Shrimp Soup with Bean Threads

We started our Christmas Eve dinner with soup.

This was delicious.
I used the stock that had cooked the shrimp.
There are slices of ginger, and at the last minute, I added onion tops.
and added the bean threads.

 

Delicious.

BTW, I experimented with ginger storage.
The best is to peel and slice it and put it in a jar, add vodka, and refrigerate.
This ginger is from the summer, and it was fine.

Christmas Eggs

The chickens are still laying a few eggs a day.
We noticed some are small and pink.

Actually, we weighed the eggs to see how puny the little ones are.
The little pink one in the far row weighs 50 grams.
That qualifies it as "medium".
:~:
The far left in the front row is 73 grams.
The far right in the front row is 72 grams.
Those guys are "jumbo".

Rosemary Olive Oil Whole Wheat Bread

Today is a gloomy, snowy day.

I needed to make King Arthur Flour's No-Knead Whole Wheat bread, to which I add raisins.  This is D's favorite breakfast bread.  But I wanted to have something different.  I found a recipe for Rosemary Olive Oil Whole Wheat Bread.  I basically followed the recipe, using the Cuisinart mixer rather than hand-kneading.

Rosemary Olive Oil Bread

INGREDIENTS
1 cup warm water (100-110 F)
1 Tbsp. organic cane sugar  (I used regular)
2 tsp. active dry yeast
1 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. fresh rosemary, chopped (or 2 tsp. dried)
1/4 tsp. Italian seasoning (or pinch of each ground garlic, dried oregano, and dried basil)
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup bread flour + extra for kneading
(I skipped this part:  1 egg, whisked + 1 Tbsp. water, for egg wash
dried rosemary, for sprinkling)
The complete recipe is at:  http://www.ahintofhoney.com
After the second rise, I heated the oven to 450 with the pot and lid.
When it was hot, I put the dough in and turned the oven to 400.

 

It baked for 40 minutes.

Lovely.
(the background bread is the raisin whole wheat bread).

 

I think I don't like rosemary very much.
I liked the bread, but not the flavor.
I had also added one teaspoon of diastatic malt powder.
I'm not sure I like that either - it gives the texture of store bought bread -
slightly rubbery.

It was a fun way to spend a gloomy day.

Strawberry Jam Taste Test

Time for a taste-test of strawberry jam.
We had lunch last week at Neptune Diner.
D had eggs and toast, and I took a package of Smucker's Strawberry Jam so we could compare.

 

This is the less-successful of my strawberry jams.
I made it with liquid pectin, and as you can see, it separated into jam and jelly.

But on crackers, you can have a choice.
The one on the top is Smuckers.

The two on the bottom are from the jar of jam.

Of course, we prefer the one homemade from organically grown Mara Des Bois strawberries.
It is tangier and has a more intense flavor.
The Smuckers had no chunks of berry, just seeds, and had a slightly metallic taste.

I was tickled to discover that it was successful to clean and freeze the berries when it was too hot and humid to make jam in the summer.  Then, on a gloomy fall day, the smell of jam-making was a welcome treat.

Kabocha Squash

We are trying a new squash this year.
This is a Japanese variety, very popular in Mexico.

I took some to Mexican friends, and they were delighted.
They had been looking for this squash, and it is not available locally.
I had never tasted it, and they fixed it while I was there.
They cut it into small cubes, skin on, and added water, cinnamon sticks, and lots of brown sugar.
It was delicious, but perhaps too sweet for me.

I couldn't wait to try it.
I cut it into four pieces.
(I don't have the strength to chop small.  It's very hard.)
Put it into the dutch oven with a bit of water.
Cook until tender.

My friends mashed theirs, skin and all.
I peeled off the skin before mashing.
It is super soft, so there is really no mashing, just toss with a fork.

I used half to make an amazing soup with candied ginger, cinnamon, salt and pepper.

The other half was served with butter, salt, pepper, and honey.

Delicious.

Grapes, Amish Paste Tomato, and Eden's Gem Melon

The first of the grapes are ripe.
Boy, are they delicious.
They have seeds, though.


We are staying a bit ahead of Late Blight, which is destroying all the tomato plants.
This is a new tomato to us, called Amish Paste.
It is an heirloom tomato.
Most of the tomatoes have split.
There is very little core, so there's not much waste.
(Although the chickens hope we would waste more.)

This pot of chopped tomatoes will be cooked down and strained to make a pint of sauce.

 \

The real treat today was the Eden's Gem melon.
It's an heirloom, green-fleshed muskmelon from 1881.

I can't remember the last time I ate a ripe green melon.
The ones in the stores look great, but are never ripe.

This tastes like a honeydew, but with the texture of cantaloupe.

We each enjoyed half as dessert tonight.
The rest of the dinner was chicken pot pie, fresh corn from the garden, and sliced Cherokee Purple tomato.
Excellent!

Watermelon

Petite Yellow Watermelon

How do you tell when a watermelon is ripe?

One clue may be size.
This is supposed to be the size for a small family.
It should fit in a refrigerator.
Looks ripe to me.

It weighs 20 pounds - gotta be a hungry small family!

The seeds do not look ripe. 

It's juicy, but the flavor has not fully developed.

The seeds are immature.

The chickens will love it.

Fortunately, there are more melons ripening.

Another sign that it's ripe is when the stem dries.
This stem was not dry.
We'll have to see if that becomes a better clue that it's ripe.