The Sun Shines Dailey: Food

Yep...after much thought and prayer, I made the big decision last fall that I would begin my journey to become a nurse this year! Becoming a nurse opens so many opportunities! It will be a much more family-friendly career, I could do it literally anywhere in the world, I could choose from tons of different specialty areas, I will get to work directly with people by helping them, it can be very fast-paced, nurses will be in demand for years to come...and I can become one within the next few years. I am attending the community college in my town part-time while continuing to work full time at Samaritan's Purse, where I've been on and off since 2004. I have a lot on my plate this year but I'm looking forward to the challenge!

My little niece, Eden, has had RSV for the past 2 weeks, but I received an email from my sister yesterday that she is finally feeling better! Look how much she's grown!

My nephew, Eliot, has been learning how much he loves the snow in his hometown of Chicago!

We had a fantastic Christmas! John and I journeyed to West Tennessee to enjoy time with my family.

It was lots of fun watching the little ones open their gifts!

We ate lots of food, played lots of games, and relaxed!

For my local friends, I made peppermint bark for the first time! It was a so easy and so tasty!

My sister asked for the recipe since peppermint bark is gluten-free! Here's what I sent her:

Dark Chocolate Peppermint Bark

i bought 72% dark chocolate from Trader Joe's called Pound Plus, a huge bar for like $3.50. When i ran out of that, i also use semi sweet chips or whatever.

melt in a double boiler or i put it in a small pot inside a big pot of water filled just to the bottom of the small pot.

let is melt slowly but surely

put in a little bit of peppermint extract (optional, but tasty!)

add in crushed candy canes or peppermint but save some for top

pour into cookie sheet lined with wax or parchment paper (i used wax, remember what i told you about parchment?)

let it sit in fridge for few hours or freezer for 30 minutes or so, until it hardens

break up with fingers or use pizza cutter (i prefer fingers because you see the lines from the cutter in the chocolate)
I found the little gift bags at Walmart (ugh)
Enjoy!

Speaking of gluten-free, I recently took some tests which determined foods that I was allergic to. The obvious one was milk, which I've pretty much been aware of for years, but I wasn't sure if it was a lactose intolerance or a milk allergy - 2 very different things. I also discovered that I had an allergy to soy. Very surprised by this one, since I've enjoyed tofu, tempeh, soymilk and veggie burgers over the years. Soy is actually in quite a few foods, since it's inexpensive and easy to grow and the US government subsidizes industrialized farms with seeds. It's practically in anything that "needs bulking up", in the form of soy lecithin. To my surprise, a gluten sensitivity didn't show up on any of the tests! I was thrilled! Still working on the digestive issues as we speak, but each day I'm more and more hopeful to get the source of my stomach problems.

For Christmas, John got me a yogurt maker and an ice cream maker! I came home from class one night to find that he had made me some cherry, almond, coconut ice cream! So delicious! Lucky for me, John loves to experiment, so he enjoys trying the odd foods that I get to eat. I have now just completed my second batch of coconut yogurt, using this recipe. For the first batch, I used part coconut milk from a can and part from a carton, and attempting to use gelatin as a thickener. It didn't work!! The milk had completely separated and coagulated. Not good.

I tried round two on Sunday and it turned out better, although I didn't use a thickener, so it's just cultured coconut milk. Still tasty!

This was my group of ingredients for the first batch

Watching the temp fall back to 100-105 after heating it past 125 degrees


Adding sweetener for the culture to feed on


The yogurt maker keeping the yogurt at a steady temperature for 12-24 hours

This is the result I'm going for! Except I don't want to pay $1.99 to 2.40 per container!

**PS…I thought I had lost this post from last night, but I was able to recover it this evening! What a great surprise!**

Another month has come and gone and here I am snuggled into my bed ready to post some really fun food pictures! We have been busy in the kitchen making lots of creative and delicious meals and I tried to capture a number of them with my trusty camera. One day, I aspire to be like some of the food bloggers and take professional food photos…but for now, I will continue snapping them in my semi-dark kitchen (I keep it that way or get overpowered by the nasty overhead lighting). Wouldn’t that be a fun job? Food Photography. I love to look at pictures of food.

Before I move on to the lovely photos, I need to share some of our bad news that I intentionally left off of my last post. Farmer John and I had both been out of the country for a week back in August when we returned home to find our precious tomatoes taken over by the relentless, take-no-survivors disease called blight. Ruined. Dead. Adios. We were in mourning during my last post, so I felt it best to leave that portion out and focus on the positive. I like to see the glass half full.

Farmer John handled it quite well I must say proudly. We burned the remains and moved on. No need to talk about it anymore. Brings sadness to my heart and I can’t take it anymore.

We were able to conserve a few maters, such as these for one of our favorite go-to summer meals.

BTCs (Bacon-Tomato-Cheese

Sandwich)

We used turkey bacon and some Dubliner’s cheese, our favorite white cheddar. John requested this meal about twice a week this summer.

Here are some more of the many creations birthed in our humble little kitchen this month:

Homemade French Fries

Peel and cut a potato or two…

fry in hot peanut oil…so healthy…

check to see if they’re done using tongs…

let 3% of the oil drip onto a paper towel and relish the rest in your belly. PS…not intended for frequent consumption…but a nice treat on occasion! Move over McD’s.

Roasted Red Peppers

Roasted red peppers are super easy to make. Just turn on your gas burner stove to medium-medium high and place the pepper(s) on top to burn.

Don’t worry! Just let ‘em burn to a char.

Again, use tongs for safety. Kari is pretty good at this.

As soon as they’re covered in black char, place them in a bowl and cover tightly with saran wrap. Let them sit for about 10 minutes while they sweat.

Take the peppers out of the bowl and use your fingers to peel off the charred skin. You can rinse them off to clean any residual blackness. Cut them in strips and use on your favorite dishes. Save any remainders in a jar. You can also choose to put a little oil in the jar to preserve them until your next meals.

Tempeh Sandwiches with Roasted Red Peppers and

Strawberry Goat Cheese Salad with Candied Pecans and Homemade Garlic Honey Vinaigrette

John’s Potato Surprise and

Sautéed Kale and Tomatoes

I’m not really sure what went into this meal other than potatoes, onions and garlic, but we had bought some potatoes from the farmer's market and wanted to use them up. I love to see Farmer John in the kitchen. He’s a great cook!

The kale is so easy too. Cut off the stems from the leaf down and chop the kale up. Sautee onions and garlic in olive oil and then add chopped tomatoes. Add kale at the end and let it reduce into the pan. Add salt/pepper to taste. Yum!

We were still continuing to harvest these items up until last week! We still have everything but the flowers. I loved having fresh sunflowers out my back door. Farmer John even picked some for me one night, although i think it was hard for him to cut them off.

Kale Crisps

I’ve been wanting to make kale crisps for a while. Also way too simple. I just took the leaf part off of the stems and tore the leaves into small pieces. I spread them out onto a pan and sprayed them with a little olive oil and put them in the oven on about 325 degrees for about 5-10 minutes. Watch them closely because they will quickly burn. You will know when they are done when they fall apart into your fingers. They literally melt in your mouth and are quite addicting.

Gluten Free Peach Cobbler

What’s summer without peach cobbler? I love it warm out of the oven with a little bit of vanilla ice cream slowly melting over it. Try this recipe from The Pioneer Woman.

Found some ripe bananas on sale and bought a whole bunch so that we could freeze them for smoothies. We’re pretty obsessed with smoothies around these parts. John has been on a kick lately where he makes one every single morning.

Farmer John is so smart. I mean, he’s one of those people that hears something once and it’s stored neatly into his brain forever. I’ve always had a problem with those types, but now it’s coming in handy! Smart man = good job. He’s studying for the GRE and has a goal to take it in December of this year. He prefers to study with the TV on and swears it helps, but every time I look up, he’s got his eyes on the TV.

John’s TV program of choice on most nights…The Office.

John and I were able to go to Oak Island with good friends over Labor Day weekend. On the way down, we got to stop in Durham to see my sister and her son, Eliot, who were in town with friends for a few days! What a wonderful little tease! He’s gotten so big. He can even say “Maahwy”.

He’s an independent little guy. I get to see him TOMORROW!!

Fried Okra, Mashed Potatoes

and Kale Crisps

Love the immersion blender. I had never tried it on mashed potatoes, but it worked well!

Cracker Barrel came to Blowing Rock!!

Homemade Pesto

I have put off making pesto all summer long! I harvested a ton at once and it took me a whole night just to pick the leaves off the stems! The second night, I got to work processing small batches. I probably did 8-10 batches total because my food processor is so teeny.

Picking begins…
Picking done!…

Everything you will need!

Fresh Basil
Olive oil (from Jordan in our case! yum!)
Parmesan cheese
Fresh garlic
Sea salt
Cracked pepper
Walnuts (Could use pine nuts as well)

Only made about 4 cups! But this will last me through the entire winter and more.

I learned this cool trick to save the pesto in the freezer.

Cover trays with saran wrap and put into the freezer. Once it’s frozen, you can pop the pieces out into a freezer bag and take them out individually as needed! So cool.

Sun Dried Tomatoes in the

Oven

I was given some Roma tomatoes from a friend at work (since ours were gone…) and I planned to dry them in the oven. I was super excited to try this out! Just cut them into small slices and place them on a pan. Put them in the oven on the lowest setting (mine was on 150-200 degrees. Leave them in there for 6-12 hours. Mine took about 6-7 total.

Check periodically and flip over a few times. Some may stick to the pan but will usually peel off pretty easily. Done! Let them cool and put in a plastic baggie in the fridge to use as needed. Tastes like the real thing, but much like the pesto, didn’t make much for the amount of tomatoes I started with!

John’s harvest photo shoot :)

Homemade Ginger Chews

I have become a big fan of ginger chews and now John is as well.

He decided that he would experiment on a homemade version the other night. He will have to enlighten us on what recipe he used, but they turned out great!