Category: Food

My folks and I share passions for dogs, cats, good food, good drink, winter, cooking, trying new cooking “tricks” – probably more, but those are the top items! We trade recipes, techniques and sometimes ingredients.

This past Saturday was my Costco day. For any not familiar with Costco, it is a “big box” membership/co-op store. Even solo, there are things that I buy in quantity and they have a wonderful meat department, complete with knowledgeble butchers.

My plan this last Saturday was to arrive at opening as it is warm and there are just a few parking spots in the early morning that are shaded. The Jeep heats up quickly so I need shade for Bear! And we needed a walk beforehand at our spot behind Costco. We arrived in the nick of time, had a nice walk and I snagged a parking spot in the shade. I had a fairly short list.

I gathered everything AND some beef tenderloin that was on SALE!!! – SCORE!

And then!!! arrived home to find a package of horseradish from my folks. I knew it was on the way but sorta forgot so on seeing the package, remembering and knowing I had most excellent beef to go with…yea!

I had instruction to phone Bill after receiving the horseradish to discuss all he’d learned about the process of dealing with the root. I phoned, I listened and then I proceeded.

Above is the root as it comes out of the ground. Bill told me he’d peeled and he’d scrubbed and the scrubbing method was recommended to preserve the most root.

I scrubbed…

Scrubbing worked. I proceeded to grating. We had already had a discourse on the benefits of a microplane grater. I had one for zesting citrus. Bill added some input on the size and type of bowl…

All went well :)! I performed the grating ON the front porch. My mother had warned of the sinus-clearing aroma during the grating process…

After grating, you wait until the heat-taste you prefer is reached. Adding vinegar to the grating, stops the heat process… Fascinating food chemistry! I waited about 5 minutes.

Oh boy!!! This horseradish was sweet-hot, full of flavor, what you think horseradish should taste like when you smell it. It, on rare tenderloin – and my slaw dressed with “Oldfield’s Poppy Seed Dressing” ( Save the barn) and a few fries – Saturday Supper.

This week’s condiment: Horseradish

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These are the cherries that came home with me yesterday. They have since been cleaned (vinegar & water rinse), pitted (OXO cherry pitter!) and made into Cherry-Basil syrup, Cherry-Basil Jam and Cherry Pistachio Crumble Cake. All Round 2 as I made them last week with the first batch of cherries I bought last weekend.

The cherry-basil syrup is Gluten Free Girl and the Chef’s Cherry Basil Soda – or rather, the syrup for the soda.

It’s rather complicated :)! … pit the cherries, add the sugar and basil, let sit overnight and process into syrup.

Add carbonated water and you have cherry-basil soda!

Previous to making the cherry-basil syrup, I saw “Chia seed Jam” on Lisa’s Healthful Sense blog. So…I held back a bit of the syrup, added a tablespoon of chia seeds and after an hour or so in the refrigerator, had cherry-basil jam.

Although Tartelett’s Cherry Pistachio Crumble Cake did not need anything additional, a little of the jam on a slice of the cake added another dimension of yum!

Just in case you haven’t heard of or used Chia Seeds, Bear demonstrates… Bear gets these in his food as well. They add Omega3, fiber, antioxidants and when combined with a liquid they form a kind of binding gel. Chia and water can often be used as an egg substitute for binding in baked goods…for those who can’t or choose not to eat eggs. Chia seeds are flavor neutral and although they look like seeds in the photo of the jam, they get very soft and you don’t know they are there. It is not like the seeds in raspberry or strawberry preserves.

Also this week, I received my order of “Paper Route Designs’ Labels”. I’m making more and more condiments, syrups, concentrates…the pig fat is being rendered into lard this very day – Karin, at Paper Route Designs, listing for jar labels appeared in the nick of time.

The only downer this weekend…

…yep, I finally gave in and pulled out the behemoth A/C unit. I thought I’d skate this year but it is forecast to be in the upper 80’s ***GASP! **** all week… and I caved :)!

Katie, on one of my “go to” food blogs: “The Well Fed Newlyweds”, last week posted a recipe for Tomato Pie. Per both her post and some research, I discovered it is a somewhat regional southern dish and as a Yankee by birth and a westerner by choice, I hadn’t had the pleasure of meeting up with it.

It looked and sounded wonderful. I had a bit of an advantage when I did make it as I sent the link to my mother who tried it first. She and my step-Dad weighed in with a few suggestions… – they thought it needed a little something and were thinking ham, bacon and/or green chiles.

When I made it, I wanted to make it gluten free so instead of pie crust on the bottom, I made a shredded potato crust I make for quiche: shred the potatoes (I like baby reds), squeeze out excess water, press into a pie plate and season. I seasoned mine with sea salt, fresh ground pepper, garlic and cumin. Spritz with olive oil and bake at 375 until the potatoes are crisp.

I had some of Applegate Farms pepperoni (all natural, no nitrates) – that went in with the onions when they were just about ready to go in the pie. I followed the rest of the recipe directions as written.

Yum! I can’t compare to the original since I haven’t made that, but loved my adaptation. It was good hot, cold for the 2 days it took me to finish the pie…

I’ve since made another. This time no meat, but I added a can of green chiles to the onions and left out the basil. Another winner. My version(s) may not be southern but they were tasty and I am so pleased to have been introduced to Tomato Pie!