Citrus Kitchen Scrub

Another use for those orange peels I refuse to throw away.

Cleaning Scrub - for the kitchen and bathroom - NOT your skin

a couple of handfuls of dried citrus peels.

These are a mix of orange, blood orange, lime, lemon and grapefruit

1 cup borax

In a food processor grind the peels.  I did it about 1/4 at a time.  when they are a good even consistency and don't seem to be getting any smaller it's time to add the borax.  Grind some more.  The peels tend to grind a bit finer after the borax is added.

Then just store it in a jar or bag.  To use sprinkle some on the surface or on a sponge and scrub away.  Rinse off or wipe down with a damp towel afterward to remove residue.    I love the way it makes the kitchen smell when I use it.  When I'm doing the sink I usually leave the strainer in so that I can catch large chunks before they go down the drain.  Sometimes I forget and it never seems to harm anything but better safe than sorry.  

my year in coffee Jan 2

For my afternoon cup I used some of my home roasted brands.

I went darker with this one.  Just at second crack on the poppery.  No taste of burn or carbon.  A little bitter up front, but not overly so.  Full feeling.  I didn't notice a minty smell but I'm congested today so no aromas really summer to me on anything.  Overall the cup was nice and clear with a sweeter aftertaste which was nice.  I used the pour over method to brew. About 30 grams of coffee and 600 grams of water. Have a pot over with a metal filter but I use a chemex filter instead.  I just like it better.

Lacto Fermented Spinach

Scored some cheap spinach.  More than we could eat this week, so I decided to ferment the rest.

I used two bundles, which was enough to fill a quart sized wide mouth jar

Rinsed them and put them in a bowl with 1 tablespoon of salt & 1 tablespoon course ground black pepper.  Recipes that I've seen call for slicing and removing the stem.  I eat the stem because it gets soft enough and doesn't taste bad, so I did neither of those things.

I squished the spinach around in the bowl with the salt, bringing the juices out.  Kept manhandling it for a few minutes until it was good and soggy.  The I shoved it into the jar in layers with peppers.  A layer of spinach, squished down hard, 2 peppers, more spinach, more peppers until it was full.  

I used this kind of pepper - Thai Chili.  I have a bag of them in my freezer I'm trying to use up.  I didn't cut or dice them, just put them in whole. I wanted a chili flavor without it being super super hot.

I tamped the spinach down as hard as I could while layering and afterwards I gave the jar several firm bangs on the counter to loosen any air bubbles and then tamped it down again.  I didn't have enough brine from the spinach itself to cover the top so I took some filtered water in a quart jar and dissolved a tablespoon of salt in it.  Then I covered the spinach with the brine from the jar, leaving 1 inch of head space.

Put on my airlock cover and the waiting begins.

When I was making airlock covers I couldn't find wide mouth plastic lids anywhere to save my life, so I made my own.  Took the plastic from a food storage container that I don't use and traced the inner lid to a wide mouth jar on it.  Cut it out, put a hole and shoved a stopper in.  Works fine and was a great way to recycled those plastic boxes I don't use anymore.

Fermented Beets

I love beets.  I love to eat them.  I love to drink beet juice.  I especially love the way they turn everything pink or reddish purple.  At least the reds ones do.  The golden variety are a bit more laid back.

I go through beet greens pretty rapidly, leaving me with far too many beets, so I decided to give fermenting them a try.

I cut them into bits - about 12 of them I think.  Then I tossed those bits into the Ninja (food processor) and made tiny bits.

After I grated them, I mixed them in a bowl with a little less than a tablespoon of pickling salt.  Squished them around good to get the juices going.  Shoved them into jars and did what I could to get any extra air out.  Stired it a bit with a chopstick, then pressed it down good (coffee tamper) and finally banged it on the counter - flat on the bottom - dislodge any air.  tamped it again and then decided to try the olive oil on top thing for a makeshift airlock.

I didn't think to take a photo.  I used two old salsa jars.  This one has a stubborn label, but we already ate the other one, so you can't see a photo of the good looking jar.  LOL  We've eaten a lot of this one too.  :-)

As a precaution I put a shallow pan with a washcloth under the jars.

good thing because that was a MESS!!  As the beets got bubbly the oil was pushed up and out.  I would burp it and oil would be all over the place already.  Maybe oil in a salsa jar is just going to do that because the seal isn't super tight.  After a week I decided to try them.  Soft and tasty with just a bit of crunch.  Very yummy.

I had ground up too many beets.  This is what happens when air gets to them.  These beets turned green after 3 days in the fridge with no oil on top.  We didn't eat them, just took a picture to show why oxygen is not your friend when fermenting veggies.

Love the beets, don't care so much for the olive oil thing.  I want an air lock system, but I am a) cheap & b) impatient

I'm also creative.  Part of being cheap.

I went to the brewing store and bought a couple of airlocks for less than $2 each.  Picked up some #2 drilled stoppers too.  Don't remember how much, but very cheap.  

Took a plastic lid and put a hole in it.  Not a good hole because I don't have a drill right now, but it's large enough for the stopper to get it and small enough for the stopper to make it air tight.  The stopper is very soft so it conforms to the hole.  Put the lid on the jar, the stopper in the lid and the airlock in the stopper.  I should be in business for the next time I want to do the fermented veggie thing!

Near disaster with the yogurt

I was making this week's yogurt when I almost lost the whole batch.  I was using the oven for incubation.  Turned it on until it got to 100 and then turned it off and shut the door.  It works because even after I turn it off the heat builds a little bit more, but not too much.  My oven won't go below 200 as a setting, but it does have a thermometer that lets me know how hot it is.  But last night it just went haywire.  Even though everything was turned off the broil came on - heating my yogurt up a LOT.  I caught it before it was too bad, maybe 150 or so, but that will kill the yogurt.  Turned the oven off at the breaker (no desire to have a house fire) and put the yogurt in the fridge while I figured out what to do.  It was pretty runny.

After it cooled down enough I decided to add more starter - also known as more yogurt.  Then I incubated it in a cooler and this morning I have a pretty good batch.  Not as firm as I would have liked, but not milk either.  It's not pretty but it's roughly as thick as say, Dannon.  I like super thick yogurt, but I'm happy to have saved it the batch - that was a gallon of yogurt after all!

I didn't wipe the dish down, but I wasn't feeling terribly motivated.

Blender butter

I made butter!!

I have some fresh cream I picked up when I got my raw milk.  I guess I should say I HAD some fresh cream.  I've known how to make butter for awhile.  Put it in a jar and shake shake shake.  Probably better exercise than the not so vaguely obscene shake weight.  I don't have time for that.  Saw on line that you can just do it in a blender.  I have a blender.  Now I have butter.

Step 1

Obtain heavy cream

Step 2 

Dump it in the blender

Step 3

blend blend blend.  At some point it will quite dramatically go from whipped cream to butter.  It's very sudden and pretty cool

Step 4

using some muslin drain the excess milk from the butter.  Rinse it with cool water to get the excess milk out so it won't go bad too quickly.  If you're going to use it quickly you probably don't have to do this.

Step 5

chill and enjoy

Next time I'm going to add some herbs to it.  This was plain, unsalted butter and it is YUMMY