Giveaway winners drawn and announced

Thank you to all who participated. Congratulations to the winners! Please leave me a comment with your address.

Ancient vs. modern wheat giveaway

Over two years ago, I switched our family away from all modern wheat, and went to using all einkorn flour instead. Even though we had been eating virtually 100% organic food for years by this point, which does not allow the use of GMO products, I did not realize that all wheat since approximately the mid-1800s had been hybridized and cross-bred in a form of crude genetic engineering that farmers have always practiced.

Grasses (grains) are unique in that both parent plants pass down a full set of chromosomes, which then add and 'stack up'. The original grains had 14 DNA strands. By combining two of these, the offspring plant now had 28 genes. When that was cross-bred with a third grain, we arrived at wheat with 42 chromosomes by the middle of the 19th century. Along with this genetic load came a plethora of genetic information, which by some is believed to be behind the wide-spread wheat and gluten intolerance we see today.

Einkorn is one of the original, 14-chromosome grains. Even though it contains a higher percentage of gluten than modern wheat does, the gluten is far less complex, and thus widely tolerated even by those who are gluten sensitive.

In our family, Isaac and Becca were struggling with seasonal asthma, and I would get it during pregnancy. I was also having skin issues from wheat such as itchy rashes on my arms and patches on my scalp. I did not have asthma at all with my most recent pregnancy, and we made it through the allergy season (Jan - March) that had in previous years always triggered severe asthma in both Isaac and Becca with close monitoring, but no incidents requiring a doctor's visit for either of them.

We still eat modern wheat when we go out to eat (like pizza), so it's not like we are 100% purist about it. At home, we use only einkorn. I bake all of our bread, and buy pasta and crackers ready from Jovial Foods. If it is not made with einkorn, I don't bring it into the house. But we are lax about it for eating out since none of us are actually acutely intolerant of modern wheat, it's just a way to preempt future gut and allergy issues.

I learned much of the information about modern wheat from a popular book called "Wheat Belly." It's a highly informative and easy read. I recommend it to anyone who is dealing with digestive issues, food allergies/intolerances, or wants to preempt these. Virtually all libraries have a copy of it, many even as an electronic or audio book. 

Wheat Belly does not promote einkorn, but rather only mentions it in passing. The book advocates for going grain free altogether, a step that I am not willing to take unless there were serious health concerns that demanded we cut out all grain. By eliminating modern wheat (which makes up the lion's share of all grain consumed by the average American), we prevent the digestive issues caused by modern wheat that would eventually force us to go grain-free.

Learning to bake with einkorn was rough. I consider myself an experienced cook/baker, but it took me a good two months before I was turning out bread that could be eaten rather than being good only for breadcrumbs. Einkorn is difficult to work with because the gluten is relatively weak - breads rise beautifully, only to collapse once the baking starts. The Jovial Foods einkorn cookbook is a true gem and sanity saver.

Recipes using no or quick leaven (like baking powder and baking soda) pretty much translate 1:1 for substituting all-purpose flour with einkorn, though ones that contain high amounts of fat (think: pie crusts, biscuits) are still tricky to work with because einkorn is slow to absorb fats. I haven't had much time to share most of my einkorn recipes on the blog, but there are some, such as a video tutorial for making einkorn sourdough, a recipe for biscuits, and a recipe for quick sandwich loaves.

And now for the giveaway: I am giving away

1. a new copy of "Wheat Belly", and

2. a new in the package bread proofing basket set that is used for the sourdough bread mentioned above.

These items will go to two separate people. To enter, simply leave a comment below. In the comment, please specify whether you would like item 1 or item 2, so I know which "hat" to throw your name into. Please do not say "both" just to get your name entered twice ;)

However, if you share this post through social media, you can leave a second comment for a second entry, and pick a different item than in your first comment. If you subscribe to my YouTube channel, you can comment for a third entry.

Entries accepted through midnight on Sunday, April 15th, 2018. Winner will be announced in a follow-up post here in the blog, so please check back.


If you are new to baking with einkorn, or thinking of making the switch, I highly recommend the Jovial Foods Einkorn cookbook.

 

 available on Amazon

Giveaway Winners announced

Thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway for the mulling spices to make spiced cider. There were 40 entries total, and five winners drawn. I used random.org to generate five numbers.

The winners are:

#38 - Debra

#14 - Faye

#12 - Emily

#1 - Jessica

#16 - Becky

Congratulations! 

Please leave me a comment with the address you would like me to mail your spices to. I will not publish your comment so others won't be able to see your address.

Thank you for playing along!

Favorite Fall Recipes, Part 1 - Spiced Cider (and a Giveaway!)

Each year on October 31st, our church hosts a Chili Cook-off as an alternative event for people to attend who do not celebrate Halloween. This avoids having to answer the door to trick-or-treaters, or hiding out at home with the lights off. 

When we first began this tradition 11 years ago, only two chilis were entered. By now, we have to limit entries to the first 20 chilis, and the competition is pretty stiff. Since my husband as the pastor is an all-time judge (the other four are randomly drawn), I never enter a chili myself, but every year I do provide the three main sides. Funny side note: my husband's mom was in town for our cook-off this year, so she took his place as a judge.

 Here's a picture of the judges' table because I didn't have one of the spiced cider - though you can see me in the background pouring another gallon of it into the dispenser.

This year, I made 15 gallons of spiced cider, 3 gallons of bean dip, and 180 corn muffins. All three ran out halfway through the evening, so I'll have to up my game next year. Like every year, I got asked for the recipes of these foods, and I promised to share them on my blog. So I bring you this mini-series of my favorite fall recipes. 

Spiced Cider:

8 cups apple juice (organic, unfiltered gives the best flavor)

2 cups water

3 Tbsp frozen orange juice concentrate  

6 Tbsp mulling spices

6 Tbsp sugar (Demerara or Turbinado is best, otherwise use brown sugar)

In a large pot, combine all ingredients, stir to dissolve sugar, and heat over medium heat just until very hot but not boiling. Immediately strain the mulling spices out and serve hot or cold.

Caution: If the mulling spices are left in longer than it takes to heat the spiced cider, they will make it turn bitter.

Mulling spices:

You can buy it ready, or make your own by combining 

4 parts dried orange peel, 

4 parts cinnamon chips, 

1 part whole allspice, and 

1 part whole cloves. 

Since I know that the biggest hurdle to making this spiced cider is finding the mulling spices, and since I made 2 1/2 lbs of it for the cook-off and have some left over, and since this blog post really needs another photo (ahem), I am hosting a little giveaway of packets of mulling spices. Leave a comment below and be entered into a random drawing of FIVE readers that I will mail one of these single-serve packets to (free, of course). US only, ends this Sunday night.

Happy Fall, y'all!


(P.S. You can print this recipe by clicking the green button below.)

Piano Book Review

If you play piano, and/or would like to learn how to play the hymns, you may be interested in The Complete Church Piano Course, authored by none other than my husband. 

For a limited time, you may obtain a free copy of the first book in the set by agreeing to do a review on your blog in exchange (positive or negative). 

For details and to obtain your free copy, please head over to my husband's blog.

From bored to board (game), and a giveaway

Have you ever wondered what people who do not have a television do for entertainment?

Announcing the felt giveaway winners!

There were a total of 86 qualifying comments. Because I had said I would give out one set per every 40 entries, a total of three sets were up for grabs. I used random.org to pick three random numbers, which were 11, 15, and 37:

 

Comment 11:

Comment 15:

Comment 37:

Congratulations to the winners! Please leave me a comment below with your email address (it will not be published) and letting me know which set you would like. I will get in touch with you via email to get your mailing address. 

Sorry to those who entered and didn't win. This was so much fun, I am sure I will host another similar giveaway very soon! Thank you for participating!!

Felt foods, and a GIVEAWAY

Making play foods from felt is seriously addictive. The more I look for tutorials online, the more I find. Too bad my family still needs to eat real food, too, because I could easily devote all my time to cooking up the fake stuff.

These are some of the links to felt food tutorials I have found online:

Breakfast

-         bacon

-         sausages

-         eggs: sunny side up, scrambled, whole eggs and carton

-         pancakes

-         syrup

-         butter pat

-         orange slice

Sandwich kit

Fruits

-         banana: out of peel, sliced)

-         orange

-         apple

-         orange/lemon slice

-         strawberry

-         kiwi
 -         watermelon
-    cherries

Veggies

-         carrots

-         squash

-         egg plant

-         potato

-         corn on the cob

-     beets

-     lettuce

-         green beans

Dinners

-         pizza and toppings

-         ravioli/farfalle w/sauce and meatballs

-         turkey dinner

-         burger and fries

-         steak

-         taco

-         fajita

-         pot stickers

-         lasagna

Sweets/snacks

-         lollipop

-         ice cream

-         cake

-         donut

-         pumpkin pie

-         cinnamon roll

-         cupcake

-         cookies (heart-shaped, chocolate-chip, M&Ms)

-         chocolate bar

-         popcorn  in bag

-         tortilla chips

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And now for the giveaway:

Please enter to win a felt food play set of your choice. You can choose between getting a 

breakfast set (3 pancakes, syrup, butter, and 2 each of bacon, sausages, sunny-side up eggs, and orange slices),

(2 sausages not pictured in this set, but will be included)

or a 

sweet foods set (2 each of cinnamon rolls, donuts, large and small heart-shaped cookies, and chocolate chip and M&M cookies)

or a

sandwich kit (2 slices of bread, 2 peanut butter and one jelly topping, 1 each of Swiss cheese and bologna, and 2 each of tomato slices and lettuce).

These are the same type of sets I made for Isaac, Miriam, and Becky's birthdays, but obviously you would get a new, never-played-with-before, set. To make shipping easier, I will not be able to include the clear plastic boxes that we store these foods in at home, but you can get your own from a deli or bakery.

To enter the giveaway, do one, some, or all of the following:

- Leave a comment below (no anonymous comments - Google ID or other required)

- Leave another comment with a link to your favorite felt food(s).

- Become a follower of this blog, and leave a comment letting me know that you did so.

- Post about this giveaway on your blog, and leave a comment letting me know that you did so.

- Share this post on facebook, and leave me a comment letting me know that you did so.

That means you could get as many as FIVE entries, BUT you MUST leave a separate comment for each entry. 

Deadline to enter is Sunday, March 13th, 2011.

Open to all readers. Restrictions apply for some countries.

I will give away one set per every 40 entries, so if there are a lot, your chances will still be pretty decent that you may get one. Please allow about one week after the giveaway is over for your set to ship, as I will not start making them until I know how many I need to make, and of which kind.

Have fun!

And the winners are...

Many thanks to all who participated in my giveaway. I randomly chose two winners.

Are you ready?

Congratulations to fourkid and Nikki! Please email me the address you would like the jelly sent to, my address is zsuzsanna.anderson [at]gmail[dot]com

It was great hearing from everyone who commented. I will answer your questions in a separate post in the next couple of days.

Canning for those who don't think they can

(lame pun intended)

...and a giveaway.

Some people love canning, and others don't see any point in it. To each his own, but this post is not intended for either of those types. This is for people who have never given canning a spin, are interested in it, but feel daunted for reasons such as cost, know-how, and time constraints.

In my opinion, canning should not be more expensive than store-bought, including ingredients, equipment and jars. If I had to can for 10 years before I started "getting in the black" after buying a ridiculously overpriced canner, I just couldn't get excited about all the work involved. So this is my low-budget, non-glamorous method, using things that you most likely already have in your kitchen.

Say it with me: Sí, se puede! We can do it, yes we can!

Step #1: Start small, and start with something easy such as jelly/jam. This is NOT what you want to buy:

That's 20 lbs of apricots and 16 lbs of cherries. And it's the reason why I have been MIA in the blogosphere. I am getting 16 more lbs of cherries this Saturday, too. I think my fingers may be permanently stained from pitting so many cherries.

I bought these from Bountiful Baskets for ridiculously cheap. I think the apricots were $16 and the cherries $13.

Step 2: Read the instructions and buy the ingredients


Pretty much, all you need is fruit, pectin, and sugar. The only equipment you need is jars with lids and bands, two large pots, a funnel, and tongs or a jar grabber. Also have lots of clean dish cloths on hand to keep your work surface clean.

The instructions inside the box of pectin will tell you how much fruit you need to make one batch of jam/jelly. It will also telly you of any other ingredients necessary, and about how many jars one batch will make. Go ahead and open the box of pectin at the store (yes, you are going to buy this, so please no outraged comments).

Get the necessary amount of fruit, and (if you don't have them) sugar, canning jars, and any other possible ingredients. And, don't forget to use the coupon that usually comes with the instructions when you pay for the pectin. The store I bought mine at doubles coupons up to $1.

Speaking of bulk purchases, if you are going to can a lot such as I did, buying a 25 or 50 lb bag of sugar is much more economical. I bought a 50 lb bag at Smart & Final for $18.

Step 3: Prepare the fruit

For the novice, the easiest would be to start with berry jam, because you simply wash the berries, throw them in a large pot, and mash them with a potato masher. If the berries are larger, such as strawberries, you may want to cut them into halves first.

The prep for the apricots was a little different, but I will explain it here because that's what I made, and I don't want to talk about making strawberry jam and show pictures of apricot jelly. First, I halved and pitted the apricots, and boiled them briefly in a large pot with water. Then, I strained off the apricots and put them through a food mill (this gets rid of the skins and fibery parts).

I was left with this:


Step 4: Sterilize your canning jars

Bring fresh, cold water to a boil in a very large stock pot. You can experiment which of your pots fits jelly jars the best, or can hold the most.

Do not use hot tap water because it could be contaminated with buildup from your water heater.

Your canning jars should be freshly washed in a dishwasher, or in hot, soapy water BEFORE you sterilize them in the pot of boiling water. You can reuse the glass jars again and again, but always get new lids and rings, which are sold separately. When the water is boiling, put the canning jars, lids, and bands into the boiling water to sterilize.

Some people leave the jars in the hot water until they are ready to fill them. I prefer to pull them out a few minutes earlier and set them upside down on a fresh, clean dish towel that has been washed and dried on the hottest setting.


Step 5: Cooking the jam

Look at the instructions in the pectin again. Usually, you add the pectin and other ingredients to the fruit puree and bring it to a boil. When you reach a point where the boiling can no longer be stirred down, you add all the sugar the recipe calls for at once, and boil for one minute sharp while stirring constantly.

Your stove should look something like this: Pot with jam cooking in the front, large pot with boiling water in the back. Do not dump out the hot water after sterilizing the jars, as you will need it to process the jam.

Step 6: Filling the jars

As soon as the jam has been at a rolling boil for one minute, pull the pot to a cold stove plate (if you don't have gas), and start filling the jars one by one. To do so, simply turn one jar over, fill with a funnel, wipe the rim with a clean, damp cloth, set a lid on top, and screw the band on "finger tight" - no need to over-tighten.

Canning funnels are handy, but absolutely not necessary.

Most likely, the last jar will not be full enough to seal and process. Leave this one out until it's cooled, and then put it in the fridge for eating, just as you would with an open jar of jelly. No need to process.

Step 7: Processing the jars

After all jars have been filled and fitted with a lid and band, bring the water in the large stock pot back to a boil. Then gently lower the jars into the pot one by one, and process by boiling for 8-10 minutes (depending on altitude, check the instructions for this, too).

A jar grabber is a handy tool for easily lifting jars in and out of the boiling water. For years, I have made do with a large pair of tongs that came with our barbecue, and it worked pretty well. Because I was canning so much last week, I did decide to buy a "real" jar lifter after I made this first batch of jelly, but for years, I didn't have one and fared just fine.

If you had a "real" canner, it would also come with a fitting metal rack in the bottom of the pot. Again, no need for this, you can put the jars straight into the pot.

After processing for the appropriate time, pull the jars out of the water and turn upside down until cooled. This will force the remaining air in the jars to go through the boiling liquid one more time. Also, if your jelly had foam on top, this will help get rid of it.

And, voilà! This is the first of five batches of apricot jelly I made last week. Yes, we love apricot jelly - it's a Hungarian thing. It tastes great on white French bread, or on palacsinta (our version of crêpes). Our family goes through one of these jars at breakfast.

It's easy, really. I made this batch on a Sunday morning in less than one hour while also getting the two girls ready for church and making the church bulletin. I made the other four batches in one night after the kids were in bed in about two hours. But, like I said, start small.

Finally, if you have read to the end of this long (and, if you're not into canning, boring) post, I think you deserve a treat. To enter, simply leave a comment (anyonymous or otherwise) that has in some way to do with jelly or canning. If you hate both, you could just say that, but then again why would you want to enter a jelly giveaway?

I will randomly pick two winners and send them a jar of my apricot jelly. This would be one of the big jars I made, which are twice the size of the ones in the pictures above. It would be enough to go around generoulsy even in a large family. In the unlikely event that a whole bunch of people leave a comment, I will give away more jars than just two, we'll have to see about that. If less than two people comment, it means that at least I will get to eat more jelly.

Deadline is midnight one week from today, June 26th. Thanks for reading my boring drivel. Recent photos of our many summer activities coming just as soon as I can get more caught up with housework. Hahahahahahahahaha..... [insert crazy laugh here].