Cafetière à piston

Making coffee shouldn't take a recipe or directions, right? Then again millions of people pay $4 per cup every day at coffee shops around the world. Granted, much of that is espresso and it helps to have a nice machine and all kinds of sweet additions handy. People buy the plain drip coffee though as well...I know I do!

On Kyle's last trip to IKEA he brought me an awesome surprise: a french press. It was such a thoughtful surprise because he knows I like coffee and hate dragging out a coffee pot to make just a cup or two. It is a great addition to our kitchen.


It got put into a cupboard and was not used until I came back from my trip to Richmond to see my friend Gary. He swears by his french press and since I had not used one before I asked him to teach me. It's not hard, but not being familiar with one is just enough for someone like me to avoid it. So now I pass on the knowledge.

1. One tablespoon regular ground coffee per 6 ounces cup of water. (A "cup" of coffee is 6 fluid ounces, not 8.) Straight into the bottom of the beaker.



2. Pour in BOILING water. A coffee pot does not have the right temperature water going over the grounds. This is important for best flavor.



3. Place plunger on beaker (do not push down yet) and allow to steep for a few minutes (no more than 4 or 5 minutes).

4. Slowly push plunger down to trap grounds in the bottom of the beaker.

5. Pour and enjoy! (If you brewed more than a cup, be sure to pour coffee into a different container. If it sits too long with the grounds it will get bitter)

More info from Wikipedia:

Because the coffee grounds remain in direct contact with the brewing water and the grounds are filtered from the water via a mesh instead of a paper filter, coffee brewed with the French press captures more of the coffee's flavour and essential oils, which would become trapped in a traditional drip brew machine's paper filters. French pressed coffee is usually stronger and thicker and has more sediment than drip-brewed coffee. Because the used grounds remain in the drink after brewing, French pressed coffee left to stand can become bitter. For a 1⁄2-litre (0.11 imp gal; 0.13 US gal) French press the contents are considered spoiled after around 20 minutes.

Dog Days of Summer Garden

August...hot..lot's of stuff coming out of the garden.

Yes, these are supposed to be yellow...beautiful.

Okay, those five beauties on the right did not come from the garden...here's to hoping for next year!

Crap...I should have a recipe for those eggplants....like the baba ganoush I made with them. Then again it's pretty simple. Roast, fry with olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, and a dash of salt.

That apple tree didn't do that well but there is one. Bananas did well but were useless.

Making Granola

I had been wanting to try homemade granola for awhile. I finally got some inspiration after reading this blog recipe, but I settled on Alton Brown's recipe instead. I will try the other recipe next I guess. Here is Alton Brown's:

Ingredients
3 cups rolled oats
1 cup slivered almonds
1 cup cashews
3/4 cup shredded sweet coconut
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons dark brown
sugar
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons maple syrup
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup raisins
Directions
Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.
In a large bowl, combine the oats, nuts, coconut, and brown sugar.
In a separate bowl, combine maple syrup, oil, and salt. Combine both mixtures and pour onto 2 sheet pans. Cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes to achieve an even color.
Remove from oven and transfer into a large bowl. Add raisins and mix until evenly distributed.

Yes, I didn't follow the recipe....I doubled the batch and did one cup raisins, 1/2 cup sultanas (golden raisins), and 1/2 cup cranberries. Just for a little variety. Don't let the "rolled oats" fool you...they are just "old-fashioned oats". NOT INSTANT OR QUICK COOKING OATS. This is what it looked like:





It was a little salty, probably from the cashews, but we devoured it. Warning: with oil, nuts, and coconut, granola is not a low-fat food. It certainly has great fiber and lots of micronutrients in all the good stuff that goes into it, but this should be considered a fat (with some fiber).

Chili Mac

So...chili-mac. Someone told me that every knows how to make this. I disagree....if everyone knows how to make this, why don't more people cook it? It seems everyone has some bad memory of too much of this as a kid, but there is probably a reason: it's easy, and if you try you can make it pretty healthy as well. My chili-mac is never quite the same, but I am committed to two absolute things: add vegetables and spice.

Sometimes the base of my recipe is a box of store brand macaroni and cheese. Sometimes its dry noodles. Either way, I always add Velveeta as well. I know it isn't real cheese, but this is one of only two dishes I ever eat Velveeta in. Give me a break.

This time, I had whole wheat shells to start with. The homegrown contribution to this meal was tomatos, garlic, bell pepper, jalapeno, and cayenne. I am kicking myself for not having grown more onions! So this is what the ingredients looked like:




Peppers (of all sorts) and garlic started off in just a bit of olive oil.

Then fresh tomoatos.

This is where my method probably breaks from others': I add the chili and cheese to the vegetables. (yes, I know, it looks like a typical chili cheese dip)

If you can't cook noodles, you have a problem.

Then it all comes together for a hearty meal. I recommend more onions and bell pepper, but I was short on these. If you eat it with a nice salad and keep the portion small, it really is a nice, healthy meal.

Garden Journal #6

Okay, prepare your self for pictures and short explanations. Nothing amazing, but do skip down to the bottom and read about my garlic! I am so proud!

Normal view of our counter
This summer there has always been random vegetables just sitting on the counter.

Okra
I am still amazed by the flowers. And they have been producing very steadily. Did you know theses plants grow 4 to 4 ft tall? I made gumbo..........mmmm.

Eggplants
We had quite a bit of difficulty with these. The started off very slow and were totally eaten up by these very small bugs that looked like fleas or something. We finally powdered them with a pesticide and they finally started to grow. The eggplant fruits looked beautiful, though small. That is what they looked like a week ago. After some heat they have started to wilt. They have lost their firmness and shine. We are trying to salvage them with heavy watering. Perhaps they will just end up as baba ghanoush.



Cayenne Peppers
These have been producing prolifically, but we have done NOTHING with them. Some are rotting on the plant and a few have rotted inside the kitchen. I used a few in a few dishes, but we have yet to really dry them. So I gave a bunch to my friend Fillan. He is better about things like this. He will dry them and crush them I am sure. We may actually give them ALL to him and let him process them and get some back from him. It will be nice to have dry flakes for all kinds of cooking.

Garlic
Okay, this is something I am truly proud of. Though they didn't get a full 220 growing season, I pulled the garlic up last week. The tops were turning brown and the necks had gone soft. They are small, but they are as done as they will get. Tried some the other day and it tasted just fine....in fact it smelled great! In searching online how to braid garlic, I discovered the BEST blog about gardening and cooking. Thy Hand Hath Provided is a blog written by a early 30's Mennonite (though modern) mom. They grow and preserve almost all their vegetables and cook so much amazing food. I am very very jealous. Strange for me to feeling such long distance, anonymous friendship with a conservative Mennonite family, but I devour her blog. Thanks for the lesson on braiding garlic, though mine did not turn out perfectly.

Garden Journal #5

That's right people...drool...experience envy...hate me if you want.....but that is from my garden! I have been away from it for nearly two weeks and it's killing me that I can't see and pick and eat it. Kyle actually harvested that haul and posted it on Facebook. He managed to completely leave out my participation in the garden....out of sight out of mind I guess. Oh well.

Onions, tomatoes, squash, soy beans, jalapeños, banana peppers, pears, fennel, cucumbers zucchini, tomatillos. I wanted the onions to get bigger, but Kyle tells me that a week of rain while I was gone really challenged them. If only all that rain would have come in June when we had to water almost every day! For now I am not eating the fruits of our little piece of earth......if Kyle is letting this stuff rot I will kill him. At minimum he should be giving this stuff away.

Graph of the Day - July 17th

Okay, it's not the greatest graph from a basic design standard. The visual hierarchy is a little funky since the title is so understated, but the point of this graph is obvious: traditional fossil fuels is already highly subsidized more so than renewables.

For those market-worshiping conservatives (remember, libertarians wouldn't be supporting those huge market altering tax breaks for oil, gas, and coal), this is what people mean when they say that renewable energy doesn't get a fair break in tax incentives.

A very important distinction between the fossil fuel subsidies and the renewables is that the former are written into permanent U.S. tax code and create predictable incentives that drive business decisions. The latter are temporary and are approved year to year and sometimes not. The renewable energy industry doesn't get to plan for continued and efficient growth like the fossil fuel industry.

The Democrats want to end some of those Big Oil subsidies, but good luck ever getting Big Coal to ever pay it's fair share. The subsidies for Corn Ethanol are listed under "climate protecting" but that is highly controversial. All of this might create decent economic policy, but it is horrible environment policy. Energy policy must be somewhere in the middle.....it cannot be considered merely a part of economic policy. The renewable energy subsidies should be made permanent and predictable. Europe has figured it out...why can't we?

Read more at http://www.eli.org/Program_Areas/innovation_governance_energy.cfm