Crispy Squash/Pumpkin Seeds

Fall to me always means fresh squash from the garden or farmers' markets.  I love squash.  Kevin doesn't like it pureed (it's a texture thing for him), but he likes it cubed and roasted.  Carson likes it some days, other days not so much.  But all three of us always love the seeds.  I save the seeds from any kind of fall squash or pumpkin.  The method of preparing them is always the same.  And they are all equally tasty.  So the next time you are cleaning out the seed cavity of a squash, set the seeds aside... they make a wonderful, healthy, paleo snack and are a great to addition to granola, trail mix, or baked goods.  So here's how you make them.

Crispy Squash/Pumpkin Seeds

any fall squash or pumpkin of your liking
4 cups water
2 Tablespoons salt

You'll start by cutting your squash in half and cleaning out the seed cavity. 

Place the seeds and stringy squash "guts" into a bowl.  Once you've got your squash baking in the oven, take the time to clean the seeds.  This can be time consuming, depending on the type of squash used, but it's worth it, trust me.  I often will clean them to the point of the second picture below, set them aside for a bit. Then work at cleaning them again to get all the squash goop off. 

Once you have your clean seeds, place them in a clean bowl and cover with warm water.  Add salt and stir it up a little.  Then cover with a plate or cloth and let it sit on your countertop overnight, for at least 7 or 8 hours, but preferably for 24 hours.  (Sorry I don't have pictures of these steps from here on out... I swear I took them, but they did not upload onto my computer...).  This soaking step is necessary to reduce the seeds' antinutrients and help make them more digestible. 

After the seeds have soaked, spread them out evenly onto a dehydrator tray or cookie sheet.  Dry them until crisp and dry.  Dehydrating the seeds helps to preserve the enzymes, which helps with digestion.

Now your seeds are ready to eat!  You can leave them plain, or spice them up.  They are great either way.  If you leave them plain, they'll be nice and crunchy with a salty flavor to them - yum!  I usually fill glass quart jars with just plain crispy seeds to use throughout the year. 


This post is linked to:
Simple Lives Thursday @ GNOWFGLINS
Pennywise Platter Thursday @ The Nourishing Gourmet
Grain-Free Food Carnival @ Real Food Forager

Fruit Rolls

I have been on a fruit roll making spree this summer. Making fruit rolls is seriously so easy and they're quite good for you (unlike the store-bought fruit roll-ups). All you need is a blender or food processor, your fruit of choice, some optional sweetener or applesauce, a dehydrator or your oven, and fruit roll sheets or parchment paper. This makes a healthy snack for kids and adults alike. I've made several kinds so far this year... strawberry, strawberry-banana, strawberry yogurt (yes, you can dehydrate yogurt, too, and its delicious!), watermelon-apple, blueberry, blueberry-cherry. All of them have been delicious! They also store very well. Just cut them into adequate pieces and roll up. Then store in a glass jar or freeze them. And if you over-dry them, they make great fruit "chips." This happened to one of my trays of strawberry fruit rolls - it was a thinner layer than the other trays. I was pretty bummed at first, but then just broke them up into chips and tried them. Yum! Carson absolutely loves them as chips, too! Probably equally as much as he likes them as the soft, chewy fruit rolls.

Fruit Rolls

- fruit of your choice in a quantity of your choice
- optional sweetener if your fruit isn't already sweet enough... sugar will make them crisp, so you may want to avoid it... honey makes them sticky and pliable
- optional applesauce... if your fruit puree is really thin

Puree your fruit in a blender or food processor. Add sweetener to taste if you need it. I haven't added it to any of mine yet this year because I've been using fruit in peak season and its been plenty sweet already. Add applesauce if your puree is really thin/watery... especially if you're using fruit that has been frozen.

Pour the puree on fruit roll sheets (or dehydrator trays lined with parchment paper, or a cookie sheet if you're using the oven). Place in dehydrator and dehydrate at about 135 degrees until done. Depending on the fruits I used and the thickness, mine have taken anywhere from 6 to 9 hours. You could also dry them in the oven on your lowest heat setting.

Jerky

I found some remaining ground lamb in the freezer a couple of weeks back. I decided it'd be good to use to try making some jerky. Again, I've never really had a strong sense of need to make jerky in the past because I thought it was complicated or something. But Carson absolutely loves jerky and even though I always buy local stuff from some farmers nearby, I figured I should try making some at home. So, I decided to give it a try with this meat. So I went searching for a recipe. Recipes using ground meat are hard to come by! I finally found one on GNOWFGLINS. It sounded very simple and easy. So I gave it a go. It was very easy to make and didn't take much active time at all. I only used 2 pounds of meat and adjusted the recipe below accordingly for my quantities. But here is the recipe as posted on GNOWFGLINS.

I'll update with pictures and how it tastes later. I just turned the dehydrator off, so we'll try it later on today.

UPDATE: This tastes pretty good. Lamb, especially ground lamb, has a unique taste. If you like lamb, you'd like this. We like lamb, so we like it. Carson will chow this down at home, but he won't eat it when we send it to the sitter's... I haven't figured that one out yet...

Jerky (with ground meat)

3 pounds grass-fed ground beef, venison, lamb, or buffalo (I used lamb)
2 teaspoons unrefined sea salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper... the original recipe calls for 8 times this amount, which is too peppery for me (I agreed...)
2 teaspoons garlic powder or granulated garlic
2 teaspoons ground cumin (I used a little more)
pinch of cayenne pepper

Blend all the ingredients together in a big bowl. You may as well use clean hands. (I mixed my meat up the night before and let it sort of marinate together overnight in the fridge to fully absorb the flavors.)

Taking a portion at a time, press the meat mixture into about 1/8" thickness on a piece of natural parchment paper that is the same size as your dehydrator tray. Or use the ParaFlexx sheets that go with your dehydrator. You could also use a rolling pin to spread it out, or a jerky gun, or a cookie press with the proper tip. (I just used my hands to flatten it.)

When a sheet is full, square up the edges to your liking, using your fingers. Then use a butter knife (or a Baker's Edge) to score the meat into jerky-size pieces. Transfer the whole shebang to a dehydrator tray and put the tray in/on your dehydrator. Repeat until you've spread out all your meat mixture. This recipe fills 4 to 5 trays of a 9-tray Excalibur dehydrator, depending on the thickness achieved. (I filled 3 trays in my Nesco with 2 pounds of meat instead of 3 in this recipe.)

Set the dehydrator's temperature to 145 or 150 degrees Fahrenheit. Depending on thickness, expect total drying time to be 12 to 18 hours. Flip over mid-way, which is usually when the jerky is curling up from the bottom and not sticking to the tray's liner any more.

You have to play with how much it "cooks" - and keep in mind that coming out of the dehydrator it is going to be much softer than it will be when it cools. Look for there to be no more pink and try to get it out of the dehydrator while it is still really soft. It is always surprising how much it hardens up once it is out.

Tear apart the pieces and put them in a bowl or tray to cool fully. Then store in a cool, dark place in an airtight container. Or in the refrigerator if not using up within two weeks.

Veggies, Veggies, Everywhere!

And strawberries, too! I've been hitting up the farmers markets again this week. On Wednesday, I stopped by the Allen Street market in Lansing on my way home from work. It was a crummy day with all the rain we were getting, but there was still a great turnout at the market. I picked up some local organic pure maple syrup, a bag of organic spinach, a bunch of organic rainbow swiss chard, a bunch of organic garlic scapes, a bunch of organic broccoli raab, and a bunch of organic green onions. The spinach has already been dehydrated, the chard has been blanched and frozen, the scapes I'll be using to make pesto at some point this weekend, the broccoli raab we'll be having with one of our meals on Sunday, and the green onions will be used in random dishes and I'll be dehydrating some of them, too - I think I'm going to use them to make my own garlic salt.

Then on Thursday, I stopped into the Lansing City Market on my lunch break. I had intended to just run in quick to pick up some Moo-Ville whole milk, but they were out of whole milk. But I noticed they had butter for sale, which I hadn't seen before. I spent some time talking to the Moo-Ville Lady and found out they've just started producing their own butter - hormone-free, antibiotic-free, all-natural... their products could be considered organic if they applied to be certified. I was excited when she said it was only $3/pound!! I've been searching for a good and affordable source for organic butter and I've finally found it! Yeah! After my Moo-Ville butter find, I spent some time chatting with a local farmer - Jane Bush (who I'd bought my maple syrup from the day before). I ended up buying a flat of organic strawberries and another bag of organic spinach. I have to say that these strawberries are the best we've had yet! I've already run through most of them - making 9 half-pints of strawberry jam, freezing a quart, drying another couple quarts. We're keeping one quart to eat fresh and then I think I might try making some strawberry fruit leather with the last quart... we'll just have to see how much time I have tomorrow or Sunday. The spinach I'll be using for salads. I also picked up a pint of organic fava beans and a bunch of kale from one of the organic CSAs with a stand at the city market. We'll have the fava beans as a side dish to one of our meals next week and the kale has been made into kale chips.

Preserving the Harvest

For the last month or more, I've been working on a list of preservation efforts I'd love to accomplish at some point this year. Most of which are using things I am actually growing in my garden, or things I'm hoping to pick up at one of my local farmers markets this summer. I think my list is pretty ambitious, but it'll be awesome if I can actually accomplish all of this. And I'm sure I'll switch some things up as time goes on, especially once I look through all of my canning books again, but here's my list so far with things crossed off that I've already completed.

DEHYDRATING:

• Strawberries (RAW: 2 qts sliced, 2 qts halved; DRY: 2 pint jars)
• Cherries (RAW: 6 qts whole; DRY: 3 pint jars)
• Blueberries
• Grapes (RAW: 1 pound; DRY: 1 half-pint jar )
• Spinach (RAW: 4 pounds; DRY: 1 pint jar)
• Zucchini (RAW: 3 medium yellow; DRY: 3/4 pint jar)
• Celery
• Garlic
• Yellow/White Onions
• Red Onions
• Green Onions (RAW: 2 bunches; DRY: 3/4 pint jar)
• Carrots
• Oregano
• Dill (RAW: 3 bunches; DRY: 1 half-pint jar)
• Parsley
• Basil
• Chives (DRY: half of a half-pint jar)
• Sage
  

CANNING:

Condiments

• Giada’s Balsamic BBQ Sauce (3 half-pints)
• Ketchup
• Mustards – Dijon, Beer
• Dill Pickles
• Salad Dressings

Soups

• Cream Soups – Celery, Broccoli, Chicken
• Giada’s Tomato Soup

Stocks

• Beef
• Veggie

Veggies

• Beans – Cannellini, Pinto, Black, Chili/Ranch-style
• Creamed Corn
• Corn Salsa
• Cut Green Beans
• Chopped Tomatoes
• Stewed Tomatoes
• Tomato Sauce
• Enchilada Sauce

Fruit

• Strawberry Syrup (7 half-pints)
• Strawberry Jam (9 half-pints)
• Strawberry Rhubarb Preserves (7 half-pints)
• Black Forest Jam (14 half-pints)
• Cherry Pie Filling (6 pints, 1 half-pint)
• Sliced Peaches
• Peach Butter
• Pear Sauce
• Sliced Pears
• Applesauce
• Apple Butter

Other Sweet Things

• Butterscotch Sauce
• Caramel Sauce
• Hot Fudge Sauce

FREEZING:

• Strawberries (5 quarts)
• Sweet Cherries (4 quarts)
• Tart Cherries
• Blueberries (1 gallon bag)
• Pesto – Spinach, Basil, Parsley, Basil-Arugula (2 trays), Garlic Scape (2 trays)
• Spinach (3 pounds)
• Snow Peas (2 quarts, 2 pints... about 3/4 of a gallon-size bag)
• Sugar Snap Peas (missed them)
• Chard (2 pounds)
• Pac Choi
• Broccoli (11 heads... 2 1-gallon size bags and 1 quart size bag)
• Zucchini (1 gallon bag of yellow slices, 1 gallon bag of yellow chunks)
• Beans (2 1/2 1-gallon bags)
• Corn (9 ears de-cobbed = 1/2 1-gallon bag)
• Cauliflower
• Peppers
• Cabbage
• Parsley, chopped with a little water in cubes (1 tray)
  

Dry, Dry Again

This week I've been doing some dehydrating, which is something I plan to do more of this year than I did last year. Dehydrating fruits and veggies is a great way to preserve them and I'm excited to try drying more veggies this year (I mainly did fruits last year). I bought the book Making and Using Dried Foods this past winter and have learned a lot - I'd highly recommend anyone interested in drying any fruits or veggies to pick up a copy of this book. So anyway, back to my dehydrating. I ran two quarts of sliced strawberries through the dehydrator on Sunday and ran that large bag of organic spinach that I picked up at the farmer's market through last night while we were sleeping. I've got four trays of oregano that are in the dehydrator today and I plan to do a batch of sage tonight. I'll be going to the Allen Street farmers market in Lansing today after work to hopefully pick up some more strawberries, which I plan to use to make strawberry jam and then dehydrate another couple of quarts. Maybe I'll be lucky and find some more spinach, too, otherwise I'll have to wait till the fall crop of spinach to dehydrate more of that. The dehydrated strawberries will be great to bake with - I used home-dried strawberries in the double berry scones I made a few weeks back, just as an example. The dehydrated spinach I plan to use to make homemade spinach pasta this fall/winter and it will also be a good addition to soups. Much more convenient that thawing some spinach for things like that, at least.

Farmer's Market, Dried Cherries and Raisins

I went to the local farmer's market again this morning. I love to see all the new produce each week. Each week there is even more tasty looking produce as it comes into season. This week, I picked up another three quarts of local blueberries, some awesome local organic purple garlic, some local organic pickling cucumbers, some yellow zucchini, and some local organic baked garlic and herb pretzels. I'm going to try out making some bread and butter pickles for Kevin since he loves them so much. I made blueberry syrup (post to come) with the blueberries. The pretzels are for snacking - and let me tell you they are soooo good! The garlic is absolutely wonderful, so fresh and a great flavor. I'll definitely be picking more of that up in the weeks ahead. And I haven't decided quite yet how to cook the yellow zucchini. I always thought that yellow zucchini and yellow squash were one in the same, but I learned today that they are not. I guess the yellow zucchini is supposed to have a lot more flavor and taste almost buttery. So I'm looking forward to trying them out.

I've been working on drying some more fruit the last few days. I just get it in the dehydrator in the morning and then we'd leave to see my out-of-town family that was visiting and the fruit would be done when we'd get home. I dried some organic Rainier cherries on Friday and did some red seedless grapes on Saturday. They both turned out awesome. The raisins are so much better tasting than the raisins you buy at the store. I'm so excited to have them on hand for cooking and baking this fall and winter.

Dried Cherries

On Sunday, I went into Swartz Creek to the local farmer's market to pick up some cherries and blueberries. I decided to dry the cherries to have on hand in the fall and winter for pork dishes and maybe some baking. I only bought a quart of Michigan cherries, which only yields about a cup and a half (maybe 2 cups, I didn't measure, just eyeballed it) of dried cherries. So I'm hoping to make another trip next week to pick up another quart or two. Dried cherries, or fruit of any kind really, are such a tasty addition to pork roasts, pork chops, and pork loins. They're also very tasty to eat just by themselves, but I'm hoping to be able to save these for my intended purpose of cooking with them.

I don't have a food dehydrator yet - I've been looking for a good deal on one on CraigsList for awhile now and I think I may be getting one on Tuesday if it turns out to be as nice in person as it sounds. So for this batch of cherries, I used my normal oven. I have one of those Maytag Gemini ovens, its a free-standing range, but has two separate ovens. A small one on top (the size of the drawer on the bottom of a normal oven) and a regular sized oven on the bottom. I used the smaller top one as it takes less energy to maintain the temperature. I preheated the oven to 170, my lowest heat setting, but I've read that others have done this on 200, which was their lowest heat setting. I then pitted all of the cherries by running a paring knife around the cherry and peeling it apart. I put all of the pitted cherries onto a parchment lined baking sheet and put them in the oven basically all day and into the night. It took mine about 9.5 hours, but depending on your heat setting and your oven, I've read it can take as little as 5 hours and as many as 12 hours. I then just shut the oven off and left the baking sheet in the oven overnight to dry them up a little more. This morning, I put them into a plastic Ziploc storage bag for the time being until I can get a half-pint canning jar cleaned tonight. Then I'll transfer them to that and store them in the pantry.