Real Butter – Butternut Squash – Lots of Dehydrating – Raw Granola – Turnip & Squash Gratin – Homemade Larabars (Tuesday Twister – 12/8/09)
December 7, 2009 By 22 Comments
Enjoying "God's Natural, Organic, Whole Foods, Grown Locally, In Season"
My Tuesday Twister posts are my weekly round-up of what’s going on in my kitchen and our lives, as it pertains to real food. So here we go – I’ll catch you up on what’s twisting in my kitchen this week!
To participate in the Tuesday Twister Blog Carnival, visit this post. See you there!
- Butter! – I picked up some local raw Jersey cream last week. I used 4 cups of it in luscious, creamy vanilla ice cream – for Jeff’s birthday.
The remaining two cups made delicious, yellow butter! Mmm, mmm… - Roasted Butternut Squash – They are in season now and somehow I ended up with 3 of these big squashes. Jeff and I really like it cut up in chunks and then oven-roasted, coated in olive oil, sea salt, pepper and garlic.
- Dehydrating – My new Excalibur dehydrator is getting a run for its money. I’ve been dehydrating supplies of grains, nuts, and seeds. Pictured here in these jars are: granola (see next item); soaked/dehydrated rolled oats; and sprouted/dehydrated buckwheat groats. I also increased my supply of soaked/dehydrated almonds and soaked/dehydrated pumpkin seeds, but they aren’t pictured.
- Raw and Enzyme-Rich Granola – The kids and I are loving this! I soaked rolled oats and a bunch of seeds/nuts. I tossed all those with date puree and then dehydrated the mix until crispy. Once I perfect the recipe, I’ll share!
- Turnip and Squash Gratin – Thanks to Katy @ Thought For Food for this recipe! She shared it as a guest post at The Nourishing Gourmet. We all enjoyed it. The kids ate every bit, which says alot.
- Enzyme-Rich Larabars – I’ve made several batches of these homemade Larabars. They make a good snack, but I also like to serve them just before or just after a primarily cooked-food meal – so our digestion can benefit from all the enzymes. Hopefully you won’t get sick of my enzyme-kick.
So, that’s it for me – what’s twisting in your kitchen? To participate in the Tuesday Twister Blog Carnival, visit this post. See you there!
The Gallery of Christmas Cookies is coming up on Monday, the 14th of December. Do you have a real food cookie recipe to contribute? Please do!
About Wardeh
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I’m excited to try your Larabar recipe, they sound delicious!
Wardeh,
The food looks delicious! Do you refrigerate your grains once they have been dehydrated and put into the jars?
Tiffany – No, I don’t. If I wasn’t going to use them pretty soon, I would consider freezing them for long-term. The nuts (most of them anyway) are more stable when germinated, according to NT. The buckwheat I would assume is the same, it being a whole seed. As for the rolled oats, they didn’t germinate but were soaked with acidity, so of any of these that I did, I think they’d be the most susceptible to spoiling. Do you refrigerate your soaked/dehydrated grains?
Mmmmm…. everything looks so yummy! especially the squash dishes.
.-= Marg´s last blog post… Rustic Christmas centerpiece =-.
Yum! I can’t wait for the perfected granola recipe.
We LOVE butternut squash around here. This is our favorite recipe; it’s so good! I have used various cheeses on it: blue, chevre, etc. Of course, you want to use a real food pizza crust.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Butternut-Squash-Pizzas-with-Rosemary/Detail.aspx
Wardeh, I have a question about your butter. I keep my homemade in a “butter keeper” on the kitchen counter, but it has been *so* hard lately. Is your spreadable? And if so, what’s your technique?
.-= Mindy´s last blog post… "Not me!" Monday =-.
Mindy – This is the third time I’ve made butter, and I’m not used to having it around, really. And since it is cold right now, mine is not as spreadable as it would be in summer. How is your butter during the spring/summer/fall? What you’re doing with the butter keeper is what I’ve seen most people do. Can you keep it closer to a heat source to soften it up?
Wardeh—I continue to learn so much from you! I’ve been craving granola but knowing that in its traditional form it is a Nourishing Traditions no-no. I’m excited to see your “perfected” recipe (although I’m sure what you’re doing now is awesome!) for a soaked/sprouted version! Going to have to invest in a dyhydrator, too, I think.
—Sonya
.-= Sonya Hemmings´s last blog post… 25 Carols of Christmas: No. 8 =-.
Wardeh—What size of the Excalibur dehydrator do you have, and do you find it sufficient? I’m interested in the five-tray one, and just wondering whether it would be enough for our large family.
—Sonya
.-= Sonya Hemmings´s last blog post… 25 Carols of Christmas: No. 8 =-.
I refrigerate or freeze all the nuts and seeds. You can’t always tell if oils in the nuts become rancid or not and I don’t want to take any chances.
Kelly – It is good to be on the safe side, especially with unsoaked/ungerminated nuts/seeds. I store all those in my freezer. But I don’t store soaked/germinated/dehydrated nuts in the freezer and because: Sally Fallon Morell says you can store certain germinated/dehydrated nuts at room temperature for many months due to the stable oleic acid – these are almonds, peans, cashews, macadamia nuts and peanuts. (page 513) Were you referring to all nuts/seeds, no matter whether they’re germinated/dehydrated or not? How do you store your grains, whether pre-soaked or not? Do you keep those in the freezer, too? Not meaning to challenge you – I like to hear how others are doing it!
Kelly – P.S. I think I should definitely be storing my pumpkin seeds in the freezer/fridge!
Wardeh, I just spent an hour on your source page. It was great! Thanks for doing all this work for us. I’ve already ordered some glass storage bowls, since I’m in the process of converting to “glass”, throwing out all my nasty plastics. Thanks again. I love your blog.
Marly – Which bowls did you order? The Anchor Hocking? Those are so awesome! I love mine! I’m glad you enjoyed looking through my resources.
About the oats – the ones I’ve soaked/dehydrated are for use in no-bake cookies and to sprinkle in kefir. I made alot this week because I’d also like to come up with a granola bar recipe.
For our breakfast cereal, I soak the rolled oats overnight as needed, and cook the next morning (skipping the dehyrating).
Sonya – I got the 9 tray. It is awesome – plenty of room. I think the smaller ones would be limiting after awhile, at least with the amount of dehydrating I do/plan to do. Even though I didn’t expect it, I ran it once with every tray full – even though I tried to space out my batches so as not to have more things to dehydrate than how much room was available. Thankfully, I didn’t need more than 9 trays that time.
Another reason to choose the big one is if you plan to use it as a warm place for cultured foods to develop – it will fit 1/2 gallon and gallon jars easily.
I totally agree… the bigger Excalibur (9 tray) is the way to go. Love mine! You will not be sorry for going larger. I find that I could use more at times when the garden is all coming in at the same time it has a waiting line. LOL
BTW, Sonya, I have the 9-tray Excalibur dehydrator and love it. A 5-tray would certainly be adequate for right now, but when my garden explodes next summer I’m sure I’ll be happy for the 9 trays. Also, the 9-tray dehydrator lets you dry all your nuts or grains at the same time, thus saving energy.
Just thought of something else. Wardeh, do you dehydrate your oatmeal after soaking it? I mean tons of it to last for the whole week/month?
Yes I have been refrigerating mine, I’m not really sure why, it just seemed like a good idea.
Lovely! Can’t wait to see your granola recipe!
Wow, yummy Wardeh! I’ve only made butter once and it ended up being a lot of work for less butter than we thought we would get. I think maybe we didn’t shake it quite enough
I too have been loving butternut squashes. Lately I’ve been making fries out of them because I can’t do potatoes anymore. They are fantastic!
I love the Gratin casserole idea – I will have to come up with a version free of turnips because they are off the list right now too!
thanks for sharing your week! Sorry I missed the twister – I have been busy getting my holiday planner and desserts ebook done.
love
sarah
.-= Sarah Schatz – menus for limited diets´s last blog post… Why a weekly menu planner makes a great holiday gift for someone on a limited diet =-.
We flake our own oats from whole organic oat groats! Ten years ago in preparation for Y2K, we bought The Family Grain Mill from Christian Family Resources in Colorado. Basically, it has a base which one attaches to something solid like a countertop (ours is currently attached with a sort of C-clamp which comes with the mill), and then one can hook up different attachments to the base. We use our flaker attachment often. I believe the original price was around $100; it’s more than paid for itself over the years. It’s manual, with a detachable handle, and even a preschooler can flake the oats. One can theoretically flake other grains but we stick with the oats. Any purchased flaked grains will NOT be raw; think about the friction in large machinery which of course creates heat and therefore cooks the grain.
Generally we flake enough for a week or so at a time since it takes a bit of effort to set everything up and clean up after flaking.
Wardeh, I am excited to try your dehydrated granola recipe, too!
Kim Walters