Apple Cider Syrup

Sometimes you have a food that you've never had before and it completely blows your mind.  Not because it tastes so good, even though it is excellent, but because you wonder why you never have experienced it before.  As someone who grew up near a place that claims to be the Apple Capital of the World, this is how I felt after sampling my first batch of apple cider syrup.

First a bit of back story.  Every fall LJ's parents host an apple cider making gathering after they have finished their harvest.  Friends come from all over for a wild weekend that includes a fair bit of drinking and a little bit of apple squeezing.

Pa, GFOTB, helping with the cider making

It is hard not to be all smiles when carrying fresh apple cider

The only real dilemma with cider making is that it only stays fresh in the refrigerator for about a week before it starts to go bad.  We keep a few gallons in our freezer but each one takes up quite a lot of space so I was delighted when this recipe for apple cider syrup was posted to one of my favorite food blogs.

The process for converting the cider to syrup couldn't be easier, though I found the time needed to cook the cider down to be much longer than what the recipe suggested.  I also ended up with closer to 2 cups than 3 so my cider may have contained more water than what was used in the initial recipe.

Boiled down with cinnamon sticks

Reduced syrup with sugar added

Hard to see but it is getting close to 218 degrees

4 finished half pints

A little extra syrup for sampling

I mixed the leftover syrup with some hot water and honey and it made for an excellent warm drink in the middle of winter.  I know what I'm doing next year with all the fresh cider I get.

Western Shirt

The past few years my family has drawn names for holiday gifts. This year I drew my dad's name and immediately knew that I would be making him a shirt. I wondered for a while if my mom rigged the drawing right before I selected just so I would have a reason to make him another shirt. The first one that I made for him a year or so ago was too big but otherwise very well received; hopefully I got the fit right this time around.

Clearly, this vintage pattern is just right for my dad. I can picture him standing in front of a wagon wheel, looking wistfully into the distance as his bandana flutters in the wind. Okay maybe not, but he does enjoy a good western shirt. His mother used to make him all sorts of nice western shirts, and now I am able to carry on the tradition.


I bought the vintage fabric on Etsy and it's just right for a lightweight, short sleeved shirt. I only used up half of the yardage, so I may have to make a matching father-daughter shirt for myself!


The distinctively western yoke was sewn on the shirt using my new edgestitch foot. I always wondered how other people were able to get such straight stitching close to the edge of the fabric, and this must be the answer. Buying that pack of specialty feet for my sewing machine really is paying off in the quality of my work.


The edgestitch foot also came in handy when sewing on the collar and collar stand, which requires a lot of pins and slow sewing. This is by far the best collar stand I have ever sewn.



The seams are flat-felled as usual, which requires patience, a bit of precision, and lots of steaming/ironing to enclose the raw edge of the fabric. It makes a really nice looking and sturdy seam and is totally worth the effort.


Other details include a pen holder in the pocket and black pearly snaps down the front.


Enjoy, dad!

Pepperoni Calzone

LJ was running low on prepared lunches in the freezer so I decided to make a batch of calzones.  Making calzones isn't that different than making a pizza but you end up with something like a homemade Hot Pocket.  I started by making a batch of pizza dough and then separating the dough in to eight small balls.

I rolled each ball in to a circle to prepare it for filling.

I stuffed our calzones with a mix of cheese, pepperoni, and tomato sauce.

After filling the calzone, I folded over the dough and pinched the edges together.  Before baking I also poked a few holes in the top with a knife so that steam could be released during baking.

I baked each calzone on a hot stone in the oven until the crust was golden.  The finished calzones were perfect for popping in the freezer and then reheating in a microwave for a few minutes to have for lunch.

Dal

When LJ and I moved to the Olympia area we investigated local restaurants with the help of Yelp.  One of the most highly rated places was Curry Corner in Lacey.  We haven't eaten a lot of Indian food in our lives but that isn't because we don't enjoy it so we decided to make the trip across town one weekend to check it out.  Curry Corner completely lived up to the hype (LJ commented "I'm going to have to get use to possibility of good things being located in strip malls.") and the visit inspired me to try making a few dishes.

Dal is a simple dish to start with when exploring Indian food.  I have seen is served both as a soup and a side dish.  The ingredients are inexpensive and depending on the time of year you could find many of them in your garden.  The only difficult ingredient to find was Bengali five spice, which we couldn't find at our local grocery store.  We substituted Chinese five spice for it, and even though each contains a completely different set of five spices, the results were still excellent.

Red lentils form the base

Boiling the lentils

Prepped tomato for peeling

Peeled tomatoes after blanching

Cooking onion

Finished lentils

Added garlic and spices to onion

Added everything together

This is delicious stuff and incredibly easy to make.  We ate ours with naan (coming in a future post) but it easily could have been served over rice or as a soup.

Our present to you

Even though LJ and I are pagans we do go along with celebrating Christmas (we haven't been able to convince everyone to celebrate the winter solstice instead, even though everyone would be able to open their presents a few days earlier).


For our gift to you, our loyal readers (and by that I mean probably just my dad), we wanted to share two pictures of things that should never be seen together.

Sauerkraut

I'm not sure where I got my love of sauerkraut but it probably came from my mom's mom, Grandma G.  Grandma G made a number of traditional German foods for special occasions and each time it was treated like a national holiday in my family.  From dumplings (if I remember correctly they were just bread balls that you dipped in maple or corn syrup), case-nuh-fluh (I have no idea how to spell it ((even Google couldn't help me figure it out)) but it was a ravioli like pocket that was filled with dried cottage cheese and served in a butter and cream sauce), to kuchen (I only remember this happening once, when I was very little, but I distinctly remember the excitement in the voices of all the adults and knew I was in for something special).  

I don't actually remember eating any of Grandma G's sauerkraut.  I think by that point in her life the work to make it wasn't really worth it so I only have stories from my mom about how much it made the house smell.  After getting a head of cabbage this fall in our CSA box I decided I wanted to give it a shot.

I should also mention LJ hates sauerkraut.  I don't think I can state this strongly enough actually (the bold and italics aren't even enough).  The only time I open a jar of sauerkraut in our kitchen is when she will be gone for the entire evening and not returning for at least 12 hours so that there is time for the smell to disperse.  I was a little worried about this as I prepared to make a homemade batch but I figured I could get away with it since she didn't have a better idea for the head of cabbage, or I could convince her that I was trying to ward off scurvy.

Sauerkraut is incredibly simple.  Pretty much all it takes is cabbage, salt, and time.  I had put off making it in the past because I don't own a proper fermenting crock, but after reading a number of articles online I realized any non-reactive container could be used.  I had a few extra quart jars around from canning pickles so I stuffed my cabbage in to those.  I stuffed some plastic bags in the jars and filled the bags with beans to weigh down the cabbage to keep it submerged while the fermentation took place.

I fermented the cabbage for about two weeks and then placed the jar in the fridge.  It wasn't as sour as I had hoped and it began to turn brown after a day or two.  After doing some more reading online there were a few suggestions that using non-chlorinated water would help in the fermentation process.  We live a few miles from an artesian well where we can get free water so next time I get my hands on a head of cabbage I am going to give it another shot.

Turkey Gravy

LJ and I have made the trip over the mountains (via train, which will be discussed in a future post) to spend he holidays with our parents.  Since arriving at my parents there has been a constant clamoring for new blog posts.  I assumed the vast majority of page views were coming from my dad (a great friend of the blog, GFOB) refreshing his browser a work and home every few minutes to see if any new shout outs to him made the blog, but now I know for sure after seeing him check this blog as I sat next to him on the couch last evening.

The last time we visited my parents was over Thanksgiving.  My main responsibility each Thanksgiving is to make the gravy from the turkey drippings so I decided to document my process.

I make a roux from butter and flour a few hours before the turkey is set to be done because the roux needs to be cool since the turkey drippings will be warm.  Since there is a 20+ year tradition of the turkey going in before 6 AM at my parents this means the roux is started as soon as I finish eating my cereal in the morning.

Ended up with a dark roux

The roux going in to the fridge to cool

Before the turkey has completely finished cooking I pour off some of the juices in to a kettle where I simmer it with peppercorns and bay leaves as the turkey finishes cooking.

When making the gravy I try to remove as much of the fat as possible.  I strain the drippings to remove any solid bits along with the peppercorns and bay leaves.  I then add ice cubes to cool the drippings and solidify the fat at the top.

 

After removing fat from the top I add the drippings to a fat separator.  Since fat rises (physics in action: liquids with different densities) the separator has a spout from the bottom.  You simply pour the drippings slowly out until you reach the fat layer which you can discard.

Once the fat is mostly removed I returned the drippings to the heat and slowly whisked in the roux.

I reserved some drippings in case the gravy needed to be thinned.

It turned out that I had an over-abundance of drippings, and since I try to make as much gravy as is possible, I needed to add some additional flour to thicken the gravy.  I added the flour (technically Wondera, which is mostly just flour) to a small amount of the gravy to avoid any lumps and then added the mixture to the gravy.

Admiring the perfect consistency