a few times when the juicer started looking like this:

so I emptied it out in my compost bucket.

Next I disolved sugar in some boiling water (1:1)


to create a syrup. This was supposed to make it so the sugar didn't drop to the bottom. It worked much better than just adding straight sugar.

I then added the same amount of lemon juice to the syrup (1 part sugar, 1 part water, 1 part lemon juice) I also tried a bit of the straight lemon juice to see if I could taste a difference between fresh and concentrate. :{ I couldn't. It was to sour to taste anything. I won't do that again.

After mixing that, I added four more parts water.

It almost felt like summer again.

I composted the pulp, seeds and peels but I got to thinking that I could probably have actually used them too. I could have used the zest - although that is a lot of zest and I don't know how to preserve it - or I could have boiled the peels with some spices to scent and humidify the air. Do you have any other ideas of ways I could have used them?

Making Pasta

I make my own pasta. This is how I do it:

To make two pounds of pasta I put 3/4 cups of wheat flour and 3 1/4 cups of white flour together on my (washed) counter in a pile. I then make a large well in the center and crack six eggs in it.
Mix it all together with a clean fork. If it's too dry, I add a little water.
Knead it until it is smooth. I seperate my dough into several balls and knead them individually because I think it works better and then it's already sectioned off when it comes time to roll it.
I put all the dough in the gallon size Ziploc bag that I intend to store my dried pasta in. Make sure to get as much air out of the bag as possible. It dries out fairly quickly.
Let it rest for 20 minutes. I use an Imperia pasta roller to roll it and cut it.
If you don't have a pasta roller, you just need to roll your dough on a floured surface with a rolling pin and then cut it with a knife. The trick is to get the dough thin enough. We're talking paper thin here.

I flatten one of the balls a bit with my hands. (Keep the other balls of dough covered tightly in the bag.) I put some flour on it to keep it from sticking to the roller and roll on the biggest setting. I make sure there is enough flour on the dough and roll it through again. I only roll it on every other setting to save time and it works fine. I usually cut the sheet of pasta at some point during the rolling because it gets longer than I like to work with.

When it's all rolled out to the thinnest setting I run it through the alfredo or spaghetti attachment.

I boil half of it for three or four minutes. Fresh pasta takes less time to cook than store bought dried pasta.

The other half I hang to dry like this:
until I get - or make - something like this:
Hey, if we're dreaming...or this:

The last one actually reminds me of the Ikea towel rack That might work really well to hang in my pantry. It would fold up neat and tidy when I'm not using and no one would even know I was drying pasta in my pantry. It would be my little secret...

I need your help. I am looking for a really good marinara/spaghetti sauce recipe from any of you. I will hopefully have lots and lots of tomatoes this summer from my garden and would love to make my own sauce. The problem is that I have yet to find a homemade sauce my family likes. I'm calling for all recipes from far and wide. I'll try them all until I find the one we are looking for!

French Fry Seasoning

This is supposed to be the recipe for the seasoning on Red Robin's steak fries. It was good but doesn't taste a whole lot like the real thing. To me, Red Robin's tastes more like a barbecue sauce seasoning. If you are not expecting Red Robin, you won't be let down. They are still good.

French Fry Seasoning
3 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon instant tomato soup mix
(Knorr tomato with basil works great)
2 teaspoons chili powder
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Also, I couldn't find the instant tomato soup mix at the store so I made my own with this recipe:

Instant Tomato Soup Mix
4 tb non-fat dry milk
2 tb powdered dry tomatoes
1/8 ts basil
1/16 ts salt dash pepper

I dried my own tomatoes in my dehydrater and then ground to powder in my wheat grinder. Make sure your tomatoes are really dry. I think a few of the slices weren't quite there yet. Consequently, I spent quite some time unclogging the grinder.

I also found for this recipe for instant tomato soup mix at chef2chef a varation: "Add about 1/4 teaspoon of onion and/or garlic powder.
Reduce the amount of non-fat dry milk milk accordingly."
I am fairly sure that this will make a big difference. I'll have to try it next time.

Hamburger Buns

I got this recipe from my friend Marisa from Backyard Farming gave me this recipe for hamburger buns:

Hamburger Buns
2 Tbsp yeast
2 cups warm water, divided
3 Tbsp sugar, divided
1 Tbsp salt
5 Tbsp oil
5-6 cups all-purpose flour, divided

Dissolve yeast in 1/2 cup warm water. Stir in 1 Tbsp sugar. Let this mixture stand while you combine the remaining water (1 1/2 cups), remaining sugar (2 Tbsp), salt, oil and 3 cups flour in a seperate bowl. Add yeast misture after it becomes frothy. Add the rest of the flour. Mix until it is kneadable. Let is rest for ten minutes then knead for one minute. Do this three times. Let it rest for an additional ten minutes. Make them into 3.5 oz. balls (makes about 12) and place them on a greased cookie sheet. Flatten them with the palm of your hand. Check back in a few minutes to make sure they are still somewhat flat. If not, flatten again. Let rise for one hour. Bake at 350 F for 15-20 minutes.

This may seem like a time-intensive process. It does take a lot of time but most of it isn't hands-on time. The first time I made these I got a lot done while I made them. I listened to an audio book during the first part. During the first ten minute rest time I unloaded and loaded the dishwasher. During the second I sorted and started a load of laundry. During the third I tidyed up the house. During the fourth I colored with my kids. During the one hour rise time I went for a run. During the bake time I got all the burger fixings ready. (My husband was working the grill.)

The second time I made these I used 2 Tbsp of honey in place of the sugar that didn't get mixed with the yeast. I also used half freshly ground wheat flour and half all-purpose flour.

My Version of Homemade Samoas Cookies

*Be sure to scroll to the bottom for my Carmel Delights variation for those who don't like coconut or don't have it on hand. They are awesome too! Oh, and they are less work.*


Homemade Samoas Cookies
1 cup butter, soft
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 F. In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Mix in flour, baking powder and salt at a low speed, followed by the vanilla. The dough should come together without being sticky. If the dough is too dry, add a tiny bit of milk (no more than 2 Tbsp should be needed). Add a bit of extra flour if it's too sticky. Roll into little balls about the size of a nickle. Place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and flatten with the palm of your hand to 1/4" thick or less. Use the end of a WIDE straw to make a hole in the middle of each cookie. If you don't have a wide straw, a regular straw will work. Just do three holes overlapping and kind of smooth the edges with the straw after the last hole. *Tip: When you make a hole, twist the straw a bit and it will collect the hole inside the straw.* Repeat with remaining dough. Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes, until the bottoms are lightly browned and cookies are set. Cool for few minutes on the baking sheet and then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Topping
3 cups shredded coconut
12 oz chewy carmels
1/4 tsp salt
3 Tbsp milk

8 oz chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 300 F. Spread coconut evenly on a parchment lined baking sheet and toast in five minute increments. After five minutes, see if most of the coconut is toasted. If there is a lot not toasted, stir and return to the oven for another five minutes. It should take about twenty minutes before the coconut is golden. Cool on the baking sheet, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, unwrap the carmels and place in a large microwave safe bowl with milk and salt. Cook on high for 3-4 minutes, stopping to stir a few times. When smooth, mix in the coconut. Have a bowl on water on hand to wet your hands with. With slightly wet hands, form a piece of the topping in to a snake shape, place around the top of a cookie and connect ends. Flatten slightly so the topping sticks to the cookie. Repeat for each cookie. If the topping gets to firm to work with, stick it back in the microwave for a few seconds to soften it.

While the topping sets, melt the chocolate chocolate chips in the microve for 45 seconds. Stir until all the chips are melted. Dip the base of each cookie in to the chocolate and place on parchment paper to cool. Drizzle the remaining chocolate (or melt a little more if necessary) over the finished cookies. Let the chocolate set completely before storing in an airtight container. Makes 3.5-4 dozen cookies.


Carmel Delights
Prepare as above except dip the base in the chocolate before adding the topping and don't add the coconut to the topping recipe. You can just pour the melted carmel mixture to the top of each cookie, drizzle with chocolate and wait until they are set.