Roasted Wrinkly Peppers

I got my hands on some beautiful red peppers! The only small thing “wrong” with them, is that they were a little wrinkly. This has happened to me in the past though – I found some awesome peppers, bought to many of them to use quickly, open the fridge one day and poof… wrinkly peppers.

At this point they are a little soft and ugly for eating raw – it’s hard to dip them into hummus like this… however, they are perfect for roasting.

At the wrinkly stage of a red peppers life, we know the sugars in them have concentrated. This makes these peppers literally the best roasted peppers ever.

Here’s how I do it:

Roasted Wrinkly Peppers
Ingredients:

• 4 large, over ripe red peppers

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Cut the peppers into 3-4 large pieces each and discard the veins and seeds. Keeping the pieces large and flat. At this point, I also cut out any icky spots if they exist.  Foil line a pan and put a rack on it. Spray rack with non-stick spray and lay peppers on it, skin side up.
2. Cook for 20 minutes, rotate pan, cook for another 10. At this point they should have big huge black, burnt looking spots on their skin. If not, cook them until they do, then turn the heat off and let them sit in the warm oven for 10 minutes.
3. When the timer goes off, put the peppers into a plastic bag or bowl with a lid, and let them sit for 10-15 minutes in their own steam. This will loosen their skins, making them easy to peel off when their done steaming.
4. Put the peppers in a jar by themselves to use within the next couple days or cover them in olive oil to keep for around a week or two.
5. Substitutions: Use this recipe for all kinds of peppers – especially jalapenos and poblanos. My favorite!



The color the pepper skins should be when done in the oven.



The steaming process.


These peppers are great blended up in dips (which is full circle cause at first I couldn’t dip them in dip!), put on pizzas and sandwiches or cut up in pasta. Enjoy!



They are a bit hard to peel - but totally worth the effort!

One Squash – Many, Many Meals - Day 2

It’s two days after making those delicious ravioli – and I have a whole, half of roasted butternut squash in my fridge. Its time to use it!

Looking in the fridge – I still have some of that super thin, sweet Pacific Butternut Squash soup and a tub of white miso. I bought the miso to make my favorite soup – squash/coconut/leek/miso soup… but I never got any leeks. Hmmm…..

Happy middle ground – making a hybrid, better Pacific soup.

Hybrid Squash Soup 
Ingredients:

• 1/3 carton (or one can) pre-made squash soup 
• ½ roasted butternut squash, chopped into small pieces 
• ½ tsp onion powder 
• 1 tbls grated ginger 
• Salt and pepper, to taste 
• 2 tbls white miso 

Directions:

1. Put everything, but the miso, in a pot. Simmer for 5-10 minutes. Take off heat, add miso. Using an immersion blender, blend to almost smooth. Garnish with green onions (which I didn’t have… but I think would round the soup out perfectly). 
2. Substitutions: if you don’t have the soup, use a can of coconut milk and a dash of cinnamon or another notoriously thin packaged squash soup. Use dried ginger, instead of fresh. The miso is what makes this soup awesome… but its totally still soup without it :) 

I like making things that I’ve had to eat for a few days taste just a little different. Makes me feel like I’m not eating leftovers… again!

Brown Bananas

These bananas have been sitting on my counter since the inception of this blog...

Which means they have been sitting there for far, far too long... But the problem is, my husband only eats almost green bananas, and I never thinking about eating bananas at all... So, they've just been sitting there, turning spotted, then mostly brown, then... brown brown.

Since this is literally the story of all of our bananas lives, I have an entire repertoire of things to do with them! I had all of these things in my head, that I was planning to do earlier this week, then a little later... and now, it was too late to do anything with them, other than mush them and be completely stereotypical and - make banana bread.

Now, I have never been the best at making banana bread (which is why I do so many OTHER things to do with brown bananas). It always turns out super tasty, but never cooks up quit right. Its usually a little dense, a little too moist or the top kinda burns... and I've always attributed this to the crummy electric ovens I am forced to use... but then this morning, it struck me... its proabably because I NEVER follow the recipes I find. It's not cause I don't want to - its usually because I THINK I have everything in the cupboard to make them, but come to find out I don't have even 2/3rds of what I need...

Joy of Baking's Banana Bread Recipe (found here) is my go to BASE recipe. Its SUPER forgiving and has lots of opportunities for substitutions, see that section below.

Super Forgiving Banana Bread 
Makes 1 - 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf

• 1 cup (115 grams) walnuts or pecans, toasted and coarsely chopped (optional) 
• 1 3/4 cups (230 grams) all-purpose flour 
• 3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated white sugar 
• 1 teaspoon baking powder 
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 
• 1/4 teaspoon salt 
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten 
• 1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, melted and cooled 
• 3 ripe large bananas (approximately 1 pound or 454 grams), mashed well (about 1-1/2 cups) 
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) and place oven rack to middle position. Butter and flour (or spray with a non stick vegetable/flour spray) the bottom and sides of a 9 x 5 x 3 inch (23 x 13 x 8 cm) loaf pan. Set aside.
2. Place the nuts on a baking sheet and bake for about 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly toasted. Let cool and then chop coarsely. In a large bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nuts. Set aside.
3. In a medium-sized bowl combine the mashed bananas, eggs, melted butter, and vanilla. With a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, lightly fold the wet ingredients (banana mixture) into the dry ingredients just until combined and the batter is thick and chunky. (The important thing is not to over mix the batter. You do not want it smooth. Over mixing the batter will yield tough, rubbery bread.)
4. Scrape batter into prepared pan. Bake until bread is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 55 to 60 minutes. Place on a wire rack to cool and then remove the bread from the pan. Serve warm or at room temperature. This bread can be frozen.
5. Substitutions: Use any nut or chocolate chips or nothing. Use half whole wheat flour. Use half brown sugar or half sugar substitute (like Splenda). 1 tbls ground flax seed mixed with 2.5 tbls water can be used in place of an egg. Since this recipe calls for melted butter, you can use oil to substitute some or all of the butter - this time I used 1/2 coconut oil and melted it with the butter I had on hand. Lastly, if you don't quite have enough banana, use apple sauce or grated zucchini to make up the difference.

I made all of these substitutions this time, and it turned out exactly as I have come to expect: SUPER delicious, but too dense and moist. Luckily, this is what my husband has come to expect from my banana bread too - so he'll be happy.

Final note - though you can substitute just about anything in this banana bread recipe - I highly recommend not substituting EVERYTHING like I did.

I will have a list of awesome things to do with bananas in the near future - I promise.

One Squash – Many, Many Meals

I was at work the other day I saw the most beautiful butternut squash! I had no plan for it, I just had to own it. Now its a few days later and the question remains… What to make into for dinner… Looking in my fridge – I found some old wanton wrappers I bought a few weeks ago at the Asian market, some second-hand ricotta cheese (my friend bought it, and hated it! Score for me!) and some wilty spinach. Hmmmm…. RAVIOLI!

After web searching a bunch of butternut squash ravioli recipe – I looked in my fridge again, pulled out even more stuff, and made up my own. Here it is:

Butternut Squash Ravioli

Ingredients:

• 1 cup mashed, roasted butternut squash
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 pinch chili powder
• 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
• about 1/4 cup squash soup (or omit… though read below)
• 1 egg (yolk and white separated)
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• about a 2/3 (14 ounce) package wonton wrappers
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 clove garlic, cut in quarters
• chopped fresh or 1/2 tsp of dried sage
• 1 cup baby spinach, chopped

Directions:

1. Mush together the butternut squash, salt, black pepper, chili powder, ricotta, soup, egg yolk, and Parmesan cheese. Mixing until the filling is well combined.
2. Get the wonton wrappers, the egg white and a cutting board. Put a wrapper on the cutting board, wet your finger with the egg white, and run it all along the outer edge of the wonton skin to moisten. Place about 1 teaspoon of filling in the center of the wonton. Then fold the wonton in half, matching up the tips, and press the edges to seal. Do over and over again until you run out of something (if it’s the egg white, use water instead).
3. When all the ravioli are made, put a pot of water on to boil, then put a frying pan over medium heat, with the butter and garlic. Add the sage to the pan just as the butter completely melts. As the butter turns golden add the spinach, as soon as it wilts take the pan off the heat.
4. Drop the raviolis into the boiling water, a few at a time, and cook until they float to the top, then plus a minute, about 3 minutes total. Drain the raviolis, then put them in the pan with the butter. Turn the heat up to medium-high, and sauté the raviolis for about a minute a side.  
5. Put everything on a plate and swoon at your great use of fridge contents!

Substitutions: use any kind of squash (if using spaghetti squash, just blend it first). Use mascarpone or greek yogurt instead of ricotta. Omit the egg if necessary and use water to seal the wrappers. Use any (or no) greens at the end. If the filling seems a little dry, and you don’t have soup, try a dash of cinnamon (a VERY SMALL AMOUNT) and a splash of milk. 

Ok... the downside (for me anyways) – this recipe makes like 26 ravioli AND only used half the squash… I personally can only eat 8 ravioli at a time – so I froze the rest. Just put all the fresh leftovers (uncooked) in one layer, on a pan lined with parchment paper, and freeze. Once frozen solid, move them to an airtight bag. To re-cook, just take out the number you want an half hour or so before dinner, let them thaw, then cook as above, plus maybe a minute.

I’ll figure out what to do with the leftover squash a little later… I’m thinking soup. OH! The soup addition! Its amazing! The Pacific soup I used is really thin and has a hint of cinnamon and sweetness. It was a delicious addition. I actually got the idea because the carton of soup suggested it (and it was a good way to use up just a little more of the carton). 

Until next time! Chow! Heheh.

When Life Gives You Lime Rinds…

Make a cleaning solution!

Last night, I was craving mojitos. Yes, that delicious rum/lime/mint concoction, generally reserved for warm days on the beach. Luckily, it WAS a nice day and I had all the ingredients around the kitchen, with the exception of the rum, but my husband and Smart & Final had that covered. 

Anyways – we had to juice some limes to make the drinks – and afterwards I was staring at 6 lime halves, void of their juice. As my husband went to clear the counter, I had to stop him from throwing them  – helloooooo I’m sure they have a use!

This morning, I saw them on the counter again, and it struck me! A while back, I had convinced myself that I wanted to make all the cleaning supplies for our house. You know, laundry detergent, hand soap, all-purpose cleaner. During my research, I had been trying to use pinterest (which, I’m still no good at) and I saw many, many pictures of lemon rinds in jars of vinegar. I hadn’t had enough lemons to try it at that point, so I filed the idea in the back of my brain.

So, now, I have a pile of lime rinds – so why not use them? I like the smell of limes better then lemons and as a citrus they have all the same cleaning power! 

So, here is the recipe – it only makes about a cup of cleaning solution – but I think fresher is better, so I like making only a little at a time. But scale up as you like!

Lime-Vinegar Cleaning Stuff

Ingredients:

• Rind cut from 3 limes
• 1/3 cup of white vinegar
• Water
• Castile soap (optional)

Directions:

1. Put everything in a jar. Put a lid on the jar. Let sit for 3 weeks, shaking the jar occasionally. After three weeks, strain out the rinds, mix with 3/4 cup water and put into a spray bottle. If you want, add a drop or two of castile soap.

That’s it! An all purpose, all natural cleaner. I wouldn’t necessarily use it on windows or mirrors (there is a bit of streaking) but its great for cutting grease on stove tops, wiping down the bathroom and cleaning finger prints off cupboards.

Cherry-Strawberry Jellam

People are picky about their cherries. The other day someone came into the stand looking for cherries and we had some, but there weren’t many left. He took the whole box of them over to the sun and went though each and every cherry in the box. A little later he came over to me with a bag of perfect fruit. The rest however, he said needed to go into the garbage. He was right. He took every last perfect cherry and the leftovers were all pretty sad – some had super smooshy tops while others had an under-developed twin sticking off the stem. At the end of the day, no one took them – so of course, instead of throwing them away, I just had to take them home. That same day there was also 2/3 of a basket of organic strawberries that had been passed over all day. They had similar symptoms of over-ripeness.

So, what do you do with squishy, super-sweet, over-ripe fruit? It was obvious to me! Make jam! I had never made freezer jam, but I hear about it often. Freezer jam is easier to make than regular processed jam, and requires less fruit and less sugar. This was a good option for me, because I was tired and I figured there was only about a pound of fruit to use.

Here’s all I did – washed all the fruit, and discarded the really weird ones. For the strawberries, I hulled them, cut off the squishy parts, then cut the rest of the fruit in quarters. For the cherries, I de-stemmed them, pulled off any weird twins, cut off the super-over ripe part, then just pushed out the pit. Then it all went straight into the blender! The recipe called for two full cups of fruit… I was a little bit short, so I threw in a ¼ cup of blueberries I had laying around, and blended the mixture up again.

The recipe that follows, is straight from the instructions that come in the regular Sure-Jell Fruit Pectin box:

Strawberry Freezer Jam 

• 2 cups crushed strawberries (buy 1 qt. fully ripe strawberries) 
• 4 cups sugar, measured into separate bowl 
• 3/4 cup water 
• 1 pkg. SURE-JELL Fruit Pectin 

Directions:

1. Rinse 5 (1-cup) plastic containers and lids with boiling water. Dry thoroughly. Discard stems. Crush strawberries thoroughly, 1 cup at a time. Measure exactly 2 cups prepared fruit into large bowl. Stir in sugar. Let stand 10 min., stirring occasionally.
2. Mix water and pectin in small saucepan. Bring to boil on high heat, stirring constantly. Continue boiling and stirring 1 min. Add to fruit mixture; stir 3 min. or until most the sugar is dissolved. (A few sugar crystals may remain.) Fill containers immediately to within 1/2 inch of tops. Wipe off top edges of containers; immediately cover with lids.
3. Let stand at room temperature 24 hours. Jam is now ready to use. Store in refrigerator up to 3 weeks or in freezer up to 1 year. (If frozen, thaw in refrigerator before using.)
4. Substitutions: The cherry freezer jam recipe called for exactly the same quantities as the strawberry one, so I felt confident substituting half cherries. Also, I wasn’t preserving it for the long term, so chemistry wasn’t 100% important.

Also, what I make is Jellam. I hate big chunks of fruit in my jam. It makes it hard to spread on toast, it has a weird mouth feel, and the chunks often float to the top of the jar… I don’t know, I just don’t like it. But, I also, don’t love jelly. It takes longer to make, its super thin, I don’t think it’s as flavorful. So, I just blend my fruit, to just about smooth. Kind of a half way between a jelly and a jam – a Jellam!

This recipe would work for those leftover strawberries and cherries in your fridge, that didn't get eaten at their peak and their just not that appealing to pop in your mouth as a snack. This jellam ended up being sweet concoction of fresh fruit goodness.

Rotten Tomatoes

Ok, not quite rotten, but pretty darn ugly. While at work the other day, I was doing my daily rounds of produce inspection, and I looked down at our organic Roma tomatoes and uuuhhhh ohhhh. Rotten tomatoes. 

I went through the whole bucket of them, about half of them were still perfect and beautiful, and a third were so disgusting or fuzzy they had to be thrown out. But, the other little bit – well – I donno, maybe had potential. Either, the tops were rotty, or there were big ole bruises, or they had weird black spots on them. I figured no one would buy them, but I kept them out for the last few hours. No one did, so I bagged them up at the end of the day and took them home. 

 

When I got home, I did a bit of research, and found out tomatoes are rather easy to can. In fact, the recipe in my Ball canning book was only like 10 lines long… At first I was thinking tomato sauce. I mean, my tomatoes were pretty ugly, I didn’t want that to show through the clear jar. But then, I realized my 16 romas did not equal the 45 pounds the recipe called for… I also didn’t want to can them whole – cause again… they weren’t gonna be whole when I cut the bad parts off. So chopped it was.

 

Here is the recipe I used - straight out of the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving also found here.

Tomatoes – Packed in Own Juice

Ingredients:

• 2-1/2 to 3-1/2 lb ripe tomatoes (about 8 to 11 medium) per quart 
• Ball® Citric Acid or bottled lemon juice
• Salt, optional
• Glass preserving jars with lids and bands

Directions:

1. Prepare boiling water canner. Heat jars and lids in simmering water until ready for use. Do not boil. Set bands aside
2. Process filled jars in a boiling water canner 1 hour and 25 minutes for pints and quarts, 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.
3. Wash tomatoes. Dip in boiling water 30 to 60 seconds. Immediately dip in cold water. Slip off skins. Trim away any green areas and cut out core. Leave tomatoes whole or cut into halves or quarters. (I diced mine… Cause they were weird shapes after trimming the gross off. I also squeezed out most of the seeds)
4. Add ½ tsp Ball® Citric Acid or 2 Tbsp bottled lemon juice to each hot quart jar. Add ¼ tsp Ball® Citric Acid or 1 Tbsp bottled lemon juice to each hot pint jar
5. Pack tomatoes in hot jars until space between tomatoes fills with juice leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Add 1 teaspoon salt to each quart jar, 1/2 teaspoon to each pint jar, if desired. (I only put a pinch) Remove air bubbles. Wipe rim. Center hot lid on jar. Apply band and adjust until fit is fingertip tight.
   
   
   
    

It was really easy actually. And most of the weird looking parts of the tomato came off with the skin! The deeper defects, I just cut off. Using my 16 romas, I was able to make 2 pints and 1 half pint jars. The tomatoes are beautiful in their jars, bright and real looking. They look wayyy better than commercial canned tomatoes!! 

 

The best part is – canning these old, ugly tomatoes gave them a second chance!

Welcome!

Cooking New Life into Old Food.

This may sound like an odd concept – old food isn’t exactly something people want to do much with, other than throw away, of course. But just because something is old, bruised, partially bad, leftover or a little stale, doesn’t mean it isn’t wonderfully (and often surprisingly) useful! The goal of this blog is exactly as its title states – to cook new life into old food – that is, to take food items that may be past their prime, ugly, in surplus, or seemingly worthless, and turn them into something valuable and/or delicious. 

I realized the potential of imperfect food when I got a job in a market about a year ago. We had a small produce section – it was always overstocked and under-bought. Each day, it was my job to go through the section and get the ‘ugly’ produce off the shelves. This would be a potato with too many eyes growing on it, an apple that had a bruise on one side or a bunch of green onions that the tops were getting slimy. You know, the produce that no person – in a grocery store – would want to pay full price for (which, by the way I TOTALLY understand). The first day, I did what the owners had always done – tossed it all in the garbage. The second day, I asked if I could take some of it home. The answer was “Sure.” as it was already loss in the stores eye. 

I’ve since moved away from that market, and moved right into another. This one is a farm stand, with an organic, farmers market flare. Organic, farm fresh flare means short shelf life, which means I have a fridge full of old, imperfect produce again. YAY!

The last thing, that brought me to this point in my life, is that I usually cook just for me. I have a husband, but he rarely eats at home because of his job, and we don’t have any kids. This means, when I buy a head of kale – I have to be 100% committed to kale for the week, or it starts to go bad because I just can’t finish it. So, I’ve had to get creative. I’ve had to find a way to work around the parts of things that have gone bad or have had to find a way to preserve the items BEFORE they go or find a way to use them in a way that won’t TASTE like them. It’s turned into a bit of a challenge. A challenge that I’ve embraced and now want to pass onto others: Don’t throw it away! Figure out what you can do with it!

Note: This is not a dumpster diving, trash to table blog. I won’t give any advice or recipe that could be harmful or cause illness. Take these posts as points of reference, not gospel. Do only what you are comfortable doing. However, remember, I wrote the blog the next day most likely, and I was still alive and well enough to write about it! I want to do my part change the crazy wasteful mindset us here in the USA tend to have. If I can save just one spotted apple or brown banana from going in the trash, well then, I’ve done my job.