New Take on an Old Rub for Turkey & Chicken

I grew many of my own herbs this year, and have been trying to incorporate them into my recipes.  I previously put the recipe for the Best Turkey Ever on my blog, but these were made with commercial products.  Although this one has a commercial product in it, it also contains my own Italian Herb Mix and Black Sage.

The Italian Seasoning Mix is all dried herbs:

1 Part Rosemary-I don't like this much, but the herb mix isn't right without it.

3 Parts Oregano
2 Parts Marjoram
3 Parts Basil
2 Parts Thyme
1 Part Black Sage or regular if that is what you have on hand
1/4 Part Red Pepper Flakes or to taste-Grind this prior to placing in the other ingredients in the bullet in the next step.

Using the Italian Herb Mix:

It is great in spaghetti sauce.

2 Cans of Crushed tomatoes
1 Small individual serving bottle of nice dry red wine
1 scant Tablespoon of good cocoa powder (not a Nestle Quick type powder). I use Penzy's Spices; check it out here.  I use this in any tomato dish to amp up the flavor.
1 Teaspoon Sugar or equivalent of sweetener or choice
1 small onion ground in a blender-I don't want to see the pieces
2 carrots
2 or more cloves of garlic-to taste
1 Bay Leaf-Again I prefer the Penzys Brand, see it here

Cook this on low, in a heavy bottom pan for at least 1 hour so the herbs cook into the sauce well.  I will cook it until it reaches the desired consistency.  I use the heavy bottom to prevent sticking and scorching of the sauce.  You do need to stir this regularly to test the consistency.

This sauce is great warmed up, and improves after refrigeration over night.  It really is almost better the next day.  Serve over spaghetti.  Use in lasagna, or anywhere else you would use spaghetti sauce.

About Penzy's Spices.  I don't work for them, they don't pay me anything to push their spices.  I just appreciate good quality, and fair prices.  They have stores all over the country now, but I have been buying from them since I found them online in Chicago.  I bought 1 Pound of bay leaves from them.  I had no idea how much that would be, but everyone at work got some.  It is a massive amount of herbs.  I paid $15.00 for that then.  It would have filled over 50 of the regular spice jars, and the leaves would be broken and crumbled.  One ounce will fill a wide mouth quart jar and cost 7.30 now.  I use these for everything.  I just don't know how to cook without them.  LOL 

The most interesting part of this story is, that I tried to order some from them once and was told they didn't have any because they had to send the last order back to their supplier.  I asked them why they sent them back, and the lady said "He just didn't approve of the quality.  He wasn't going to sell that inferior product even if it meant he was going to have to tell his customers he didn't have any."  This speaks volumes for they type of herbs that are sold there.  I eventually got the bay leaves, and they were excellent.

Salad Dressing

This is good for Italian dressing with juice two lemons, or 1/4 C balsamic vinegar or 1/4 raspberry vinegar, and 1/2 parts oil; I prefer olive or canola oil.  I use 1 1/2 teaspoons of the Italian Seasoning Mix.  Shake until it emulsifies.  This is sooooo easy, and sooooo much better for you than the store bought stuff.  Keeps in the refrigerator for about 2 weeks.  It really doesn't last long at my house.  We eat salads a lot.

Making the Turkey and Chicken Rub

I just hand crush the herbs before putting them into the spice grinder. (I use my Magic Bullet with the flat grinding blade for this.)  To this I add:

3 Tablespoons Italian Herb Seasoning
1 Tablespoon of Lawry's Seasoned Salt
1 Tablespoon of parsley
1 Teaspoon of dried mustard
2 Teaspoons black pepper or pepper melange or to taste
2 Teaspoons onion powder

I grind this all together until it has a slightly fine grind, but don't make it a powder. See picture above for consistency.

To use on a turkey or chicken, spray the bird with oil, I used olive oil.  Rub the herb mixture on the outside skin.  Lift the skin on the breast, and rub the herb mixture under the skin directly on the breast meat. 

Place two bay leaves under the skin on each breast. 

Sprinkle some of the rub mixture inside the bird along with a bay leaf,  onion wedges, carrot, celery and a lemon or orange. Use just enough to loosely fill the cavity. 

Tie up the legs and cook as directed by the package. 

I put it into a shallow pan/dish with a wire rack to hold it off the bottom of the pan.  I put 1 can of chicken broth in the bottom of the pan.

I use a 350 Degree oven, and tent the bird with foil until the last 1/2 hour of the cooking time. 
Times will vary depending on the size of the bird.  I use the pop up timers for mine, but you can find all kinds of charts giving approximate times for the size of the bird.

WARNING:  This is not a complete guide to cooking poultry.  Please look up recommendations from the USDA here.

I hope you enjoy the Italian Herb Mix and Rub.  It really was a smash at Thanksgiving this year.  Everyone loved the rub, and said it was the best ever.  UhOh do I need to change the name of the other one to the Second Best?.

Thanks for stopping by.
Namaste
 

Sassy Apple Butter in a Crockpot

This was really simple to do.  I will be using this method all the time.  I found these apples growing in my new backyard, and didn't think much of them.  My sister-in-law, who grew up in the house, said the tree was there when she was growing up.  She thought that it had been there prior to the house being built over 65 years ago.  I found one on the ground, that the deer and ants hadn't attacked yet, so I cleaned it up and took a bite.  OMG what a treat.  They were sweet and just enough tart to make them ideal candidates for apple butter.  So I got out a recipe I was going to use someday, and started in.  I soon realized that about the only thing I could use from the recipe was the times for the crockpot.  So I decided to wing it with the recipe.  It turned out so well that I had to share this.

Tools:

• Apple Peeler & Corer-It can be done by hand, but this also sliced them thin for quicker cook down.
• 6 to 7 Jelly Jars, lids and rings
• Water Bath Canner-I have this sweet little granite ware one that works for 7 pints, and of course jelly jars
• Funnel, ladle, jar lifter, magnetic lid lifter, and clean towels.
• Large capacity Crockpot-I know they vary in size, so the amount of apples will need to be adjusted accordingly as will the spices and sugar.

Recipe

• About 10-15 pounds of apples-enough to totally fill the crockpot, as the apples cook down a lot.
• 1 heaping teaspoon of Cinnamon
• 1 to 2 cups sugar or to taste-this will depend a lot on the type of apples used.  Sweet tart apples are best, and the web abounds in recommendations for this.  I have no earthly idea what kind of apples mine are.
• 1 teaspoon apple pie spice
• 1/4 scant teaspoon of salt-salt is not my friend
• 5 tablespoons bottled lemon juice-put into crockpot 5 minutes before turning off to can.

Process

Please consult the USDA home canning guide found HERE  My instructions are what I have used for years, and if this is your first time canning you must read this guide for safety precautions.  I insist on that.

I start this process a about 4:30 PM so I can turn my pot on by 5:00 PM.  Pack the crockpot full of peeled and sliced or cubed apples.  Combine the dry ingredients and pour into the pot.  There should not be any room to stir that in if the pot is packed.  Turn the pot on low.  Let this cook for a few hours or until you can stir it, and stir with a plastic or wooden non-reactive spoon.  "Metal will react with the acidy apples and cause a metallic taste in the applebutter. The same is true for tomatoes"

Let this cook on low overnight.  When you get up in the morning the house is filled with the lovely scent of apple butter.  Now is the time to taste the stuff and adjust the seasonings, if necessary.  Turn the crockpot on high, and cook for two hours or until it reaches the consistency that you prefer for your apple butter.  It will get a bit thicker when it is cold from the refrigerator.

Add the lemon juice about 5 minutes before completion of cooking time, this raises the acidity enough to allow for waterbath canning.  If this makes it too runny, just cook on high a while longer.

I use what is called a hot pack, which means that I boil my jars in the canner for at least 10 minutes before filling,  I actually just boil them 10 minutes, and pull them out of the hot water with my jar lifter, fill them, and return them immediately to the wire carrier in the canner.  The apple butter is also hot when put into the hot jars.  This method reduces the process time, and assures good sterility of the process.

I use a little saucepan to boil the lids for a minimum of 5 minutes, but leave the lids in the boiling water until I'm ready to use them so the seal is nice and soft for a good seal.

Fill the jelly jars with a plastic ladle using a funnel.  Clean the lip of the jar with a damp clean towel to remove anything from the sealing area.  I use a magnetic lid lifter to take the lids out of the boiling water, place them directly on the jar, and screw on the ring it should be tight, but don't have Hercules tighten it up for you, as a vacuum seal is created from the heating and cooling process.  You just need it tight enough to prevent water from seeping into the jar.

Lower the jars into the canner and make sure the water covers the lids by about one inch.  Process for the recommended time stated in the canning guide above.

When the jars are done, I set them on a clean towel and let them air cool.  Be sure to leave plenty of space between the cans so they cool quicker.  Any that do not seal, as defined in the canning guide should be used within a month.  You will know if you have a good seal, as the lids will be concave a bit, and when pressed they will not give.  I'm always cautious, and any off smell will be a good reason the throw it out.

I hope you enjoy.

Namaste


















 

Assuring the Best Tasting Homecooked Foods

Care of Flours and Oils

Flour has oils in it, as do most plants based products, and when it is stored at room temperature for long periods of time that oil gets rancid, and gives it an off odor and worse, off flavor.  When you bake and cook with it, that off flavor will be noticeable in delicate flavored recipes, or recipes with only a few ingredients; like my Shortbread Recipe. The refrigerator extends the useful life of flour extensively. My nose is sensitive to this off odor, and you can probably smell it also. I can also taste when I am served food prepared with rancid flours.  The other thing that is important here is that rancid flours and cooking oils are not healthy.  See this article from the Chicago Tribune to explain it better.

One of my favorite tricks for keeping flour fresher longer is storing it in the refrigerator. I put it in a glass or PBA safe plastic canister. PBA safe plastic is simple, play by the numbers, use containers with recycling numbers of #1, 2 or 4, and avoid the others.  Some of my low use flours will get rancid if not used in a timely manner.  I try make those recipes that call for the special flours I have on hand to assure that it gets in and out quickly.  Good storage methods are a must when you use a lot of different types of specialty flours.  I noticed that the article specifically calls out whole grain flour as susceptible, but ALL flour can get rancid after a time.  If you don't use a LOT of flour, store it in the fridge.

I also use the fridge to store my cooking oils. This increases the life of the products, but they will still get rancid eventually so make sure you sniff the stuff before you use it, especially if you can't remember how old it is. I only use extras virgin olive and expeller pressed grape seed oils which are polyunsaturated.    These oils are highly susceptible to rancidity if stored at room temperature for a long time.  Although I use mine fairly quickly, I still store them in the fridge to be on the safe side.  I can tell when something is going rancid way before most other people will even notice it.  Although the larger bottles may look like a better bargain, if you don't use much oil, stick with the smaller bottles, and store those in the fridge.  I hate when I have to throw out unused portions of anything when they get rancid before I finish them.

Olive oil, as do most other oils, gets solid when cold, so I transfer it into a wide mouth canning jar for storage, and just use a spoon to dip it out.   You can also let it sit a room temp for a brief time and it melts pretty fast. Grape seed oil does not solidify in the fridge, but I have never explored why.

Here are some links to the benefits of Grape Seed Oil:

http://www.ehow.com/how_4821428_benefit-grapeseed-oil.html
http://familyfood.hiddenvalley.com/grape-seed-oil-cooking-tips-2985.html
http://healthybodydaily.com/doctor-oz-supplements/dr-oz-glucomannan-best-appetite-suppressants-to-lose-weight

Shortbread Done Right

Tips & Tricks

Ingredient Tips
Shortbread recipes are pretty simple, but there are a few techniques that make them great.  The first thing is to start with good "Butter"; real butter.  Margerine is noticably different.  This is not a recipe that you will make if you are worried about calories.  This is a simple indulgence, and very tasty. 

The second secret to really flaky, great textured shortbread is rice flour.  My recipe is made with one cup of flour, and it does pretty well with just all-purpose flour.  By substituting 1/4 cup of rice flour as part of the one cup flour, the texture is improved greatly.

Flour Freshness is important to this delicately flavored recipe.  Because there aren't many ingredients in the recipe the rancid taste of old flour will stand out, you need to be sure that the flour is fresh.  One of my favorite tricks for keeping flour fresher longer is storing it in the refrigerator.  I put it in a glass or PBA safe plastic cannister.  PBA safe plastic is simple, play by the numbers, use containers with recycling numbers of #1, 2 or 4 and avoid the others.

Utensil Tips
I use the Brown Bag Shortbread Pans.  These have proven to be outstanding for shortbread, and you can put them in the dishwasher, what a time savings.  Most of the shortbread pans have intricate designs, and trying to wash them by hand proves to be very difficult.  A pie plate will also work for this, but does not give the same browning on the bottom.

Do not try to process this with a mixer; I don't care how fancy it is.  For one thing it makes the dough texture coarser, and for another the dough doesn't come together as nicely.  Quite a lot of uncessessary cleaning also.  This is sooo easy to do by hand.  All there is to clean is a bowl, spoon, and pan.  Oh yeah, and a measuring spoon.

Ingredients

 

1 Stick of Unsalted Butter at room temperature

¹/₃ Cup Powdered Sugar

¼ teaspoon Vanilla-I prefer Watkins Double Stregth Extract

¾ Cup All Purpose Flour-Make sure it is fresh with no rancid aroma-I like King Aurthur.

¼ Cup Rice Flour-Fresh with no rancid aroma-Bob's Redmill is what I use.

 

Directions

 

Preheat oven to 325° Farenhiet.  Spray Brown Bag shortbread pan with nonstick cooking spray; be sure you get good coverage of the surface so you don't have a sticking problem.  Make sure the spray is fresh and doesn't have a rancid smell.  Using any other method to grease the Brown Bag pan may result in areas of poor coverage due to the patterns in the pan.  A pie plate can be greased anyway you want.

 

In a small mixing bowl cream the powdered surgar, and butter together.

 

Add the vanilla to the butter & sugar, and mix thoroughly.

 

Add the flour and work it into the butter mixture.  When it comes together, I just pick it up in my hands an knead it by folding it in half, and squeezing it together; then in half again and squeeze.  I keep doing the fold/squeeze until I have a nice smooth dough. This can take a few minutes to do right.  I've been know to walk into the livingroom to check on the TV while kneading the dough. :)  You can use conventional kneading methods on a floured board, but my texture is lighter because I'm not incorporating additional flour into mine.

 

Place the dough ball into the center of the pan.  Press it out to the sides of the pan, try to maitian and even layer.  I make sure that I press all cracks from the edges of the dough.  Prick the dough with a fork all over, to allow steam to escape from the bottom of the pan.

Place in the oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until golden brown. 

When it comes out of the oven I run a knife around the edge of my pan to loosen the shortbread.  I place a dinner size plate over the top of the shortbread pan, and flip both of them over.  The shortbread will probably just drop out of the pan, but if it doesn't, wrap the plant and pan on the counter, and it will drop out.  If you didn't get enough nonstick spray, then some may stick in th pan.

I cut mine on the cut lines of my pan design, whick is 8 pieces as soon as it comes out of the pan.  A pie plate works for this also, and you can cut that into 8 pieces as well.  Cutting it immediately make a much nicer presentation than when it cools more.  If it is cold, all you get is a bunch of crumbs, and that looks, well...crumby.

This is so simple, and so good.  I make this when I deserve an indulgent treat.  My poor skinny hubby would like it more often, but my health just won't handle that, and I can't eat just one.  I'd be willing to bet that most people would have trouble just eating one piece.

I hope you enjoy.

Namaste

Fresh Italian Tomato Sauce for Canning

It’s easier than you think.

INGREDIENTS

20 pounds of Roma Tomatoes[1]

2 medium onions

2-6 garlic cloves-to taste or Substitute 3 tablespoons Tastefully Simple Garlic-Garlic

Scant 1/2 cup of Good Olive Oil

2-187 mL Merlot Red Wine[2]

3 Tablespoon Italian Herb Mix-I prefer Penzy’s as it is very good quality.

2 Tablespoon Dried Sweet Basil-also from Penzy’s

4 Bay Leaves

2 Teaspoon of Ground Stevia[3]

2 Teaspoon Sea Salt-for low sodium users, but it is still marvelous,add to your              taste. You really don’t need any salt to can this.

Fresh ground pepper mélange to taste-black will be adequate if no mélange is available.

1 Teaspoon High Quality Cocoa Powder[4]

1 Teaspoon ground red pepper flake.  Just process with the flat blades of you magic bullet or other such grinder.

INSTRUCTIONS

Tomato Pereparation

Use the large jar on a magic bullet, or a blender.  I prefer the magic bullet as it pulverizes them better, but you can get more in the blender.  Clean the roma tomatoes, and take most of the seeds out ( don’t worry if they don’t all come out.) 

I leave the skins on the tomatoes, as they are pulverized in the processor. This dramatically increases the lycopene in the sauce; as the skins are where most of it is.  It also reduces the preparation time.  You won’t even know the skins are in there.  Along with a couple of bullets full I will throw in the onions and garlic, if used, to also pulverize.  That way all those finicky eaters will not even know they are there (read grandson here.)

I squish as many tomatoes into the jar of the bullet as possible, and shove the blades into the jar and whip it up.  If you are using a blender, don’t pack it in like that as it won’t process as easily.  There may be some small chunks, but they will cook down, and disappear. Pour this into a non-resistive pan, like ceramic, or enamel or Teflon (without scratches).  You do not want to cook tomatoes in a metal pot, as they pick up the metallic taste, yuk.  Tomatoes are extremely acidic, and will actually begin to corrode a metal pot, which is what gives it a metallic taste when cooked for as long as this sauce will need to cook.

Once all the tomatoes, onions and garlic are ground up, I add all the rest of the ingredients.  Let this cook uncovered for at least 2 hours or more, until it is reduced to a consistency that you like.  Make sure that you stir this occasionally as it might burn, but if the heat is low enough to prevent it from splattering all over the stove, then it shouldn’t stick or burn.  I will taste this about 1 hour into the cooking, and adjust the seasoning.  Make sure you let this cook in a while before going to the next step.

This is enough for about 7 pints.  You will process these according to the instructions found on-line from USDA or the Ball Blue book.  I will add a teaspoon of lemon juice to the can.  Some things to think of are removing the air bubbles with a knife or tool designed for this, by running it down the sides of the jar; fill jar leaving ½ inch head space.  Sanitize the jars and tools by placing them in the boiling water of the canner, I just leave the empty jars in the water until I’m ready to fill them. 

If you want to make more, just increase the seasonings accordingly.  I find this to be an excellent size for how my home garden produces tomatoes.  By the end of the season I will have about 28 pints, with very little effort.  I use an organic growing method, so my tomatoes don’t require enormous amounts of cleaning.  If you use commercially grown tomatoes, clean them well.  I would even remove the skins from those, just to reduce the amount of pesticides that I ingest.

Ideas for Use

I add ground beef to mine for meat sauce.  I make spaghetti and baked zucchini boats.  This is also good as a sauce for chicken or veal parmesan.  Recipes on the way shortly, just have to make them so I have pictures for the recipes. 

I always leave a little out for a meal instead of canning it all.  This is wonderful the next day; it actually improves with age, as do most tomato based sauces.  

Enjoy.  

---

[1] You can use others but they all have more water, so add a few more pounds of tomatoes, and longer cooking time. I did find that having some sweeter tomatoes like early girls and grape in the batch improved the taste a bit.

[2] I use two of the bottles from the small 4 pack bottles; the sauce is richer because of this.

[3] This is Green powder, but white powder if adequate if it isn’t available; this cuts acid in tomatoes without added calories.

[4] Use this in all your tomato based sauces, soups and stews to add a rich flavor to the sauce, but no chocolate taste.