eat your violets

spring is finally here. i have been walking the fields and wooded areas on the farm waiting for the first offerings to make their presence known. fiddlehead ferns should be up shortly here, and this will be my first year to try to preserve them....i am going to try pickling them. i'll let you know how it comes out.

i have been inspired by some of my favorite blogs this winter. i'll be watching for thistle for a new experience.....Feral Kevin says the stems are similar to cucumber when raw; like green beans or asparagus cooked:

http://feralkevin.com/


Rebecca Lerner talks about violets in her blog this morning, "First Ways" :

http://firstways.com/2011/04/17/five-things-to-do-with-wild-violets/

i follow Rebecca's blog via email, and on Facebook. in a sleepless moment last night, i read her latest entry on my cell phone, and thought of violet jelly.

Violet syrup:

fill a qt. canning jar with the blossoms, packing tightly for richer syrup. pour boiling water over them, just covering blossoms. cap tightly, and let sit 24 hours. strain.

to each cup of liquid, add juice of 1/2 lemon and 2 cups of sugar. bring to boil, pour into pint jars and seal.

**use as a gentle laxative and cough suppressant

Violetade: add 3 tbsp. of syrup to cold water.

sprinkle on anything from pancakes to fresh snow. (fresh snow becoming somewhat of an oxymoron, sadly enough)


this definitely needs re-doing without sugar. suggestions welcome!

Violet jelly:

follow procedure for syrup. to each cup of liquid, add the juice of one lemon and 1 pkg. of Surejell. bring to boil, add 4 cups of sugar. hard boil for 1 minute, and pour into jelly jars.

yikes, the sugar! i haven't made this stuff in awhile, looks like some experimenting is needed.

Violets are rich in vitamins C and A. 1/2 cup of greens supplies as much vitamin C as 4 oranges, and more than RDA of vitamin C.

i do not know where this info comes from, and cannot vouch for it's accuracy.  i've been making this off and on for a couple decades, and can vouch for the beautiful color in the jelly jars, and the delicate flavor.

Ramen Knitting 101

this is my first ever posted video. i found this on youtube, and am delighted to have a new use for ramen noodles since going the route of paleo nutrition. i may not be able to eat them, but now i can knit with them!

thermos cooking a la heidi

heidi just did a post over at vansteaders on thermos cooking. i haven't done it in some time, and with the cold weather approaching, will welcome hot food with little effort or fuel consumption. one of my biggest complaints was poor results in cooking brown rice. heidi's blog shows success with that, here

you can read my old blog post on making a reflectix cover for my thermos here.

thermos dimensions: 4" diameter and 7"tall
                    circumference of thermos alone 12.5"
                    circumference with cozy 17.25"
                    20 oz. (0.59 liters)

some photos of my thermos:

No time like the present

I keep putting off blogging because i'm so far behind, and am overwhelmed by the amount of stuff that has happened. So, just for today :-) here is a highlight....on my way north from Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument I stopped in Ajo to see the plaza. Discovered the very best hot dogs ever. I think it is the avocado that does it!

Http://twokniveskatie.blogspot.com
-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Who blogs about tunafish, anyway?

we have had a running discussion at vandwellers about foods that can be eaten without cooking. gary gearloose and i have essentially bonded over this topic. after paddling and puns, of course. so anyhow, one of the things we vandwellers like are the foil pouch premium wild caught alaskan salmon. which, interestingly enough, is a product of thailand. go figure. we are always comparing pouches as to weight and cost and availability. i usually buy my salmon at wakmart, where a 2.6 oz. pack is .98 cents. gary's source recently dried up, which was a 3 oz. sized package for a dollar.

above is the walmart salmon. it has 2 gms of fat, 360 mgs. of sodium, and 0 carbs. i love it with rice or right out of the pack.

yesterday i found this at the Dollar Tree store in town. i almost passed it by, because i thought "croutons" for some reason. when i went back to look again, i read the ingredients "alaskan pink salmon, water, vegetable broth (with soy) and salt. "ewwww" i said. "i only like real salmon without that other stuff in it".

fortunately, when i went to the rondyvan, i took the time to look at the ingredients of my "pure" salmon, only to find the exact same ingredients! so i went back for more. with a shelf life of 01-11-11, i don't need to worry about shelf life. and the best part? it's a whole 3 oz. and only a buck! yay!

so, what, you ask, is the tunafish in the title all about? the Dollar Tree also had some foil packs of chicken of the sea tuna for a buck. there is 3 oz. in that pack also. again, a product of thailand. the tuna has less fat (1 gm) and more protein (20 mgs. as opposed to the 15 mgs. in salmon). salmon is good fat, though, right? i had a picture of the salmon but it went away through no fault of my own. really.

for those readers who shake their heads about the weird things i blog about, i'll come up with something better next time :-)

fry-bake pan pizza

okay, i tried the pizza in the fry-bake pans today. i started out by heating the last four charcoal briquets i had in the van in my grilliput collapsible firebowl (that is a whole 'nother blog post, my firebowl!) i used a dry pizza crust mix that i mixed with 1/2 cup warm water from the tea kettle, and let it sit for 10 minutes in a warm place (the dashboard of the van). i smooshed it out into the bottom of the expedition size pan (10 1/2") and added sauce (ragu pizza sauce from a jar)....

and shredded mozarella with "jamaica me crazy", a pepper blend i got at Granzella's this spring, liberally sprinkled on top.

i put the four hot charcoal briquets on top of the pan, which was on my butane one-burner stove using the scorch-buster riser bar. the flame was set on about medium (i never said this was scientific) and i set the timer for the 10 minutes recommended on the crust package. after 10 minutes, it was nowhere near done. it took an additional 10 minutes to finish the baking to get this....

which was a really good tasting pizza that was just slightly undercooked, meaning that the cheese wasn't as bubbly as i would have liked, and the crust, though done, was not browned much.

i think there may be a couple reasons for this.....one, i only had the 4 briquets on top. if you remember my post a few days ago about the cinnamon rolls, i had a real twig bonfire going on that one. i think with more briquets or additional twigs, i would have gotten a better temp for baking. and second, there was a breeze tonight, and the flame did alot of sputtering. i imagine that would effect the temperature. i think i will turn the flame up higher next time.

still the pizza was really good, and certainly a nice break from the usual for dinner. i'm gonna try again next week, and see if i get better results. i'll keep ya posted!

Fry-Bake pans

i had long been looking for an alternative to my heavy cast-iron cookware that would allow me to bake, just as i did in my dutch ovens, yet was lightweight, versatile, and could withstand the rigors of camping and life on the road. last year i took the plunge, and bought a set of the Fry-Bake pans i had read so much about in backpacker magazine and at the NOLS site. i got the set....the alpine model (8" in diameter) and the expedition model (10 1/2") with the heavier lids. they have been my main cookpans at the farm and on the road. they are hard-anodized aluminum...no non-stick finish to wear off, and you can use metal utensils and scrub them with sand, if necessary, without harming the cook surface. i love them. up til now, i hadn't used them as an oven. i decided to try them out before i hit the road again. so as not to confuse the results with possible recipe errors, i decided to bake some pillsbury cinnamon rolls out of the can. above you see my coleman butane one-burner stove, a bottle of walnut oil, the rolls, the expedition pan, a can of butane, the alpine pan, and the scortch buster "riser bar" that i purchased separately.

the riser bar provides a space between the bottom of the pan and the flame to help prevent scorching.

you need to take extra care that the pan doesn't slip off, but my closest call came when i actually bumped the table.

i used the larger expedition pan (10 1/2 "). the recipe called for a 9" pan, so i could have used the smaller alpine, too.

the raw cinnamon rolls in the pan. this is the part where mutt got interested:-)

i built a little twig fire in the indentation on the top. you can use charcoal briquets or coals from your fire, also.

conflagration not necessary! the recipe called for 17 minutes of baking time. never one to take direction, i decided to make it 20 minutes, assuming that the fry-bake pan would be less efficient than an oven. wrong.

the rolls came out beautiful! the only thing wrong was the bottoms were a little too browned. if i had stayed with the 17 minutes baking time, they would have been perfect.

they were delicious anyway! i had them with spearmint tea.

this is the lid after baking. not a pan you would find in (mumble)artha's kitchen!

so i am pleased as all get-out with these pans. i have already made everything from eggs and bacon to porkchops to spaghetti and stews to oatmeal in them. although these nest compactly, i think i will take the larger expedition model on the road, and leave the alpine as the farmhouse pan.

i think they are worth every cent i spent. this cookware will outlive me, i'm sure.

my next experiment will be to do my homemade whole wheat pitas in them. i'll let you know how it goes.

here's a link to the website:

http://www.frybake.com/

Moose Goo

i wanted to share with you a favorite food that is good rations for camping or hiking. it is made with corn flour (masa harina, not corn meal), honey, and peanut buter. i will post the recipe as it was created. i noodled with mine to make it a little less sweet, when i do it again, i will write down my version and post it here.
if you click on the blog post title, it will take you to joe's site, where there are other variations and recipes.....
okay, blogger will not let me cut and paste the recipe, so you'll have to follow the link. if you try it, you'll have to let me know how you liked it. or share your version!

Sprouting

i had to repost my sprout blog, cause i am still essentially computer illiterate, and deleted the last one. i mean deleted, as in had to reshoot the photos and all. these are sent from my phone, and i have no control over the order in which they publish, so if this post seems all mixed up, consider the source!

above is the finished product after 2 days of sprouting.

these are the items i carry in the van that i used:

a hemp sprout bag, a collapsible tupperware bowl, my copper cook pot, an old mini strainer, water, and seeds.

the hemp sprout bag is 10" x 7" of a heavy hemp fabric that absorbs lots of water to prevent drying out to fast, yet still allows good air circulation necessary for sprouting. the cd is for size reference. cd compliments of my musical mastermind, micheal... he provided me with 3,000 miles of great music :-)

the seeds are an organic stir-fry mix that i picked up in port angeles last summer at sweet mike's. they are crunchy and just a bit spicy! i ate them right out of the hemp bag....after sprouting, of course.

the tupperware collapsible bowls are perfect for me in the van. they pack flat and can be opened just to the size you need. multipurpose at it's finest....mixing bowls, soup bowls, storage, wash basins.....

and seed soaking bowls! these seeds were soaked overnight, then placed into the hemp bag, which was thoroughly soaked with water.

at home i would have hung the bag over the sink. in the van, i used a mini strainer i found in my mom's stuff, which just happened to fit perfectly into my copper pot, as a place to allow the initial drainage of water from the bag.

see how perfect it fit?

here it sits on my dashboard, the bag hung from the rearview mirror. after all the dripping is done, i can hang it from a cuphook on my cupboard where it will get good air circulation. when the bag begins to dry out, rinse and repeat. your climate (humidity, temps, breezes, etc. will affect how often you need to rinse the bag. just make sure the seeds stay moist.

http://sproutpeople.com/grow/sprouting.html click here for basic sprouting info

http://sproutpeople.com/grow/travel.html click here for travel sprouting info

"my barn having burned to the ground, I can now see the moon" masahide

Http://twokniveskatie.blogspot.com

two loaves katie

okay, so these photos are not an indication of why i left home. and i can say, for as scary as they were, they smelled good.....

i've talked about my mechanic gary, and his wife cathy before. i went to school with both of them, back in the day. we've been friends forever, and they have always kept me in a vehicle, sometimes against all odds, despite my inherent inability to describe sounds, smells and behaviors of my vehicle with any accuracy (right, david h?).

so the cool/sad thing is that over the last year or so, cathy and i have gotten very close. cool because she was a big support to me during my cancer stuff, and i was honored to help her out during some recent surgeries. she also has new twin grandbabies that she shares very generously, thereby satisfying my ongoing need for babies to snuggle and love and smooch. the sad part is, when i am on the road, i miss her something fierce. but not her bread.

you see, cathy is about the best cook i know. i am not kidding. and bakes? oh, can she ever bake. cakes and cookies and (so she says) bread, oh my. at christmas, her daughter ange brought the babies to cathy's house for the annual cookie baking day, which just happened to be 3 days after cathy's most recent surgery. i got invited so i could help out with the babies, and because they love me, of course :-) in exchange, i got dozens of the best christmas cookies ever.

a couple weeks later, i went down to help cathy babysit again, and was excited about the fresh bread she was making to go with the stew. but as i peered expectantly into the bread machine window, i became alarmed at what i saw. cathy said "it must be the yeast" and dumped the lump into the trash. she started a new batch, but my alarm became fear when i again looked into the bread machine. cathy said " give it time, it it just needs time".

well, i made it my mission to stand guard over the bread machine.....you've seen those movies where the tomatoes eat california, or something?....but i regretted not having a gun with me.

but not to worry. this lump wasn't getting big enough to be eaten, let alone eat us. the stew was good, though, as was the bread bought at the local mini market. but the best part? all the fun and love and laughs we shared. i really miss them!

(check the comments to see the reason for the change to the title of this post)

carrots

******this is a copy of a post i made at vandwellers******


okay, so I live on magical bluffs overlooking the ocean, and a beach where the
rainbow family has an encampment. I love it here :-)

i'm eating a can of carrots for supper. Straight out of the can. I adore canned
carrots, and i'm too lazy to cook, so this works for me. I had a huge lunch of
ramen noodles and clams and red and green bell peppers and garlic, so there is
nothing pathetic about eating a can of carrots for supper.

I look up from my carrots to see a $20 bill being held out by some guy.

now, my first inclination is to stab him with something, because I think he
wants a sexual favor, and by god a sexual favor from me is gonna cost you a lot
more than $20......like maybe your life, or at least a private part. Then I see
that this is a really old guy with a nice smile on his face saying "i want you
to have this".

he's looking compassionately at my can of carrots.

So I try to explain that I love carrots and i'm very happy with carrots because
I had a feast for lunch, and thank-you very much but I don't need your money but
he stops me and says "i've never seen anyone so contented eating carrots
before". I laugh out loud because he's so sincere and because he's right.

He hands me the money and says "you can share it with your friends" and waves an
arm out over the harbor to the beach where the rainbow family is camped around
their smokey driftwood fires, and I suddenly get it......he thinks I am one of
the rainbow kids, on a break from panhandling at the mcdonalds on ocean drive.

So I am gonna check the rearview mirror.....do I look that funky?.....and then
drive over to the mcd's and surprise some of the kids with a little windfall $20
bill.

Life gets better and better every day :-)