Boiled Cider: a new OLD pantry staple

The September King Arthur Flour's bakealong challenge has an ingredient that got my interest piqued.  I have never heard of boiled cider, absolutely love apple cider, but boiling it down to a thick syrup?  No, have not heard of it....until now.  In the challenge recipe this month, there are alternatives to this ingredient (such as molasses, brown sugar, etc), but says that boiled cider is really the preferred choice, and that you had to buy it from them, you can't just boil apple cider......  Oh, yeah you can, I did some research.

The best recipe and description of boiled cider that I could find was from Rebecca, over at her blog: "Foodie with Family", she has a great recipe and some background about it.  Yes, you can buy it, but it wouldn't be true to myself if I did that, without some investigating.

OK, so what is boiled cider and what do you use boiled cider for? Well in the bakealong with King Arthur Flour, you add a quarter cup of this syrup to the batter for a more heightened pumpkin flavor, you can add this syrup to apple pie filling to bring about a stronger apple flavor.  Tasting it, I can see it as a syrup over pancakes, ice cream, and Rebecca at Foodie with Family, also suggests over ice with seltzer water.  It's a syrup, so use your imagination!

According to Ark of Taste in the USA they report about it and Cider jelly as a ..."relatively little known except as a cultural artifact, and certainly underappreciated."  I have to agree!  Yes, it takes a few hours to accomplish from boiling apple cider, but the results are dripping with flavor and benefits!   Give it a try!

Here's how:

In a stainless steel, non-reactive stew pot, stock pot, what ever, I used one gallon jug of apple cider.

1 gal Apple Cider
other ingredients to each is own:
Cinnamon, ginger, vanilla bean, allspice, etc.    I didn't do it this time.

Boil down to 1/7th of it's original amount.*

*My husband is a scientist and gave me the exact measurment in meters.......I with a glazed-over-face, I got a popsicle stick from my craft stash and measured the before amount in the pot and divided up the eights on the ruler and did it that way and made my mark there as well.  It took about 2 hours on medium heat on the stove for the total reduction, and OH how the house smelled!!

Some time later, you have a nice thickening apple syrup!

Cast-Iron Potatoes

Obsessed is the word I'd use to describe how I feel about my cast iron skillets.  I have 3 right now, an 8", 12" and the square grilling skillet.  All three have never disappointed me or my family.  (However, I do have to admit that the grilling pan is harder to clean.)

Clearly, you can cook anything in a cast iron skillet and I have found some great recipes that I would not have thought of.  Pie for one!  Macaroni and cheese for two.  Both are absolutely delicious.

We grilled some steaks the other day and I was in charge of the sides.  It was just the two of us, so I could add onions. HA!

The nice thing about cast iron, is that it keeps the heat even throughout the pan surface even after you turn off the burner.  The caramelization that happens to the potatoes is great.  I just sliced the potatoes rather thin along with the onions.  For the oil, I used vegetable oil in the pan and added some unsalted butter, just a tablespoon or so, for flavor.  The seasonings are simple, pepper, kosher salt and garlic powder.

King Arthur Flour's August Bakealong Challenge

Summer, ah, the long hot days of summer when the days are hot, humid, and.....hot and humid.  I'm a autumn girl myself, so I endure the summer to get to the fall with all the colors and the cooler air, brisk breezes and spicier foods.  You knew I was going to get to the food part...at least I hope you did.

So, I follow King Arthur flour on both Instagram and Facebook and get their weekly newsletter via my email box and they have a challenge that sounds interesting.  A Bakealong!  I'm in and will be sharing my results with you.  The first challenge is the Pane Bianco loaf, which is filled with fresh basil, tomatoes, garlic and cheese!  YES!

Here is the picture of my dough as it is pre-proofed on the left and then here is the second stage of the shaping process.   After rolling the dough out to a 22x8.5" rectangle, you put the filling on and roll it up long wise.  Then with seam side down, you cut through the layers from 1/2 inch from each end..not to the bottom, however.

 Now that is is shaped, the right side is the pre-proof stage and the left is the finished risen stage, ready to bake!  I rarely follows rules to the T, and today is no different, I didn't have the ingredients for the filling, so I used the leftover tomato paste from my cast-iron pizza, and dried basil.  It still turned out absolutely wonderful....like a pizza bread.

 Now baked, it smells heavenly.  I tented it after about 20 minutes as suggested and the golden crust came out perfect.  The slices were beautifully soft and evenly distributed with the filling.

This challenge was so easy and delicious!!  Try it!

ENJOY!

Pickled Eggs

The farmer's chickens are very productive right now and I'm thinking about what to do with them, aside from the usual scrambled eggs, angel food cake (I made one for both Father's Day and Memorial Day),and  basic additions to recipes.  SO, hunting through my huge recipe collection for something else, I landed on pickled eggs.  My husband will LOVE them!!

Anyway, very easy and in fact the sky is the limit to what you can add or change for the right pickle flavoring, really.  Here is the one I used, but you can also use the remaining juice from the large pickle jar of pickles stored in the back of your fridge.


Pickled Eggs

9-12 eggs, hard boiled, see Cooking Hard Boiled Eggs
6 whole cloves
1-1/2 c white vinegar
1/2 c water
1 c sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 bay leaf
1 small onion

In a small sauce pan, combine the water, vinegar, salt, sugar, cloves and bay leaf and cook until boiling, then simmer for 5 minutes.  Divide the eggs and place in canning jars, pour the liquid evening over all, making sure the eggs are completely covered.  Slice onion and top the jars with a slice each on top of eggs, seal the jars tightly and place in refridgerator.

Let stand in refridgerator for several days...2 weeks preferably.  slice/chop/in hand, enjoy!!

Hard Boiled Eggs....Perfect every time

OK, I don't know about any of you two readers that I have, but boiling eggs to perfection so that you don't have that ugly grey/green circle around the yoke as been a goal of mine for years!!  Well, I finally achieved it and have been cooking my eggs to perfection for a few years now...no ugly circle!

Here's how:

6 large eggs
Water to cover all eggs


In a medium sauce pan, place (carefully) 6 eggs and cover them with tap water.  Heat to boiling from room temperature.  When the pot boils turn heat off, but keep pot on burner and put the timer on for 12 minutes.

At the 12 minute mark, remove eggs to a bowl and refrigerate. 

Enjoy!

A wedding in the house!

Our middle child, Rebecca, got married and I made the cake......

When and where were you.......

....when you first realized how much you loved to cook?  I'm interested, please leave a comment at the bottom here.

When I realized how much I enjoyed cooking and especially baking, I was a teenager...a young teenager at that.   My family had gone out for firewood and groceries on a cold and really wintery day in Upstate New York.  I wanted to stay behind and keep the fires burning at the house, but I also had a plan.  I was nervous because my mother was the chief cook in the house and she had very little patience for teaching her young daughter the tricks of the trade, so basically all I did was watch and listen.  Every meal and dessert that came from my mother's kitchen was delicious and truly a work of love and cooking wisdom.  I pined for that skill, so on the day that everyone including my mother left the house for a few hours, I got to work.  I had planned on doing something fairly simple, cookies.  I had never ever baked before, much less on my own without permission, so I was truly nervous, but determined.

The recipe was fairly straight-forward, so I got out all the ingredients, turned the oven on and got to work.  Mixing all the ingredients went well, placing each cookie on the cookie sheet using my mother's method of a teaspoon and a knife, I had a bit of a learning curve on that one, but after about  5 or 6 cookie balls, I had it down.  The first batch of cookies came out amazing!!  as did the following ones, I was a success on my first rodeo!!  As my family came in from hours of out running errands in the wintery cold, they were surprised and pleased by the warm kitchen with ginger cookies baking in the oven and the aroma of sugar, ginger in the air.  I was smart by keeping things under control as I went along, cleaning the bowls, spoons and putting all the ingredients away as I added them, so when my mom saw me and the kitchen behind me, she was pleased....boy was I relieved!!

There have been many mistakes since then that my poor family has had to endure, but probably 95-98% of my much like my mom's.  My children were taught the love of cooking as well.  The first thing I taught them each (there are 3 of them) was how to crack an egg properly without dropping shell into the dish.  Each of them take pride in their baking and cooking, mostly baking or the girls and cooking for our son....but I am glad that they enjoy being in the kitchen and as the years go by, they, I hope, will continue to enjoy, experiment, and create amazing meals and goodies to please and delight their families and friends!