Serious NOM

This last weekend I was at Trader Joe's and they had tangerines J'ADORE! They are my favorite, and I never see them at Trader Joe's, in fact I haven't seen them around for a long time. Usually they just carry those damn "cutie's" or whatever. So I bought 2 bags.

I packed my lunch for Monday, and included 4 tangerines, since they are small and all. After the annoyance of trying to peel one, only to find about 15 seeds in the little fucker I gave up.

So I juiced the rest of bag 1 tonight and oh man, sofreakingdelish. I used to just buy the 1/2 gallon of Odwalla tangerine juice, but then they stopped making it. The only thing that sucks is my way of juicing, which is a ceramic owl shaped thing. I got it from Anthropologie. Since I never really juiced stuff besides the occasional lime or lemon for salad dressing, I never saw a reason for buying something else.

Now I think I am going to buy a for real juicer. Well, at least for real for me. The plus side is that my little cottage complex has an orange tree, so I think I am going to take super advantage of that.

Also, a quick search on Craigslist and you can find someone selling 50LBs of valencia oranges for $20. Seems like a steal of a deal, now I just need that juicer..

Bootylicious

I don't think your ready for this jelly, I don't think your ready for this jelly, so bootylicious for you baaaby..

Anyway.

The darker pink is the Cantaloupe and Plum. The light pink is the Pear, strawberry and vanilla. I tasted the CP one while it was cooking and it was delish, but the PSV one, seriously so good! Plus its such a pretty pink color, yay! These will probably not last long, which means I better take advantage of the season and can again this weekend.

Oh and I don't understand why most canning recipes have you used like a pound of sugar per batch, fruit is already sweet. I use the no sugar pectin, whatever fruit mixture, 1 cup of pure apple juice, a couple spoonfuls of raw honey and thats it. Turns out fabulous each time.

I'm Jammin'

This weekend, I will be jammin' hardcore! Literally.

On the agenda:

Cantaloupe & Plum Jam

Pear & Strawberry Jam (I wanted cherries instead of strawberries, but not in season)

I love homemade jam. I'm mad that I am out of the Apricot jam I made, man that stuff was delicious. Next season I will be doubling or triple batching that stuff.

Dominate!!

Guess what I bought today?!?

A lovely Le Creuset French Oven. Size 26, which is 5 1/2 Quarts. Its a soft yellow/butter color, but I believe the official color is Dijon. The color looks soft in the photos compared to when you google the real Dijon color.

I'm so in love with it. I also love that it will last a very long time. Quite the investment piece. I have wanted one for a very long time and now, it sleeps in my kitchen. Yay!

Italian Lunch

I've been on an italian kick lately, I think its from the abundant amount of tomatoes and basil from my garden. Today, I made something extremely simple and so delicious.

Cacio e pepe. Spaghetti with cheese and pepper. If you don't know what it is, well, the answer is delicious.

You boil some dry spaghetti noodles (I use thin spaget noodles because I hate the normal sized ones), once done, in a saute pan put about a tablespoon of butter, and a full ladle of the water you boiled the noodles in, add the noodles, some pecorino romano cheese-finely grated, and fresh ground pepper to your liking and mix around till it is all absorbed into absolute deliciousness.

I want to eat some right now. Wish I wasn't at work.

Make it Work

I had a bunch of White peaches in my fridge on the verge of going rotten so I decided to get creative and make pie.

Pie, of all things. However, I like pie, and I never make it, so I thought, hey why not. I didn't make the crust though, mainly because I don't have a rolling pin and I hate making crust.

I made a spiced vanilla white peach and blueberry pie. It is delicious. Plus its a fraction of the sugar and butter of normal pies. Every recipe I found said you should use like 1.5 sticks of butter, and 1/2 cup sugar, that is ridiculous.

Basic recipe:

2 tablespoons butter

White peaches, I used about 4 large ones, since that was what I had

Blueberries about 1/2 cup to 1 cup, I just used what I had left

1-2 Tablespoons Brown sugar

1 Teaspoon Vanilla extract

Ground cloves

allspice

I sauteed all these together, I don't typically do measurements, I just add till I think its right. Set the crust, pour in the concoction, and add the top crust, or whatever you choose to do. Make sure you cut vent holes in the crust!

I baked it for 30 minutes at 400F, then lowered the temp to 375 and baked for another 25-30 minutes, with foil placed loosely on the crust.

Kombucha SCOBY

My Kombucha mothers are very developed. They are actually really gross, however, I kinda like it.

Then in a new brew. I think I will need to separate the SCOBYS next week and either brew more Kombucha each week or sell them, or throw they away. I hate to waste it, but I'll wait and see.

Fancy

I make a lot of fancy food. Its pretty, its plotted out and the flavors are savory, fresh, and rich. I also try to make everything as healthy as possible. However, I have my guilty pleasures. Mostly sodium packed processed food.

Macaroni and Cheese is one, Ramen noodles being another. I had Mac & cheese about 2 months ago and I don't have a craving for it now, but right now I want a big bowl of ramen soup with vegetables. Man that sounds so good! Mostly the Japanese way, almost a Pho instead of ramen, but not pho.

Tomorrow maybe

Matevana Havana

I just made some delish cupcakes, Matevana Rooibos Chai. Chocolate and vanilla layered. I subbed the water in my top secret ultra delishicious cupcake recipe with a cup of the brewed tea I got from Teavana, and the batter is so good. I'm hoping if the batter is that good the cake will be as well.

I spiced up some regular ol vanilla betty crocker frosting with cloves and cinnamon for effect. I didn't have time to make the frosting I wanted to make. I accidently put too much frosting on this, but oh well.

Busy Bee

So school wasn't too bad until the last few weeks where there is an exam and a quiz or big project due every week. Hectic. In light of that I have been eating more frozen food (gross) or prepared foods than I like to admit. I try to keep it minimally processed as possible, here are a few ratings and suggestions if you are busy like me:

Trader Joe's black truffle flat bread pizza - Delishicious! However, anything with truffles is perfection.

Trader Joe's bean and cheese "Taquitos" - Ok, here in San Diego these should be called rolled tacos. Get it right. Anyway, shitty. The corn tortillas they are wrapped in are gross. I have baked them and pan fried them and they are gross both ways. Save your money for truffle pizza.

Trader Joe's vegetarian egg rolls - Pretty damn good. However, the cook time should probably be longer because the middle always stays soft and ew. That could also be because I can't wait and must eat them immediately and I don't have a microwave. Oh well.

Trader Joe's 5 Cheese flatbread pizza - boring.

Trader Joe's Spicy Lentil flatbread wrap - Delishicious, and spicy! I love the spicy lentil and crispy cabbage all with a cool tahini sauce. So good.

Trader Joe's brand vegetarian "chicken" nuggets - Spend the extra .50c and get the Morningstar brand. Your welcome.

Yeah, I eat a lot at Trader Joe's, there frozen stuff seems pretty legit, but I should be making large meals and freezing them for the week, this would be a healthier alternative and I know that it would save me money. Maybe I will do that this weekend.

Kombucha Pt 2

During the last 3 weeks the Kombucha brew has been going on in my kitchen. Its no effort on my part, I periodically check the progress and then shoo away fruit flies. Today I bottled up one batch. The other batch looked like some mold grew on it, so I decided not to take a risk and threw it out.

I didn't have any juice to flavor it with, I don't drink juice anyway, so I squeezed from fresh oranges and plums, and blended some strawberries. I have read that you should try and just use the juice and not any pulp, but with the strawberries I couldn't separate it, so I don't care. I mixed some orange and plum juice, I think it will taste good (hopefully). Here is a picture of the SCOBY.

If you are going to brew your own you want to save 15-25% of the first tea batch and the SCOBY, you can either start a new batch immediately or put it in the fridge (which will halt bacteria growth). I just put another gallon of water on to boil, so another batch! Since the weather has been so hot here I think it will grow a lot better this time and faster.

Delischious

Mango Nectarines!!

I have never had them before, but they are so good. I did some googling and it seems they have a very short season, so grab them when you see 'em. They go for most of July, and then maybe the first week of August. I think I am going to go buy more and make some jelly out of them.

Finding the Perfect...

Yogurt. Yeah, I'm picky like that. The best yogurt I have ever had was in France--Paris if I want to be dramatic about it... Duh! However, that goodness is not available here in the US of A, besides for some Dannon la creme or something like that. So I made the switch to Greek yogurt and have been satisfied with it. However, I get the urge now and then for the French stuff so low and behold my excitement today at Whole Foods when I spied

"Saint Benoît, Artisanal, French-style yogurt"

At $2.89 for a small 7.5 oz container, I got strawberry and honey. It irked me that they didn't offer standard vanilla, I judge all yogurts by the quality of the vanilla flavor. Anyway, was cashing out and they also charge an additional $1.50 because the jars are reusable, what bullshit! Ok, I will pay out, but it better be worth it.

Woooomp, waaaah.

How disapointing! It tastes horrible! Its not even thick, EXCUSEZ-MOI I don't know what "France" you went to, but when I got yogurt there it was a thick, consistent texture throughout and delicious, this tastes like runny, grainy, collated milk and I am appalled that I spent $4.39 per container! I think I am going to return the other one.

Don't waste your money.

Kombucha Pt 1

So I brewed up some Bucha last week and its been in glass jars for 7 days now. The mushroom is forming, looks gross and its really annoying because the scent is attracting a plethora of fruit flies. After some googling I found that they can live off the gas that is evaporating from the containers. I'll never get rid of these fucks. I even put the containers in the oven and they got in there.

Oh well. Here are some pictures (and the recipe) of what's been done. I will take photos of the mushroom a bit later.

You need 1 gallon of purified or filtered water, 1.5 cups of sugar, and about 6-8 bags of black tea. Bring water to boil, add sugar, stir and add tea bags, turn heat source off.

Let steep for 10 minutes

Add mixture to large glass 1 gallon container and bring to room temperature. This takes a while. I added an ice water mix to the pot I boiled it in and set the tea mixture inside it, one at a time until it cooled.

Once the tea has cooled to room temperature, add a bottle of the 100% raw unprocessed GT's Kombucha. I used a Multi Green and a Gingerade. I used the already made stuff because I didn't have a Kombucha mother and I didn't want to buy one online when I could make one myself. Cover the top with a paper towel or cloth and seal around with a rubber band, this allows the tea to breath, as the bacteria will need oxygen to survive and breed. Store in an area that isn't in direct sunlight, I had it on the bottom of my kitchen cart then moved it over to the oven.

Kombucha, What is it?

If you don't know what Kombucha is, your probably not alone. I think that unless you are the super hippie/natural foods/new age/organic tip line you have no idea what it is. Or you have seen it at Whole Foods and then saw the floaties in it and thought "Hell NO".

Hey, I used to agree with that statement. The first Kombucha I tried was a Synergy mango drink, and it was so effervescent and vinegary tasting that I couldn't drink, and I love vinegar on everything! I mixed it with half a bottle of Pellegrino and finished it, as to not waste money, it was like $4! Thats a lot for 16oz. After a while I tried another flavor, then another, then I found myself buying a couple every Friday, then some to keep in my fridge throughout the week.

So what the hell is it? Kombucha is a fermented tea drink that has been used for centuries for medicinal healing. According to GT's brand he starting cultivating it when his mother was battling breast cancer and it helped her a lot. Kombucha is chock full of amino acids, enzymes and probiotics. Early research reports of the drink are listing benefits for stomach, digestive, and intestinal disorders. There are also claims that it helps with cancer therapy, obesity, treating arthritis, constipation, impotence, and kidney stones. I found that information here.

I can't personally say those claims are true, however, I enjoy drinking it, but unfortunately its an expensive habit. I don't like spending that much money on a puny little 16oz. I do believe in the drink and I'm all about probiotics, especially since when I get sick it always seems to be stomach ailments. So what to do now?

Home brew.

Foodie in General

Fancy in the Pantry is all about cooking. Well, and some nutrition. Although ZLA is about general life and sometimes I post about my cooking adventures, I wanted to be able to write and post pictures about just recipes and cooking.

Anyway, my first post is in production. I'm really stoked about it too.