Guess what I did this weekend? It involved me, findout what it takes to make a good mother, and 4 bottles of white wine.

Guess what I did this weekend? It involved me, finding out what it takes to makes a good mother, and 4 bottles of white wine.

 If you guessed starting to make white wine vinegar then you are right! I started down this rabbit hole on Saturday when I decided that I wanted to make raspberry sage vinegar for salad dressing. After looking at several recipes for raspberry vinegar they all required that a person make their salad dressing with white wine vinegar. Funny thing, I’ve never noticed white wine vinegar! I know I’ve had rice vinegar, white distilled vinegar, and white balsamic vinegar but never white wine vinegar.  I checked Costco and Cash & Carry and no one had white vinegar in the amounts that I needed make my salad dressing dreams come true. Then it hit me! I can make my own vinegar! So off I went, first looking for the “mother” but it seems that once a person gets a mother they can keep storing and feeding it, and they don’t need to buy more mothers, so no one in the local area sells vinegar mothers any longer.

I think it must have been amusing to the brew guy to watch the light turn on in my head and say “hey what stops me from using apple cider vinegar with the yeast already in the bottle?” he said to me “See that is why we don’t sell the mothers any longer.” So there I was, willing to add a little bit of apple cider vinegar to my white wine. So off to buy some cheap wine, good old Charles Shaw! But Also I decided to add some cheap Riesling as well to make it lighter fruitier white wine vinegar. It doesn’t matter if the wine costs a lot, it’s more about using what I think will taste decent.  

I started my vinegar with one jar of apple cider vinegar with the mother in the bottom of the jar, two bottles of cheap Chardonnay, and two cheap bottles of Riesling. I poured everything in a glass jar and now we are playing the waiting game. In about 8-12 weeks I’ll have white wine vinegar ready to use in all kinds of recipes. The best part is that right about then we’ll be coming into apple season, and I’ll be able to use my mother to make apple cider vinegar.  It’s also important to cover the crock to protect them from light.

                                                         The couldy color is from the "mother"

The only problem is that I have raspberries that are ready now and sitting in my fridge! I got so excited about the vinegar that I totally forgot about the raspberries. What to do with those before the vinegar is ready? I decided to try a few different things with these berries. The first one is allowing the berries to sit in a combination of white vinegar and water with herbs, the second one is even less vinegar,  and the third jar are raspberries that are being fermented the same way my pickles are fermented. 1 Tsp Whey and a bit of salt.  I’ve added herbs (you are looking at sage, tarragon, and an greek oregino) and garlic to these jars to add flavor. When I tasted the berries today it was amazing the flavor contrast between the jars. The vinegar really zaps the flavor out of the berries and compeats with it. It's the food version of someone screaming really loud when you are trying to listen to music.

Below is a phot of my kitchen (yes it's world's ugliest) and my strange fermented jars that my little girl is growing up thinking is normal and that everyone keeps in their kitchen.  The only problem is that jar is my pickle crock and pickle season is going to be very soon. So it looks like transfering a giant crock of cheap wine is going to be on my to do list today.

Sweet potatoes- Not just for Thanksgiving chili

When I came across this website http://www.ncsweetpotatoes.com/blogger-recipe-contest/ I thought it was a great idea because the sweet potato to me is really an unsung hero in the kitchen. They are sweet, nutritious and have a great texture and have a versatility that really allows them to be added to a wide verity of dishes. I often add sweet potatoes in vegetarian dishes when I need more depth of flavor and a nice meaty texture. This chili is my hand down favorite recipe to use sweet potato in. It’s vegetarian, but I promise meat eaters will be happy to eat it. It’s all in the way the potatoes are diced. One sweet potato is diced up very fine so it breaks down in the chili and melts into the sauce. The other sweet potato is left to shine as a meaty component of the dish.

2 sweet potatoes diced (read special directions on how to dice these)
1 cup cooked and drained pinto beans.
1 cup cooked and drained kidney beans 
2 cloves of garlic minced
1 white onion chopped
1 red pepper, diced
1 jalapeno diced
1 large can crushed tomatoes
1 can petite diced tomatoes
2 cups water
1 handful or 2 tablespoons of diced cilantro
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
A large splash or about 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons butter
1 bay leaf
Salt and pepper to taste

For the garnish (We do this when we are serving chili at a party along with corn bread and corn chips)
1/2 red onion diced
1/2 red pepper diced
1 jalapeno diced

Special Directions:

Peel two sweet potatoes, dicing one into bite size pieces, the other sweet potato dice into very fine pieces. This is a very important step to this recipe and should not be skipped.

 Combine all ingredients into the crockpot and season with salt and pepper. Set on high and let cook for about 8 hours until everything is tender and the smaller sweet potatoes have become very soft.

I feel like there should be more directions to this recipe, but that’s it!  The labor of this recipe is really only in the chopping. It also tastes even better second day, and after freezing as it breaks down the sweet potatoes in the sauce a little bit more, so don’t be afraid to double this recipe!  

This is a great link for picking out the right sweet potato- http://www.ncsweetpotatoes.com/sweet-potatoes-101/sweet-potato-varieties/ I like O’Henry for this recipe.

Potpie- And a little bit of courage

I enter cooking contests now and again- sometimes because there is an amazing prize like a Kitchen-Aid mixer, or a trip to California, but more often because it challenges me to make something that I’ve never made before, forces me to flex my cooking muscles a little bit, and challenges me to make something that has stumbled me in the past. One of those major stumbling blocks in my culinary world has always been pie crust! Chewy, heavy, dense pie crust has always been all I’ve managed to turn out, but it’s never really bothered me because honestly, I don’t really care for pie, with one exception. Potpie! Potpie is one of those amazing dreamy rich comfort foods that I love, but always top with mashed potatoes due to my crust fears. When the Today Show asked for our best potpie recipes I decided it was time to face my potpie dilemma head on and find a way around not only not being able to make a decent crust, but also not enjoying crust. The solution I came up with is this: Greek Pot pie! With puff pastry atop a savory Greek inspired filling I couldn’t be happier with my dish. Plus my daughter ate something chocked full of strange vegetables just because it had the word pie in it. Even though the Today Show didn't choose to feature my recipe, facing my potpie fears, and getting my daughter to eat more vegetables makes me a winner with this recipe anyway! And I will be adding this to our dinner rotation.

Greek Potpie:

2 TBSP olive oil

1 white onion

2 cloves garlic

1 eggplant diced small

1 yellow squash diced small

1 portabella mushroom diced small (or 1 cup baby portabella mushrooms)

1 cup frozen spinach

1 Tbsp. dried oregano

1 Tsp. fresh dill

1 Tbsp. fresh parsley chopped fine

1 can garbanzo beans drained

1 can petite diced tomatoes

1 1/2 - 2  cups vegetable stock

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Salt and pepper

Buerre manie of 1 Tbsp butter, 1 Tbsp wheat flour kneaded together

4 oz reduced fat feta cheese crumbled (or as much as you like!)

1 sheet puff pastry

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

In a large Dutch oven heat 2 tablespoon of olive oil. Add onion and cook until softened, add garlic and cook until fragrant. Add all other vegetables and herbs, season with salt and pepper and cook for about 10 minutes until the vegetables release their juices. Add canned beans and tomatoes. Add just enough stock to resemble a very chunky soup, and the juice of 1/2 lemon.

In a zip lock bag knead together 1 Tbsp butter and 1 Tbsp wheat flour. When well incorporated scoop out of bag into soup. Stir into soup and let simmer until stew is just thickened. Add crumbled feta cheese.

Place thawed puff pastry on lightly floured surface and roll out until it’s just a little larger than your pan

Scoop stew into a pie dish or tart pan and cover with puff pastry dough cutting away extra.

Bake in oven for about 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.