Black Quinoa 101--how to cook it and where to use it.

I want to share something amazing, as I know that a lot of people have "toppers". That's a sauce with veggies or whatever...over rice.    It is one thing to have the freezer meal rice topper on rice, but another world to have it on a whole grain like quinoa or barley. I'm a huge fan of the Solar Cooked Fire and Rain Barley Pilaf as a base for soup or as a meal on it's own if we're talking grain. I have a long way to go adding a ton more on the subject of whole grain here on the blog. I hope you don't get sick of the new options. Variety is good. Even with grain, as it will nourish your body different ways and add another level of appreciation for good food. More than likely, my kids will at least be able to visit other families around the world someday and not freak out if they are served a meal they don't recognize. That's always good for foreign relations. So is this. Bolivia...I love you. I love your Black Organic Quinoa . Quinoa ( pronounced "keen-wah") is heaven. It has been cultivated in the Andes for more than 5000 years! Locally referred to as the "mother grain", it kept the Incan armies strong and robust. It's a protein powerhouse and considered one of the best sources of protein and amino acids by the United Nations. It's gluten free. Plus... look at it. It's just gorgeous and looks like Fall. Doesn't it? I fell in love the first grain that I ate. It is slightly nutty flavored and mild with amazing texture. Uncooked it looks like this...

The main thing to remember with quinoa cookery is to always rinse the grain. Always. It isn't optional like rice rinsing is. Quinoa will be huge wads of bitter unhappy junk in your mouth if you don't rinse it. I'm just saying...you've been warned. Put the grain in a strainer that is fine enough that the grain won't wash out.

This is how you cook it:

It will look like it has sprouted when cooked. It isn't sprouted. Just cool.

Because herbs freeze beautifully, I add a few from the garden.
This batch ended up like a fusion of Provence France and the Andes mountains. If that's possible--I'm eating brie with it. I'm using herbs that are traditionally combined for a classic French meal. Dill, parsley, tarragon, rosemary, thyme, basil and oregano. This with a subtle hint of lavender petals and some fresh squeezed lemon juice. Salt and pepper to taste.

Personal taste will vary and your preference for herbs may be different. As a general rule, I use about 1/4 cup chopped herbs to 2 cups cooked grain.

Put 2 cup portions in pint size freezer bags or containers and remove as much air as possible. Freeze laying flat for maximum freezer space.
Defrost in the fridge or in the microwave out of the bag. Heat 2-3 minutes microwave or add to your favorite soup or casserole in place of rice.

There you go. Explore a new grain this week.

Adding Fruit and Jam to Your Food Storage Changes...Everything.

Basic Home Canning of Jam

and Canning Safety 101

Free Class March 29th at 9 AM here at Preparing Wisely

Store

Are you a little behind on the Basic sanitation and food safety for home

canning that your GRANDMA didn't know about? Things have changed!

There are many unsafe canning methods and myths out there that could

prove to be potentially lethal! Learn what home canning specialists and food

safety experts think you need to know to keep your family SAFE...so that

your food storage will preserve life...not shorten it. Empower yourself with

knowledge!

This class will cover basic jam and fruit spread canning safety using a water

bath canner. It will be taught by Chef Stephanie Petersen. Her classes are

always full of wonderful information, laughter and food! Come join the fun!

Save your spot today!

Sour Cream Cornbread Mix Using Your Food Storage

What is it about old school chili  to make a gal homesick and happy at the same time? Really nothing seems to invoke those feelings of home like that comfort food from my child hood. Maybe it's the warming influence of the beans. Hee hee.

Ironically, it's not the same without a nice rich cornbread to drizzle the chili over is it? So here's my recipe for cornbread mix. First you will need to have some of my Homemade Bisquick.

Chef Tess' Sour Cream Cornbread Mix

1 cup Homemade Bisquick
3/4 cup cornmeal

1/3 cup sugar or sugar free replacement

1/3 cup powdered sour cream Sour Cream Powder 

2T powdered egg Whole Egg Powder 

Combine all dry ingredients. At baking, pre-heat oven to 425 degrees. Combine cornbread mix with 1 cup water. Stir until just combined. Pour into a greased 8 inch by 8 inch cake pan or a 9 by 5 loaf pan. Bake 20-25 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the cornbread comes out clean.

Drizzle with homemade chili. Or for breakfast, our all time favorite is to soak it in butter and maple syrup. Oh have mercy. It's comforting to the core.

If you prefer to make cornbread without a mix, may I suggest my lovely post on Scratch Cornbread from the early days of the blog. Gosh it's a classic.

Whole 7 Grain Bread Baked in a Solar Oven

I taught a class at Preparing Wisely today and wanted to share a few of the tips that I shared with the many students who were in attendance.  We focused specifically on whole grain bread.  

Hard Wheat, Soft Wheat, Oats, Rye, Barley, Triticale, and Spelt make up the whole grain mix we used.

It is specifically the  7 grain rolled cereal from Wheat Montana.  It has long been a favorite at our home because of how hearty and flavorful it is. Mildly nutty and just a nice filling cereal.  Cooked it is outstanding.  In this bread...it acts as a moisture retainer.  This recipe makes 4 loaves.

You will need:

Step one:

In a 3.5 Gallon White Bucket without Lid:

6 cups rolled 7 grain cereal (or just rolled oats)

5 cups warm water (not too hot)

1 cup Country Cream Real Instant Milk 

1 cup honey

1 cupShortening Powder  (or olive oil)

1T plus 1 tsp instant SAF Yeast

Allow yeast to activate and grain the chance to absorb moisture 30 minutes.

In a separate container combine:

6 cups Wheat Montana white wheat flour (I mill mine from prairie gold)

2 tsp Real Salt 

1/2 cup Honeyville Vital Wheat Gluten

Stir 3/4 of the flour mixture into the grain water mixture until a thick paste is made.

The dough will appear very moist.  Wait 5-10 minutes and allow the flour to absorb water before adding any more flour (if any). This will make a very moist bread.

Knead consistently in the same direction for 7 minutes by hand (or 300 strokes).

Kneading dough in a bucket is ideal in that you have a straight sided container to tell when the bread has doubled in volume. Also, if you were in a camping situation or emergency situation where you didn't have access to a kitchen counter it would give you a sanitary place to prepare the dough. After kneading for the 300 turns, take a minute to wash your hands. 

Touch the dough with your clean hands. If it doesn't stick to your fingers, it is done. You may not need to even add more flour.

There will be visible amounts of whole grain throughout the dough.

Roll dough into a ball.  Place lid on the bucket and allow to raise until doubled in volume, about 1 1/2 hours.

Open your solar oven and place it in direct sunlight.  Oil two NorPro 10" Loaf Pan  

Divide dough into 4 balls. Again, in a camping situation, this may be done directly in the bucket if the bucket is turned on it's side.

To form a loaf with good structure and nice shape, take the dough and pat it out flat on a surface that has been lightly coated with water. Yes. Water. When working with whole grain, I use water on my counter tops. 

Fold the dough into thirds.

Turn a half turn.

Roll into a tight loaf.

Place in the oiled loaf pan.

Lightly cover the top of the bread with oil. You may also top with seeds if desired. I like to use a combination I use for my "everything" bagels.

It is ready to put into your hot solar oven after raising 45 minutes to an hour.

You can bake it in a regular oven at 375 degrees 40 -45 minutes.

One of the best tricks I've found for knowing this bread is done, is by using an instant meat thermometer. When the dough reads 170 degrees or hotter, it is done.

There you go. Make some whole grain bread in your solar oven...and then send us some pictures! We'd love to add them to our blog!

Oh Sugar... Honey, Honey!

I've never met a living soul who didn't love a good honey.  Finding an amazing honey however, can be be challenging.  Unprocessed honey, straight from the hive, has been used worldwide for millennia to promote healing. For more natural healing benefits of raw honey, click here . Troy Adair wrote a great blog entry on Raw Desert Blossom Honey. This is why we carry Crockett Raw Honey it's a mild honey with fruity hints. Collected from natural sources and bottled here in the valley of the sun. at Crockett Honey Co. they  produce and package the finest honeys of the Southwest. The Sonoran Deserts produce a mild delicate flavored honey from many desert floral sources. These sources include Cactus, Mesquite, Catclaw, Palo Verde, as well as many other flowering plants. These honeys are unique in that they are only produced in the Sonoran Desert regions.  Our desert honey is 100% pure and natural. Honey is Nature's Natural Sweetener and is proven to be more easily digestible than refined sugars. They do nothing to the honey except carefully package it in a manner that will not alter its natural quality or change its delicate and mild flavor. 

But what do you do when you buy crystallized honey? Can it be uncrystallized without changing it's natural ability to heal? Well, some say no. If you add much heat it can kill the natural healthy enzymes. 

If however you aren't worried so much about the enzyme content and want a honey with a better viscosity...Here's how to do it.

If you don't plan on using the full container of honey, transfer the amount you want to use into a seal able jar. I use a half pint canning jar.  Then I put the jar into a cup or pot of hot water for 10-15 minutes, refreshing the water once so it stays hot (or if you use the insert to your slow cooker as the container for the water bath it will hold the heat fine). 

Honey comes out crystal clear.

 Enjoy our Raw Honey! We love it!

How to Use Your Dutch Oven to Bake Pie

I wanted to share a little from the class I co-taught today at Preparing Wisely . I was all about the Beginner's Pie Crust and gave some basics on how to actually make the pie. Troy Adair, amazing emergency preparedness guy of glory was there to teach some basics on how to turn a regular outdoor dutch oven into a baker for pie. I was most interested in learning myself how to know that the oven was the proper temperature for baking. Since, y'all know I'm a bit of a baking geek...right? Why bake it in a Dutch oven at all? You know, I'm all about alternative cooking methods and I adore solar baking all summer and winter, but I'm also looking at the fact that my son Little Man will soon be attending BSA camps. I'm getting my game on to cook in the rough...should I ever need to assist in that area. Plus, will I ever be sad I didn't know how to cook something another way? Nay. I dare say I will always be a cub master-chef...even now as I'm not a cub master any more. I can also do a yodeling goat on the mountain impression and sing,"Be prepared! Be prepared! This lesson must be shared..."

It turns out there is a very technical way of knowing the internal temperature of a dutch oven. We used the Lodge Camp Dutch Oven 14 Inch deep dutch oven. It was just about the perfect size for a 9 inch pie. To determine the temperature of the oven, you use what is called, "the rule of 4." If the oven is 14 inches, you subtract 4. You will need 10 coals on the bottom of the dutch oven and twice that many on top of the dutch oven to get the internal temperature to 350 degrees (preheating 20 minutes). Adding 5-7 minutes to the baking time on most items. Add two coals to the bottom and 4 to the top for every additional 25 degrees you want inside your oven. So...for 400 degrees we added 4 to the bottom and 8 to the top. Does that sound technical enough? It almost hurt my brain to do that much math.

Once hot, Troy used a metal hook to take off the lid, with the coals still on top:

Single layer pie crust for a custard pie takes about 25 minutes.

Oh...this is important, we put the pie on top of a metal trivet inside the dutch oven so the bottom didn't burn. This also applies for most other pans you are baking in the dutch oven. Leave a little circulation space under the item's pan so it isn't in direct contact with the dutch oven. This is why we used the deeper dutch oven (5 inched deep instead of 3 inches deep).

A fruit pie generally takes about 45 minutes to bake (50-55) in the dutch oven.

The crust was golden delicious.

For the filling we used freeze dried peaches, raspberries and blueberries, reconstituted and lightly sweetened with agave. The general rule with thickening fruit is this:

4 cups of fruit mixed with 1/4 cup corn starch or ultra gel and 1/4 cup agave nectar. We also added 1 tsp of Chef Tess Wise woman of the east spice blend.

Now I'm ready to go camping! What about you?! Who wouldn't love pie in the mountains?

There you go. Dutch oven baking. We're starting with pie...but bread is next!