Not buying it: Ice Cream Sauce

Homemade Chocolate Sauce. Hot Caramel Sauce in container on right.

Chocolate sauce cooking. Being out of cocoa (looking for organic), I used some chocolate baking squares. I was even in a hurry and didn't bother to make sure every last little chocolate fleck melded. Tasted just as good! Oh, goodie!

Caramel sauce at full rolling boil.

Caramel sauce that's boiled awhile and arrived at the desired golden color.

Hubby had the sundae above on a Chewy Chunky Blondie out of the freezer. Here's the one I ate yesterday on top of a couple of Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops. (Freshly baked from dough that'd been balled and frozen.) Oh, yeah!!

These relatively inexpensive sauces are soo very easy to make that even lazy ole me will decide to make them in a heartbeat. No more commercial sauces with their scary ingredients!
Chocolate Sauce
1/4 lb. butter (1 stick)
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup cocoa (or two chocolate baking squares)
Combine all ingredients; bring to a boil, stirring constantly until completely blended. Thickens as it cools. (Sorry, unknown origin of this recipe.)
Hot Caramel Sauce
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
In a saucepan, combine all ingredients and bring to a boil over medium heat. Cook until color is golden, skimming off foam as you go. Makes about 2 1/2 cups. Recipe from Babi's Bed and Breakfast, Iowa, as seen in Specialties of the House Cookbook by Julia M. Pitkin. Sauce will separate upon refrigeration. Just reheat to serve.
   Hope you're having a fabulous weekend. It's soo gorgeous outside here in western Kentucky--what am I doing on the computer!?! Whassup for you after you finish surfing the computer today? Something memorable, I hope!!

Meatless Monday: Lucky in love AND eggplant; From Bermuda grass to backyard farm in just ten years!

Oh, YES, my hubby DID can this tomato relish yesterday. He washed and waxed my car today. Gotta love a man who's handy in both the kitchen AND the garage!! When MIL declared she'd not can again, Hubby couldn't bear the loss of her delicious tomato relish and began canning it himself. He doesn't follow any canning rules, but the stuff hasn't killed us yet. ;)

Someone gifted me with four medium eggplants, hence the Eggplant-o-Rama!! Aunt K's Eggplant Casserole just out of the oven here; Eggplant Parmesan ready to go in.

LOVE Julia Child's The Way to Cook," tho' she might not approve of the way I use it. I've a bad habit of taking the easy way out with her recipes as my guide. Used a jarred tomato sauce for my eggplant Parmesan. And because I didn't have another recipe in mind for any leftovers, I used WAY more sauce than Julia recommended. Guess what? Tasted great despite me! (If my brain were awake when I'd made this, I'd have frozen some extra sauce for future pizzas. *sigh*)

Eggplant Parmesan...even simpler but just as tasty as lasagna!

   Started this post yesterday when I came across this great video of a man brave enough to transform his quarter-acre backyard into an urban farm!!
   This video of Richard Heinberg, retired-professor-turned-urban-farmer, is worth a look around but also worth a listen if you're interested in sustainability and the "simple" life. Who knew simple could be so complex?! (Thanks, Unstuffed, for finding this great video!)
   After our first frost Sunday morning, here in western Kentucky we're having a return of mid to upper 70's temps for a few days. LOVIN' that!! Our tomatoes are dwindling but still hopeful about the bell peppers. Hubby just planted some kale. What's up in your neck of the woods?

On my mind: Not buying lemonade mix or Benedictine Spread

Homemade semi-scratch Lemonade and Benedictine Spread

Our packaging waste still weighs heavily on my mind, so add lemonade mix and Benedictine Spread to the list of commercial products I no longer buy.
   Besides, this homemade stuff is super easy!
   I use a food processor and just 3 ingredients for the spread. And while squeezing fresh lemons would be even better, I use concentrated lemon juice most of the time. Yes, I WISH I had a lemon tree in my back yard for a ready source of organic lemon juice, but even using concentrate, this lemonade tastes MUCH better than the packaged powders do. With homemade, just adjust the amount of lemon juice to suit your taste!

I still haven't given up on trying to use ALL the garden produce, but boy, are the cucumbers ever hard to keep up with! Along with the usual cukes and onions salad, I made a cucumber spread, which consists of only 8 ounces of cream cheese, 1 medium cucumber, seeded, and 1 teaspoon of onion salt. I could eat this stuff by the spoonfuls! Since I'm not eating crackers except on Saturdays, I use cucumber chips for dipping and get a double dose of fresh cuke flavor. For a variation on the theme, check out this Taste of Kentucky recipe.

Semi-scratch Lemonade ingredients...double click to enlarge recipe.

Finally got around to taking a shot of that cherry pie I made the other day. Hubby was impatient to eat his slice (imagine that!), so all I got was this fuzzy shot. I gave a couple of slices to Mom/Dad yesterday, so all but one frozen slice of the ugliest pie ever is gone.

   Hope everyone has an outstanding weekend lined out?!! Me? Kinda hoping Hubby goes to the farm tomorrow, so I can get some time alone! Y'know, some quality time with that piece of cherry pie waiting in the freezer for cheat day. ;)

   Thanks, Rhonda at down-to-earth, for sharing this On My Mind concept. What's on your mind today? Share your link here or on down-to-earth.  

Not buying it: cream of celery soup;Still buying it: sweetened condensed milk

What is a can of "cream of celery soup" if not celery gravy?

Have I told you about my love affair with author Michael Pollan? He had me at "Eat Food. Mostly Plants." So, my heart sank when I came across this line in one of Pollan's writings: "If you're the kind of cook who starts with a can of Campbell's cream of mushroom soup all bets are off.” Y'mean all those mystery ingredients in the canned stuff might be bad for me?
   From then on, I've been making my own "cream of" soups. Don't think it hasn't been a struggle. What could be easier than opening a can of condensed soup to get supper on the table asap?

Chicken Asparagus Casserole
May not look like much now that it's gotten cool, but we liked it.
One chicken breast and one leg made enough casserole for two meals.

Why I now make "cream of" soups from scratch every time I have the 10 or so minutes to spare:

1. If I believe in Pollan's essential message that home cooking like our great grandma's served up is the basis for good health, why buy canned soup?
2. If I am sincere in my desire to reduce my packaging waste, why buy canned soup?
3. If I truly believe that small economies add up to a better standard of living for my family, why buy canned soup?

   In a pinch, I might still buy a can but homemade tastes better. I just sautéed some minced celery in butter and olive oil; seasoned it with pepper, celery seed and onion salt; added flour, stirring to cook the flour a bit; and then slowly stirred in enough milk to make the equivalent of one can of condensed soup.
Still buying it: Sweetened Condensed Milk

Sweetened Condensed Milk experiment I was so hopeful about!

Oh, my, was this ever an experiment gone wrong!
   I made some cherry ice cream the other day and not having any sweetened condensed milk, I dug out my Aunt M's mock recipe I'd been meaning to try. Not "tasting as you go along"...BIG mistake!
   What a waste of precious, hand-picked cherries...my cherry ice cream tastes like powdered milk. UGH!
   Anyone have a sweetened condensed milk recipe that doesn't include powdered milk? Am I the only weird one that doesn't like to taste as I cook? (I only taste at the finish line and adjust seasonings then.)
   And if you've got one, feel free to share your experiment gone wrong!

Looked promising but did NOT pass the taste test!

Not buying it: Chili oil for Asian cooking

Repurposed bourbon bottle now houses Chili Oil.
I'm not a bourbon drinker, but I'm told
Jefferson's Reserve is a fine sippin' whisky,
if you're into that sorta thing.

Love this Chili Oil recipe I found in Fuchsia Dunlop's Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes from Hunan Province, a library book I will definitely be checking out again. Wish I had a copy of my own, but I am really trying to become more of a minimalist. Y'know, save a tree and all!

Not buying commercial chili oil = less packaging waste.

Chili Oil (la jiao oil)
1 cup of Dried Chili Flakes with seeds
2 and 1/4 cups of Peanut Oil
Place dried chilies in a glass preserving/canning jar. Heat the oil in a pan over high heat until it reaches 350ºF. Remove from heat; let the oil cool down to 225-250ºF then pour the oil into the jar containing the chilies, stirring a couple of times. Let cool in a shady place for at least 24 hours. I transferred the chili oil from the canning jar to a bottle with a stopper (once Hubby and assorted company drank all the bourbon, that is!). I refrigerate the oil until needed.

   Hubby and I made Dunlop's recipe for General Tso's Chicken one night, and it was absolutely fabulous! If interested, you'll find that recipe in NPR's piece on Dunlop's book (click NPR link then scroll down).
   If interested in an Italianized version of chili oil, check out Giada's recipe on the Food Network site. Please let me know if you try that one as I haven't...just found it.
   Haven't uploaded the pics yet to prove it, but I have eaten WAY too much sugar on my 4-Hour Body cheat day. So much so that I'm more than ready to go back to eating healthy! Who'd have thought that possible? ;)
   Have you been in healthy or cheating mode today? Feel free to fess up either way. Love hearing from you, if you've the time to comment. Great weekend...the SUN came back to see us, well, for part of the day at least!!

Not buying it: Tomato Sauce - paste easily converts to sauce

Paste to sauce: 6 ounces of paste, 12 ounces of water, 1/2 teaspoon sugar.

No longer buying cans of tomato sauce! Took a look at the ingredients in a can of tomato sauce...found water and tomato paste. Now I just buy paste and add my own water. Why pay for the added water?
   And if you're into preparedness, the little cans of paste save on storage space when compared with sauce.
   Though I do recycle all cans (first removing & tossing the labels in with the magazine recyclables), it takes less energy to recycle smaller cans. Yet another little way to lighten my impact on this lovely earth. For more ways to lessen our carbon footprint, visit Carbon Footprint.
   Came across a great article by Colin Beaven, No Impact Man: "42 Ways to Not Make Trash." No Impact Man's year spent trying to reduce his carbon footprint to zero sure made a BIG impact on me.
   The fact that going green almost always saves $greenbacks$ is icing on the cake! Speaking of cake, I hope to make one either today or tomorrow. Please leave a link if you've got a great cake post!!

Why buy croutons?

Don't know why commercially produced croûtons come wrapped in so much packaging! I'll show them! Croûtons can't be that hard to make, so I'll just make my own...and do.
   The ones here are made with cubed homemade No-Knead Multi-grain Bread, but cutting up store-bought bread works fine too. Whole grain commercial breads might work best but stale white bread works well too.
   Take a couple of slices of bread, cube into little squares, then fry in a hot skillet with 1 to 2 Tablespoons of olive oil (add butter too, if looking for deeper flavored croûtons to use on top of soups).
   I just grab whatever seasoning strikes my fancy that day...love the smell of cooking oregano, so I often use that along with some other salt/spice mixture. I sometimes use Mrs. Dash, if not wanting added salt. Some Greek seasoning if I've got some feta cheese to go in the salad. Stir and toss the bread cubes in the oil until the edges get a little crispy. Then serve!
   Even though making croûtons is very easy, it's one of those things that I'd probably forget to do if I weren't consciously trying to reduce the packaging waste in this household. Yet another area where being green saves me some green!
   Hope something green is goin' on in your world today?!