Asian Spice Orange Sauce

Today I also made Asian Spice Orange Sauce. I made it like a jelly, so it can be used like that if you want, but it can also be used as a stir-fry sauce, or a glaze for chicken or duck. (I created this recipe by modifying a few different duck sauce recipes I found online.)

Here's my recipe:

• 2.5 cups orange pulp and rind
• 3/4 c rice vinegar
• 1/4 c soy sauce
• 1/4 c sake
• 1/2 c sugar
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp mustard powder (except I didn't have mustard powder, so I substituted horseradish powder instead)
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (except I didn't have flakes, so I substituted ground cayenne pepper)
• 3 Tbsp pectin (dissolved in 1/4 c water)

Combine all ingredients (except pectin) in a tall pot. 

Heat on high until mixture comes to a rolling boil, then turn heat to low and let it simmer until the fluid is translucent, approx 10 minutes. Add the dissolved pectin, stir to combine, and turn heat to medium. Bring it to a hard rolling boil and boil hard for one minute. Check for gel set. 

Pour hot liquid into hot jars and process for 15 minutes.

I have just under a quart of orange pulp left. What should I make with it??

Tonight's Dinner - Crock Pot Baked Beans

Last night, I was having trouble falling asleep, and as my mind was wandering, I suddenly decided that for dinner tonight I wanted beans and weenies. The only trouble was, I didn't have any cans of baked beans! What to do?

I googled how to make baked beans in the crock pot. OMG. There are sooooo many recipes for "crock pot baked beans" that START WITH A CAN OF BAKED BEANS! WTF??

Anyway, I kept searching and finally found one that started with actual dried beans.

So I got out of bed (I wasn't sleeping, anyway) and put a pound of beans in the (unplugged) crock pot crock along with 6 cups of water to soak overnight. The recipe calls for "navy, pinto, or great northern beans". I didn't have anything quite so clear-cut, just some "mixed beans", but I figured what the heck.

A bean's a bean, right?

I also took a pound of bacon out of the freezer and put it in the fridge to thaw overnight.

This morning, when I got out of bed, I followed the rest of the recipe, pretty much to the letter. 

Before cooking

The only difference was that I had no molasses, so I used maple syrup instead. (ADDENDUM: I tasted it about an hour before serving & decided to add a spoonful of Marmite for umami. It’s possible that if I had used molasses, I wouldn’t have needed to do that. Could have used Worcestershire sauce instead, if I had been out of Marmite. Let your taste decide.)

Anyway, I let them cook all day -- the house smelled wonderful! -- and resisted the urge to stir them until I was ready to serve them. 

After cooking all day

When Bri got home from work, we decided not to make weenies, after all. She had her baked beans on two pieces of toast, while I had mine topped with Parmesan cheese and with crumbled saltines.

They were SO GOOD! This recipe is definitely going to be repeated!

Fri May 31 2019

Breakfast: smoothie 

Lunch: 2 cheese roll up tortillas 

Snack: I finished up the last of the trail mix with raisins & dates. 

I’ll post separately about dinner. 

Thurs May 30 2019

Breakfast: smoothie 

Lunch: 2 cheese roll-up tortillas 

Dinner: crispy bacon ranch salad from McDonald’s with vinaigrette dressing 

Spiced Cherry Jelly

I figured out what to do with the 2 quarts of cherry juice I had -- make spiced cherry jelly!

Just the juice, no spices

Last night, I put 10 whole cloves and 2 cinnamon sticks, plus about 1/4 cup of lemon juice and the last of the port (maybe 1/4 cup?) into the cherry juice and let it soak overnight in the fridge. This afternoon, I strained the juice through a muslin bag and made two batches of jelly. Here's what I did:

• Put 4 cups of juice into a tall pot over medium-high heat

• Add 3 cups of sugar and stir to dissolve
• Bring the mixture to a rolling boil, then turn heat to low
• Add 4 Tbsp pectin (dissolved in at least 1/4 cup water) and stir to combine
• Bring the mixture back to a rolling boil that won't stir down & boil for 1 minute
• Check for gel set

• Pour hot jelly into hot jars and process for 10 minutes

What a gorgeous color!!

Wed May 29 2019

Breakfast: smoothie. I recently had to switch primary protein powders because my usual one has either been discontinued or is having supply chain problems. The new stuff is ok. It’s not as good as my regular stuff and it doesn’t blend well with ice. I’ve been suffering through it, but today decided to do my smoothie with no ice (and no yogurt because I’m out of that right now). It was so much better! Much smoother and more drinkable. 👍

Snack: some cheese and some trail mix (which included raisins and dates) 

Dinner: leftover spinach & artichoke chicken, served over pasta 

Orange-Cherry Butter with Port

This morning, I processed the cherry pits (which still had a good amount of cherry flesh attached to them). I put them into a pot and covered them with water, then churned them up with the potato masher while boiling them.

You can see the pits floating in mix.

I strained them, then put the seeds and pulp that didn't pass through the strainer back into the pot with a bit more water and boiled them again, then picked out the seeds and strained the pulp from the juice, first through a wire mesh strainer and then through a muslin bag.

Here's the juice I have now. It won't be as flavorful as the batch made from the pitted cherries, but it'll be useful for something!

I put the pulp into the small crock pot, then added 1 cup of orange pulp, 1 cup of port wine, and 1 cup of sugar. It is now happily cooking on low on its way to becoming orange-cherry-port butter!

ADDENDUM: after cooking for several hours in the crock pot, I put it into hot jars and processed it for 10 minutes. Here's a jar after it's done processing:

After this, I've still got a bit more than a quart of orange pulp left.

This orange pulp has made a lot of stuff!

I found a recipe for pear and orange marmalade -- I have a jar of pears soaking in port with rosemary, so I think I'll use them. More on that later.

Tues May 28 2019

Breakfast: smoothie

Lunch: spinach & artichoke cheesy chicken from the freezer meal plans, served over just a little bit of rice.

Dinner: 2 cheese roll-up tortillas

Pomander Spiced Orange Jam

When I was looking for things to make with the oranges I foraged, I found this recipe for Pomander Spiced Orange Jam, and Bri agreed that it sounded yummy. We both remembered making pomander balls as children with our moms. :-)

I only modified this recipe a little, LOL. I used 3 cups of sugar instead of 2 because my orange pulp is a bit bitter. I also didn't have any lemons on hand, so instead of "1 lemon zested and juiced", I just used 1 Tbsp of bottled lemon juice. I also didn't have any fresh ginger on hand, so I substituted 1/4 teaspoon of ground ginger for the 1 teaspoon fresh (as recommended on the container of ground ginger). Then, I had whole cloves, so I ground some up in my cup blender -- then rinsed out the blender cup with a bit of water, which I added to the jam mixture.

The only other modification was to add 3 Tbsp of powdered pectin (dissolved in 1/4 cup of water) instead of tying the orange seeds into a spice bag and using the pectin from them.

I boiled the mixture for 10 minutes, then added the pectin, brought it to a rolling boil and boiled it hard for one minute. I checked the gel set and it was ready to pour into jars!

So pretty -- and the house smelled heavenly!

Orange-Juniper-Port Marmalade

This morning, I made Orange-Juniper-Port (OJP) marmalade. I found lots of recipes to make an OJP sauce for duck or pork, so I knew the flavors would go well together, but I couldn't find anything specific to making a marmalade.

Then I found this recipe for Lemon & Juniper marmalade, which I used to create my own recipe. I also used safe canning practices, unlike what he does in the recipe.... 

So here's my recipe:

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups puréed oranges

3 Tbsp whole juniper berries (got these from my backyard bushes)

1.5 cups water (see my note below)

1/2 cup port wine

1 kg sugar (NOTE: I weighed this on my kitchen scale and found it to come up to the 1 Qt mark on my Cambro container.) (also note: I think this is too much sugar. Next time, I'll try it with half as much, then add more if it's not sweet enough.)

3 Tbsp powdered pectin (plus 1/4 cup of water to dissolve the pectin before adding it to the pot)

Take 1 Tbsp juniper berries and pulverize them (I used my small blender cup, but any kind of herb or coffee grinder would work -- be sure to wash it thoroughly afterwards, unless you want your next blended thing to taste like juniper berries!), then set them aside for later use.

Take the remaining 2 Tbsp juniper berries and smash them. I used my Sauer Stick (used to pound cabbage for sauerkraut), which worked perfectly. You could use a mortar and pestle if you have one. Heck, a rolling pin might even work. Put the smashed berries into a small muslin bag and tie it off.

In a large pot, combine the oranges, the water, the port wine, and the muslin bag. Bring to a boil on high heat, then simmer for 10 minutes on low heat with the lid on. Stir to prevent burning. I used my potato masher to stir the mixture and also to squeeze the muslin bag to get all the junipery goodness into the jelly!

orange pulp, port, and the muslin bag with smashed juniper berries

After the 10 minutes, remove the lid. Add the powdered juniper and the sugar and cook for another 10 minutes on low, stirring to prevent burning.

Sugar + pulverized juniper berries

After 10 minutes, remove the muslin bag, and add 3 T pectin (dissolved in 1/4 cup water) to the pot. Bring the mixture to a rolling boil and boil hard for one minute. Check for gel set.

Pour into hot jars and process for 15 minutes.

It's honey-colored!

Note: The other day I cleaned out my fridge, and as part of that process, I transferred the contents of an almost-empty large jar of raspberry jelly into a smaller container. I couldn't get all the remnants of jelly out of the jar because my spatula was too big, so I put some water into the jar and shook it up, then saved the water for later use -- which turned out to be this recipe! I used it as part of the water.

ADDENDUM: After finishing the marmalade, I took the smashed juniper berries (which were covered in marmalade) and put them outside by an ant hill on our property. Those ants sure are scurrying around madly!

Mon May 27, 2019

Breakfast: smoothie

Lunch: 2 cheese roll-up tortilla sandwiches

Dinner: I scrambled the leftover pot roast into some eggs with cheese. 2 slices of toast with butter. A few saltine crackers after.

Sun May 26, 2019

Breakfast: smoothie — and I also had one McD’s bacon, egg, & cheese biscuit on the way to rehearsal

Lunch: smoothie

Snack: 10 piece chicken McNuggets

Dinner: Pot Roast from the Freezer Dump Meals I posted about on Wednesday. I put it into the crock pot this morning before we left for rehearsal. It was wonderful to come home to the smell of pot roast that had been cooking all day!

Here's a pic of the pot roast when I first put it into the crock pot. I didn't get a pic after it was done because we ate it right away!

Orange Garam Masala Mustard

I finished my rehearsal prep duties with enough time left to make the Orange Garam Masala Mustard. I used the Generic Mustard recipe for lemon curry mustard, but substituted oranges and garam masala; the rest of the recipe was the same.

Cherry & Orange Marmalade

In yesterday's post, I said that I planned to make Cherry & Orange Marmalade. Today I got up a bit early and did just that.

I found this recipe the other day and decided to try it. I tweaked it a bit, of course:

• She used sweet cherries and I had sour cherries, so I increased the sugar to 4 cups instead of 3.5 cups. (Also: the puréed oranges are a bit bitter.)
• I didn't use the butter -- that's just there to help mitigate the foaming while the mixture boils. I've learned to use my tall pot and make small-ish batches (4 cups, maximum) so that it doesn't boil over and get all over my stove.
• I added 3 Tbsp pectin -- this is just because I've had issues with gelling recently, so I wanted to make sure it gelled properly. (Could it be my altitude? We're at 4000 ft.) This time, the mixture was starting to gel even before I got it all poured into the jars!

I had almost exactly 2 lbs of pitted cherries so I dumped them all into the pot. I've still got the pits with cherry flesh attached in the fridge. I'll probably use them when I make the Orange Marmalade with Juniper Berries and Port Wine.

Other than those minor modifications, I followed the recipe exactly. I used the potato masher to get the juices started and dissolve the sugar. After the mixture was warm enough that the cherries were getting really mushy, I used my immersion blender to mix it all together nicely.

That's my potato masher, not my immersion blender. Duh. ;-)

It made just a smidge more than 6 half-pints, so I put the extra into a fridge container.

Look at that beautiful color!!

Now I've got a bunch of stuff to do to prepare for tomorrow's rehearsal. I *might* make some orange garam masala mustard later.... 

ADDENDUM: I love the sound of the jar lids sealing! To celebrate that sweet sound, here's a video of Kiriku Handbell Ensemble playing "Plink! Plank! Plunk!"

Sat May 25, 2019

Today is Bri’s birthday! Wish her a happy birthday! 🎈🎁🎂

Breakfast: smoothie

Lunch: 2 cheese tortilla roll-ups

Dinner: Chicken soup -- no noodles, but the soup did have potatoes in it. I also put saltine crackers in it.

Snack: mixed nuts and a carrot

Oranges and cherries, oh my!

I finally got around to doing something with the oranges I foraged back on Sat May 11 and Mon May 13, as well as the cherries I picked on Fri May 17. They'd just been sitting in my fridge since I got them & I figured it was time to deal with them.

First I washed all the oranges in the sink, then I cut off both ends and any overly-blemished bits of the peel. I put all of these into a bag to be used for pectin.

This is after I put the seeds into the bag, too.

I cut the oranges into halves and then quartered each half & put it all into a big pot, turned the heat to medium, and put the lid on the pot.

After it had cooked long enough to soften up the oranges, I used a potato masher to squash all the fruit up and release the juice. I ladled the fruit through my wire mesh strainer into another pot, using the ladle to squash all the juice out. After each strainer-full, I set the peels and pulp aside, then put them back into the pot, along with a cup of water, then repeated the process.

After that, I had some errands to run, so I turned off the stove to let the pulp & peels cool while I went out.

When I got back, I used my hands to separate the seeds from the peels. NOTE TO SELF: Next time, peel the oranges and cook the pulp without the peel to release the seeds. Cook the peel separately, or add it to the pulp after the seeds are removed from the pot. The seeds can be strained out via the wire mesh strainer much easier without the peels attached! Duh.

I put the seed-free peel into the food processor (along with a cup or two of the juice) and blended until the peel was in tiny pieces -- I probably did four batches. Once all the peels were chopped up, I combined it with the remaining juice and put it into the fridge. I now have a bit more than 4 quarts of puréed oranges!

After that, I washed all the cherries in the sink and set up my cherry production line.

My intention was to pit the cherries and put them into the pot and cook them up tonight, but by this time, I was pretty tired, so I decided to put the pitted cherries into a 4L Cambro container and the pits (which still have a lot of cherry flesh attached!) into another container, then put them in the fridge. (I actually pitted the cherries outside because pitting cherries spatters juice everywhere! I even wore a garbage bag to keep the juice off my clothes, LOL.)

3 lbs of cherries

I hope to process the fruit tomorrow, but it might not be until Monday because I have an all-day rehearsal on Sunday and there are some things I need to do tomorrow to prepare.

Here's the list of things I plan to make from the oranges and cherries:

• Cherry-Orange Marmalade -- this should actually use up almost all of my cherries. Any leftover cherries will become jelly and butter. YUM!
• Orange Marmalade with Juniper Berries and Port Wine -- using juniper berries from the big bush in our back yard
• Pomander Spiced Orange Marmalade -- with cloves, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg
• Orange Garam Masala Mustard -- same basic recipe as Lemon Curry Mustard, but with oranges and garam masala instead of lemons and curry

Oh, I almost forgot! I had a jar of peaches in vanilla bean syrup (yes, real vanilla bean!) that a friend had given to me. It's just been sitting in our fridge and we never remember we have it -- though to be fair, we almost never eat dessert here at home, so we have had few occasions to use it. So yesterday, I poured the contents of the jar into the blender, added some leftover Pinot Grigio white wine I had in the fridge, and puréed it all up, then made it into jelly. It sure smelled heavenly while it was cooking!

Fri May 24, 2019

Breakfast: smoothie

Lunch: 2 cheese roll-ups (cheese & butter rolled up in a tortilla)

Dinner: beans & weenies

Keeping track of weight again

Also in yesterday's post, I said, "I need to get back to eating more low-carb than I have been lately."

The last time I posted a weight pic here was February 22, 2018. That was the day I flew to Ohio for my mom's birthday party -- and that trip turned into pretty much a nightmare. My mom was seriously ill, but in denial, and collapsed on her front porch after her party. The ambulance took her to the hospital and she never came home, dying two weeks later after at least one massive stroke (the med team and I think she had another stroke a few days after that first one). I didn't come home to California until April and had a really hard time, what with grieving for the past year. So, in between the grief-fueled depression and some medical issues of my own, it's really not surprising that I've gained some weight since then.

On Feb 22, 2018, I weighed 145.2 pounds. Today, I weigh 166.5 pounds. That's an increase of 21.3 pounds over the course of a little more than a year -- which is not bad -- but it's a trend I want to nip in the bud right away.

So I'll be recording my weight here again, plus keeping track of my meals. Hopefully the effort will yield good results, just like it did last time!

And yes, I still plan to forage for fruit and can it. Brianne takes sandwiches to work with her and likes the different jellies for her PB&J sandwich, and the different mustards for her meat-based sandwich, so I'll continue to make those for her.

Anyway, let's get on with it and get back on the right track! :-)

Breakfast: smoothie

Lunch: cheese & butter in tortillas

Dinner: 20 pc chicken McNuggets

Cincinnati chili recipe

In yesterday's post about the slow-cooker freezer meals, I said that I don't make the e-book's recipe for chili because I make Cincinnati chili -- it's the only kind I'll eat! So I thought I'd share the recipe here.

Back in December, my church had a chili potluck and I made this. I knew that Cincinnati chili is (sadly) mostly unknown here in SoCal, so I made a display of its history and ingredients AND instructions on how to eat it! lol Anyway, it was a big hit with lots of people asking for the recipe. So here it is. (Note: I don't remember where I got the pic, so it's uncredited here. I can credit it if someone finds out who the photographer is!) (Also: historical info came from various sources and like most of my efforts, the recipe was cobbled together from a couple of different sources, not the least of which was information I received while growing up in Cincinnati!)

HISTORY:

Cincinnati chili is not spicy-hot, but rather savory. Macedonian immigrant Tom Kiradjieff created Cincinnati chili in 1922. With his brother, John, Kiradjieff opened a small Greek restaurant called the Empress. The restaurant did poorly however, until Kiradjieff started offering a chili made with Middle Eastern spices. It is traditionally served over spaghetti.


THE INGREDIENTS:

2 tsp table salt, divided
2 bay leaves
1.5 pounds lean ground chuck
2 tbsp beef fat (oil or shortening ok)
2 medium onions, diced
2 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed
2 tbsp chili powder
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp cocoa powder (dark preferred)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp black pepper
6 medium roma tomatoes, diced
2 cups tomato sauce
2 cups beef broth (made from bouillon ok; ok to use chicken instead)
2 cups water
2 tbsp cider vinegar
2 tsp dark brown sugar
optional: 1/2 tsp cumin or fennel
 (see note below)

OTHER THINGS YOU'LL NEED FOR SERVING THE CHILI:
fresh chopped white onions
shredded sharp cheddar cheese
red kidney beans
spaghetti!! (or all-beef kosher franks)

THE RECIPE:

• Bring 2 quarts of water, 1 tsp of the salt, and the bay leaves to a boil in a large pot. Remove and discard the bay leaves, then add the ground beef in chunks and stir vigorously to separate the beef. (It’s normal for foam to rise from the beef to the top of the water.) Boil for 5 minutes, then drain the beef, and set it aside.
• Place the pot over medium heat until dry. Add the beef fat and when it is hot, add the onions. Cook until onions are softened and slightly brown on the edges, stirring frequently, for about 8 minutes. 
• Add the garlic and cook for approximately 30 seconds, then add the chili powder, oregano, cocoa, cinnamon, allspice, cayenne pepper, black pepper, and remaining 1 tsp salt (and the cumin or fennel, if using). Stir constantly for one minute, until very fragrant. 
• Stir in the tomatoes, tomato sauce, broth, water, vinegar, and brown sugar, scraping up any brown bits off the bottom of the pot.
• Add the beef and turn the heat to high. When it begins to boil, reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the chili is slightly thickened. 

ENJOY IT IN AUTHENTIC CINCINNATI STYLE!

3-WAY: Spaghetti, chili, and sharp cheddar cheese

4-WAY: Spaghetti, chili, and cheese, plus diced white onions OR red kidney beans

5-WAY: Spaghetti, chili, and cheese, plus onions AND beans

CONEY DOG: any of the above, but instead of spaghetti, serve it on an all-beef kosher frank

NOTES: 

• Chili may be served immediately, or frozen for later use. Like most chili, it gets better the longer it’s cooked, so let it cook in a slow cooker for several hours or overnight! 
• If served over spaghetti, the chili should be a bit watery, almost like a thick soup — it is, after all, a spaghetti sauce — so add water or broth as needed. If you plan to use it for Coney Dogs, let it thicken considerably.
• There are two “chili parlor” chains in Cincinnati: Gold Star and Skyline. Each was founded by men who worked for the Kiradjieff brothers at the original Empress restaurant. One chain adds cumin to the recipe; the other adds fennel. (Michèle does NOT add either cumin or fennel to her chili.)

Today's efforts

I spent most of today in the kitchen. I didn't mind because it's cold and rainy outside!

First, I fixed the sour cherry jelly, according to the blue book instructions for fixing jelly that didn't set up properly, which I posted previously. This time, it's starting to set up even before the jars are completely cool, which is a good sign! (I fixed 4 cups at a time, so I did 4 batches.)

I also took the not-set cherry pulp spread and put it into the small crockpot and let it cook for several hours, then canned it as cherry butter. (YUM!)

Then, I took the jar of apples soaking in rum, puréed them in the small blender cup, cooked it with some added pectin and sugar, poured it into hot jars and processed them in the steam canner. 

Next, I took the jars of dates and craisins soaking in port wine and did the same thing.

Meanwhile, I ran the dishwasher twice (and I think I'll do it one more time as soon as it's done running), and ran a load of laundry, too. 

I also put one of the "Slow Cooker Aldi Dump Freezer Meals" into the crock pot and it's happily cooking away. Tonight we're having "Caribbean Citrus Chicken", the 2nd-to-last meal left from my January meal assembly session. (We have one more meal after this: Chicken Noodle Soup.)

What is a "Slow Cooker Aldi Dump Freezer Meal"? Well, back in January, I bought an e-book of slow cooker freezer meals because I wanted a low-cost, easy way to make dinner. I was not disappointed. The author has a shopping list and charts that show how to assemble the 20 freezer meals (10 recipes made twice) in a logical manner. She has a number of these e-books, but I chose the "Comfort Food" book, because it seemed to have the most recipes we'd actually eat and enjoy. 

The first time I made them (back in January), I made them strictly according to her recipes (I didn't make her chili recipe because I make Cincinnati chili -- it's the only kind I like!). They're really good and we have enjoyed eating them -- but as we ate them, we decided there were a couple of tweaks we wanted to make to the recipes.

This past Monday, we went to Aldi, shopping list in hand, and bought what we needed to make the meals again -- we didn't need everything, because we had some stuff on hand because I bought extra stuff (such as tomato paste) to have on hand last time I was there. One of the things we changed was that instead of using chicken thighs and legs in a couple of the chicken recipes, we decided to just use boneless, skinless chicken breasts for all the chicken recipes. A bit more expensive (though not by much!), but it's so much less work when you don't have to skin the legs & thighs. Another thing I did this time was eliminate the potatoes -- they're good, but I need to get back to eating more low-carb than I have been lately -- AND I also found Italian sausage with no casings (just bulk ground sausage meat, packaged like ground beef is packaged) which saved SO much time because I didn't have to take the casings off of all the sausages to put the ground meat into the meatloaf and the Sausage Kale Soup! We also changed up the order of assembly a little bit (for example, putting the meat into the containers first, instead of 4th). After we were done, I made a note of all the changes we made so we don't have to re-invent the wheel next time we assemble the meals! 

Back in January when I made these meals, I used one-gallon ziplock bags as the author suggested, but I don't like the waste generated when I use the meals, so between now and then, I bought six of the 4L Cambro round containers with lids. These things: 

They also come as square containers, which I think would save some space in the freezer, but I know that the frozen contents of of the round one will fit perfectly in my large crock pot when the contents are laid down horizontally. (I don't think that's true for the square ones.) Thankfully, we have two upright freezers in the garage, so we've got plenty of room. We've had one of the freezers since we moved to Southern California, and the other one was given to us last year by a lovely lady at our church who was downsizing her possessions after the death of her husband. We use one for "ingredients" (such as chicken broth or tomato sauce) and one for "ready-to-go" meals (such as these).

I only bought six of the 4L containers because that's all I could afford at the time. I used these containers when assembling the meals, and used the one-gallon ziplock bags for the rest of the meals. After we were done, we decided that six of the 4L containers is all we need, and we could replace 10 of the ziplock bags with 2L round containers. (We'll still use the ziplock bags for the meatloaf because the loaves fit better into bags than into these containers.) Based on past experience, I figure I've got a couple of months to get the 2L containers, so I haven't bought them yet. I should go check at the local thrift shops to see if they've got any there....

Anyway, I feel good having gotten so much stuff done today (in addition to a few other things such as contacting tech support to fix a problem on my web store, mutter).

The Slow-Cooker Meat Spaghetti Sauce Recipe

I made my own meat spaghetti sauce one day. It was the result of one of my "let's put in a little of this, a little of that" cooking days and it turned out really well! So I'm posting the recipe here so I won't forget it. :-)

• I put some frozen beef strips into the crock pot along with some frozen homemade chicken broth. Cooked on high until the broth melted.
• Once the broth was liquid, I added -- not all at the same time, but spread out during the day "as the Spirit moved me":
• a few beef bouillon cubes
• a can of tomato paste -- and a can-full of water to clean out the can
• some ketchup -- because I had an almost-empty bottle of it in my fridge. I used a bit of cider vinegar to wash out the bottle, then dumped that into the pot, too.
• A spoonful of Marmite -- I keep a jar of it on hand to add umami to dishes. Could also substitute other good umami sources, depending on what sub-tastes you like: Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, ponzu sauce, dashi, or Vegemite (we can't use Vegemite because Bri is allergic to celery)
• some Italian seasoning
• dried onions
• garlic powder
• salt & pepper
• I let that cook on low for several hours. 
• Later, after the beef was good and tender, I put the beef and some liquid into my food processor and shredded it, then put it back into the pot.
• I made pasta and put about 1/2 cup of finished hot pasta water into the sauce, too

The Generic Mustard Recipe

Here's a really good and useful generic mustard recipe, along with four flavors I've made with it. For the past couple of years, I've made these mustards for my church bell choir's annual bake sale and they are always very popular. It's also easy to make new recipes by following the template of the other recipes.

(One of my church friends said she made deviled eggs with my beer mustard for a St. Patrick's Day party and they were a big hit!)

Generic recipe instructions:

COMBINE First Liquid and Mustard Seeds in a large saucepan. Bring to a rolling boil. Remove from heat, cover, and let stand at room temperature until seeds have absorbed most of the moisture, about 2 hours.

After about 1.5 hours of soaking time, HEAT jars in simmering water until ready for use. Wash lids and bands in warm soapy water and set aside.

TRANSFER approx half of each batch of seeds to blender. Add half to two-thirds of Second Liquid as needed for ease of blending. Process until smooth or at least only slightly grainy. Return mixture to pot. (note: if you want a smooth mustard rather than grainy, blend the entire batch of seeds, rather than just half!)

ADD the rest of Second Liquid and the Remaining Ingredients to pot. Stir to mix. Bring to a boil.

LADLE hot mustard into hot jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Wipe rim. Center lid on jar. Apply band and adjust until fit is finger tight. Place jar in water bath or steam canner. Repeat until all jars are filled.

PROCESS in water bath or steam canner for 10 minutes, adjusting for altitude. Remove jars and cool. Check lids for seal after 24 hours. Lid should not flex up and down when center is pressed.

For all the following variations, one batch = five 4-oz jars

Plain Mustard

First Liquid: 1.5 cups water

Mustard Seeds: 1 cup (100g)

Second Liquid: 1 cup water

Remaining Ingredients:

* 1/2 cup malt or cider vinegar

* 1 tsp lightly packed brown sugar (or 1/2 tsp honey)

* 1/4 cup dry yellow mustard powder

Beer Mustard

First Liquid: 1.5 cups dark beer (12 fl oz)

Mustard Seeds: 1 cup (100g)

Second Liquid: 1 cup water

Remaining Ingredients:

* 1/2 cup malt or cider vinegar

* 1 tsp lightly packed brown sugar (or 1/2 tsp honey)

* 1/4 cup dry yellow mustard powder

Lemon Curry Mustard

First Liquid: 1.5 cups puréed lemons (approx 3 lemons with tips & seeds removed)

Mustard Seeds: 1 cup (100g)

Second Liquid: 1 cup water

Remaining Ingredients:

* 1/2 cup white vinegar

* 1 tsp lightly packed brown sugar (or 1/2 tsp honey)

* 1/4 cup dry yellow mustard powder

* 3/4 cup curry powder

Sriracha Honey Dijon Mustard

First Liquid: 1.5 cups dry white wine

Mustard Seeds: 1 cup (100g)

Second Liquid: 1 cup water

Remaining Ingredients:

* 1/2 cup white vinegar

* 1 tsp lightly packed brown sugar (or 1/2 tsp honey)

* 1/4 cup dry yellow mustard powder

* 2 tablespoons (1 oz) minced fresh garlic

* 1/4 cup sriracha

Black Garlic - YUM!

I remember the first time I heard of "black garlic". I thought, "What the heck is that?!" Then I saw a picture and thought, "Ewww!" (For those who don't know what black garlic is, here's the Wikipedia article describing it.)

But foodie people were raving about it! The price, however, was outside my budget, especially for something that I wasn't quite so sure of. So, I did a little research to see if it was possible to make it at home cheaply and easily. I found this article about how to make it in a crockpot, and it sounded easy peasy!

I bought a pack of 4 garlic bulbs at the 99¢ Store, followed the directions at that link, and put the garlic into the crockpot and let it cook for 30 days.

After the 30 days, I opened the jars (and had to throw the rings into the scrap metal recycling bin because they were all rusty and yucky -- I of course usually recycle the actual lids, but I usually get to re-use the rings. Not this time!), removed the wet paper towels, transferred the now-blackened bulbs to clean jars with clean lids, and put them into the fridge... where they sat for a few months.

Now that I had this stuff, what was I gonna do with it??

Fast forward to a few days ago, I found a recipe for Garlic Jelly in my Ball Blue Book. I decided to try it with my black garlic rather than the plain old roasted garlic called for in the recipe. I also decided to substitute apple cider vinegar for the generic "vinegar" called for in the recipe. (The recipe specified that the vinegar had to be 5% acidity, which the label of the cider vinegar confirmed it was.)

When I opened the jars of refrigerated black garlic, the smell was heavenly, and when I tore apart the bulbs, it looked gorgeous!

I carefully peeled all the garlic, which was messy (note to self: next time I make black garlic, peel the cloves beforehand!), and put the cloves into the blender cup with 1/2 cup of the vinegar. After blending it all up, the purée was super thick and unpourable, so I put another 1/2 cup of vinegar into the blender to liquify it enough to get it out of the blender cup! I used the remaining 1 cup of vinegar called for in the recipe to "clean" the blender cup.

I followed the rest of the recipe and finally poured it into the canning jars, then processed them. I had a bit left over that didn't wouldn't fill a jar full, so I put it into a non-canning jar & stuck it in the fridge without processing.

While the jars were processing, I used a piece of bread to sop up the jelly from the pan and ...

O.
M.
G.

!!!!!!!!

This is BLACK GOLD! So so good. Brianne gave it a high compliment: "This tastes like something one would get at a very expensive restaurant."

I plan to use this wherever I would normally use balsamic vinegar -- salad dressings, glaze for roast meats, on burgers, with fancy cheeses. IT IS SO GOOD!

I whole-heartedly recommend making black garlic, then turning it into jelly. You will not be disappointed! I can't wait to use this stuff!

ADDENDUM 5/22/19: It's really more of a thick sauce than a jelly, which is fine. Better, actually, because it's pourable (though really thick).