Maybe I'm just hungry

I just read a book that made me hungry and made me laugh at the same time. I am a little hungry. This morning I put a Texas style brisket in the oven to slow cook, and during lunch (because the top element in my oven is broken) I went home to flip it over. One sniff of that and I've been dreaming of dinner ever since.

Sort of silly then that a book with lemons and bananas on the cover can make my mouth water.


Counting Crocodiles by Judy Sierra; illustrated by Will Hillenbrand

I hope you can find it at your library. It's a counting book with a very fun rhyme.

Here is a haiku and a short cooking tip too, because it's been so long since I've offered anything:

The long night
The Monkey thinks how
To catch hold of the moon.
-Shiki

I love homemade banana chips made in my food dehydrator. I add a little extra flavor to mine by dipping the bananas in lemon juice before drying. Yum! Now that makes my mouth water.

How to . . . what?

It's been about two months since I abandoned my community garden plot, and I've really missed it. Along with having a lot of squash, I also planted some sunflowers with the intent of trying to make my own sunflower seeds. When I felt like the sunflowers should be ready, I picked a few and looked up on the internet (a librarian's best friend) how to roast them.

Thanks to the University of Minnesota Extension Service, I learned that I had picked my sunflowers a little early, and they needed some time to think about if they really wanted to be edible.

Here are the intructions I found:

HOW TO HARVEST AND ROAST SUNFLOWER SEEDS: If you're growing sunflowers to harvest the seed heads, whether for human or animal consumption, don't cut the heads until the green disk at the back of the flower has begun to turn yellow. At this point the seeds will mature properly if left on the head and kept in a dry, well-ventilated place. After the ray flowers have fallen off, cover the head with a cheesecloth or paper bag to keep birds away until you cut it and bring it inside. Seeds are ready to store or eat when the disk at the back of the flower has turned dark brown. You can easily remove the seeds by rubbing two heads together, or just rubbing your palm over the seeds.

Who knew?

pre-soak - and still a little green

After I let my flowers sit for a while and turn brown and get ready, Matt and I pulled all the seeds out, washed them, and soaked them in a salt water for a night. That's not easy because sunflower seeds float. Again, who knew?

The next day I put them in my dehidrator to try out (I learned from a second batch, san-dehidrator, that this was a very good choice.) Then, when I came home from work, I toasted them for about 5-7 minutes in my 350 degree oven.

post-soak

Yum Yum! They actually turned out really well. I gave some to my friend who really likes seed and she said they are the best she's ever had.

"He's Got Some Dough!"

Wednesday, I was thinking all day that the weather is perfect for making doughnuts. (Wednesday in Idaho Falls the temp was 19 F with a feel temp of 50 F.) To my surprise (I'm still always surprised when this happens) and excitement, Matt called me up Wednesday night to ask if we could make doughnuts Thursday! =) Can I just say we're M.F.E.O.!!!

So Thursday, Matt picked me up and we went to get "ingredients." (I was not prepared for what was about to happen!) As we drove to the store I naively questioned, "what do we need, I have flour; I have yeast," each time, looking at him to see if that is the ingredient he thought we were missing. "Do we need eggs? No, we have LOTS of eggs; I have milk . . . wait, I don't have milk. We need milk." He smiled. I thought for sure we were going to the store for milk.

We walked in and went straight back to the dairy section, right past the milk, and over to the biscuits. He asked me what kind I wanted. I was so confused! He said, "Haven't you ever made biscuit doughnuts before?"

Nope! I had no clue that was possible. I don't even consider canned biscuits to be made of real dough. Don't ask me why. It just seems fake to me, and because of that fact, in a last ditch effort to save "homemade doughnut night" I suggested that we pick up some yummy pre-made pizza dough as well.

We were at a place where you bag it yourself, so at the check out, as I walked down to the end to bag, Matt put 5 cans of biscuits and one bag of pizza dough on the belt. "Wow! that's a lot of dough," said the lady at the register. Then she turned to me and laughed, "He's got some dough." I smiled and winked and said, "I know. That's why I like him." She went on about the dough, because honestly, it was a pretty funny joke (at the time), and then we bagged and ran.

Back at home Matt heated oil and cut holes. I steered clear (because bad things happen when I stand by Matt & hot oil at the same time . . . but that's another story) and carved more pumpkins. About 5 minutes later, Matt handed me the most perfect looking doughnut I've never tasted! And it was good. It didn't even taste like biscuits. I was impressed!

Not only does he have some dough . . . he knows what to do with it!

Here's what you will need to repeat this adventure for yourself:

1 can of any kind of biscuits

1 pot of cooking oil

1 large round bottle cap

cinnamon-sugar in a bowl.

paper towel

medal salad tongs or a slotted spoon

Here's what you do:

Heat oil. Mix cinnamon-sugar in a wide mouth bowl. Open the biscuits and reshape them on the counter. Use the bottle cap to make a hole in the middle of each biscuit. When oil is hot enough, drop each piece in and cook until golden brown. Remove with tongs or slotted spoon. tap on paper towel. Cover with cinnamon-sugar. Eat!

If you decide to try my idea and use pizza dough, just make the doughnuts and then let the dough rise in a low heated oven before frying.