Lest you think that I'm all about complaining about our space...here's the result of some serious fun today: velvet coconut cupcakes and date-vanilla custard to dip! As usual, they're gluten-, just-about-all-grain-, dairy-, corn- and soy-free. The little grains in the custard are from the date sugar. If I could do it again, I'd make it with rapadura or sucanat, but that's what I had. 

We're going to a birthday party for a little friend of Little Moo's. Unfortunately it's right when she's at her most tired and hasn't yet napped, so we're most likely going to go, hand over our present, play for a bit, have our snack and then go. It seemed to be very important not just to bring lunch, but also to bring a sweet treat for Little Moo when all those gluten and dairy eaters brandish their forks for birthday cake.

How dysfunctional can it get?

Let's see...we've needed duct tape to keep the freezer sealed up since we moved in and our stove is probably from the 70s. You can't really tell by the photograph, but each burner is at around a 20 degree angle unless you mess with it each time...then it's still tilted and half the burner doesn't really heat anything, so you have to constantly turn the pans around to cook the contents. The oven heats up well in front, moderately in the middle and anything beyond that is never fully cooked, so you have to turn things in the oven, too, which does NOT work for cakes. Nothing rises...when I made the special bread for Rain's birthday in Philadelphia, it looked like a fine CAKE! Here it's like something shy of hardtack (although quite tasty).

The good news is that we're getting a new fridge and possibly a new stove on Monday!!!! Yay!!!!! 

Pictures from the Itty Bitty Kitchen #1

Finally, some kitchen images. Just to give you an idea of how small this little kitchen/chemistry lab is...this is as far as I could get back to shoot. It's about 8' square. The rice flour starter is bubbling happily on the toaster oven and gets moved briefly when I cook something in there. The big bowl is the beginnings of what I hope will be partly recycled grain sponge. I took it out to stir it after some hours on top of the fridge. It smells great, but no bubbles as yet. The third image is our latest crock of sauerkraut which eventually has to go live on top of the fridge since that little table is the only workspace. 

More pics of our itty bitty kitchen soon...

A mysteriously tasty happy accident: Smoky Summer Squash

This happened because I tossed them into the pan and forgot about them while I did other things. They got slightly dry and over-brown on the outside so I drizzled them with olive oil after. Something about the tastes from both oils and the smoked salt does something unexpectedly magnificent. 

3 or 4 big summer squashes (the kind that are shaped like small UFOs)

a smattering of smoked salt, available at Rainbow Grocery

about 1 tb coconut oil

a small drizzle of olive oil.

Slice up the squashes about 1/2" or so thick. Lay them in a pan. Spread the coconut oil over them with a butter knife. Sprinkle a small bit of the smoked salt over it and bake at 350 degrees until slightly brown on the outside. I'm guessing it was about 30-40 minutes, but your oven probably works better than ours, so it probably won't take so long. Remove from oven when done and drizzle olive oil on the squash pieces. Serve warm. 

Houston, We Have Bubbles

Sorry for the terrible pun. But we do. Have bubbles. 

Yesterday our oceanside neighborhood got foggy and cold again, so I put the starter with its three little black grapes in it beside the cooking stew on top of our toaster oven. This morning I woke to an oddly sweet, spicy, winey smell. When I came into the kitchen, the starter had bubbled! So I picked out the grapes, added 2 tablespoons of flour, stirred and put it back on the table. Then I made Little Moo's toast and will replace the bowl on top of the toaster oven after for the warmth. Now I'm going to have to keep something cooking all the time so that the chill doesn't invade again.

Here's to lactobaccillus sanfranciscensus!

More on tomatoes, rice sourdough, soured radishes

The tomato sauce turned out amazingly. Slow-cooked foods are perfect for parents. I get the thing chopped and put together, then simmer it super-slow while losing track of time with Little Moo (for all intensive purposes, an alias, not so secret for those who know us, for DD). When she's finally in bed, bathed and played out, I go back to the kitchen to the fragrance of tomatoes and onions that has completely filled the front half of our place. No garlic this time...that's one too many challenges for me. The 1/2 cup of chopped fresh basil is quite enough, thank you! I added the aforesaid basil and let the 30 minute clock in my head go off. Then I put the delicious results away in the fridge in a glass storage bowl. 

No bubbles yet in our rice flour starter. Just three lonely grapes bobbing around like pigs in mud. 

The radishes alternately smell rich and winey and then don't smell at all. I checked them yesterday and they were still not pickley enough. 

We have found that radishes make incredibly tasty pickles. They're also good mixed with young squashes, tiny cucumbers and other small or sliced things. The brine becomes a lovely pink color.

Pickled Radishes

(I used Sandor Katz's salt-to-water measurements)

Slice up two large daikon roots and two bunches of red radishes. Layer into a 2 gallon crock with a hunk of onion at the bottom. (Sorry if "a hunk" isn't exact...it never is for me. Suffice it to say we never eat the onion since it gives all of us gas, so I just slice off about 1/8 to 1/4 of a yellow onion for flavor and toss it when the results get ladled into jars.)

Measure water to salt: 4 c water to 3 tb sea salt. I usually wind up making two or three 4 c measures. Pour over the radishes and press a plate down over them so that every bit is submerged with about 1 inch of brine over the plate and no floaties. 

Cover with a clean cloth and tie around the lip of the crock. 

Let ferment for about 1 week. You're supposed to check every few days but I never get around to it. I've always had good results. I also always get what Katz calls "bloom." I never let it scare me. I just scoop off the mold with a big spoon and it's always tasty beneath. 

I've had good results with Celtic salt and better ones with Esprit de Sel, a rocky French salt available at Rainbow. Use more when it's hot out, less when it's cool.

We've just found that at least I can eat black pepper so I might wind up tossing a few peppercorns at the bottom next time. 

Enjoy!

Hooray for Tomatoes!

Yes, we can eat tomatoes...at least I can and we know that Snackboy can. DD has sniffed at every bit of tomato that has landed on her plate. I think she expected the sweet but of course acidic little grape tomato to be a grape and that was just not okay. Then of course, each time a tomato showed up it was insult added to injury. So tonight I made a slowly simmered tomato sauce based on Nourishing Traditions's chunky version. (Which is really just like my old sauce with more care taken to remove skins and seeds 'cause I'm just more slow-foody these days.)

Basil appears to be okay. We'll see. 

Tomorrow night we're having some tasty Tinkyada rice pasta with sauce and some slow-cooked lamb, squash and kraut. Yum! New food!

I've also taken the plunge and put up Jessica Prentiss' Hibiscus and Rosehip kefirred soda. DD and I have been drinking hibiscus tea now for about a week with no bad effects and have had lemon for nearly a month now with no problem. I'm hoping that the rosehips will be fine if cultured.