A New Adventure for This Food Junkie

I've been freezing chicken stock, bbq sauce, soups, spaghetti sauce, and various meals for years. I have a ten cubic foot chest freezer and a ridiculously small  nineteen cubic foot refrigerator/freezer, but it's not enough space to hold everything anymore.  I make batches, not serving sizes, and I am quickly running low on freezer space.

There's only two of us, sometimes three, but I like being prepared for the unexpected guests or the request to host a decent sized dinner party.  There's also poker nights once ever four to six weeks at our house in which we provide a meal.  Makes the day easier if I have something at the ready so that I don't have to be in the kitchen all day.

My husband, God love him, has been supportive of me and my love for cooking. It used to drive him absolutely bonkers that I enjoy making things from scratch. He's given in on some things, but he absolutely will not give in on his need for Nestle Chocolate Chip Cookies. He loves the refrigerated squares - which drives me bonkers. I have my own refrigerated dough for cookies that I like to prepare. He eats mine, but a piece of him just can't let those darn Nestle ones go.

Where am I going with this?  Here it is.

I've already written about my new found hobby of gardening, and you'd think that'd be enough to keep me busy. Nope. Though I have been too scared to even imagine myself doing something this "daring" with food, I am going to begin and additional hobby. The thought is still causing me some trepidation, but I've already begun the process of learning about my new venture.

I'm biting the bullet. I'm taking up canning.  

Yep. It's the next natural step, isn't it? One grows a simple little houseplant and sees if they can help it to survive their predisposition for killing the greenery which assists in giving them the very air they breathe. Once one has somewhat mastered the art created by a green thumb in growing houseplants, the next step would be to take up gardening. Right? Well, as you've read, I've done that.

In anticipation and hopefulness of the abundance of fruits and vegetables, I am going to learn how to do an ages old food art. It is the next natural step. My basil is coming in, and it is nearing the time to harvest, which also means it is time to make another batch of spaghetti sauce.  Well, that and I am running low on stock in my freezer. So, instead of filling my freezer, I shall fill my meager excuse of a pantry.

The thing that's getting me excited is that if I can truly keep this gardening thing going, I will be purchasing other plants or seeds. I am already giddy about growing blueberries and strawberries in the springtime. If I can do that, then I can make jams or spreads and really get things going. Wee!

Don't worry, I plan on taking you all on this ride with me.  As if I'd leave you out.  You'll share in both my successes and my opportunities.

Gardening: Taking the Food Junkie to New Heights

Gardening.  Never thought I'd be one to take up the practice.  I use "practice" instead of "habit" because I could still screw this up.

When I was little, my family had a small vegetable garden in our huge backyard.  It was neat, for me, to see things growing back there. I got excited when it came time to harvest.  I think my parents got bored with it though, because I don't remember having it for very long.  I do remember Mom had said she could kill any plant that was given to her. I, apparently, have that gene as well. Up until about three years ago, I too could kill any plant you gave to me.  

Three years ago, my husband's family lost an elder - his grandfather - and we were given one of the arrangements to take home and cultivate in his memory.  The beautiful container held four different types of houseplants.  I killed one within days.  The second went within two weeks and the other two were hanging on by a thread. I was devastated. I knew that i had a predisposition to killing plants, but I really wanted them to survive.  They were supposed to live on in his memory.  I am happy to report that both have survived (in case you hadn't already guessed).

My husband decided that he wanted to start an herb garden and picked up some sweet basil. I use a lot of basil in my sauces and recently found some interesting recipes with the ingredient so this was an attractive idea.  This beautiful herb has come in beautifully, and I now have two large pots full of basil, ready for harvesting. Perfect timing because I'll be making my next round of spaghetti sauce in a couple of weeks. I'm thinking maybe Margherita Pizza for dinner one night very soon. Nom!

Anyway, add the above success to the survival of two houseplants and inspiration by way of Pinterest, and you get a food junkie that wants to try her hand at gardening.  I know, but hang in there with me.

Two or three months ago, I had seen someone post about gardening in a soda bottle.  I remember the basics of it, but I hadn't bothered to re-pin the idea, because I couldn't imagine ever doing anything like that.

Re-purposing at it's best.

The joke is on me!

ALERT:  Crazy Food Junkie has a new high!  Seed cultivation.

We had a weekend birthday bash for my husband's fortieth last month and saved every seed from every pepper we'd used.  I planted them in the soda bottles and hoped for the best.

Long story made short, it worked! I have red, yellow, and orange bell pepper seedlings. I also have jalapeno seedlings! Neither the green bell peppers nor the yellow chile peppers did well, but I will try those again. 

I transplanted the yellow bell peppers into my newly built raised garden just this morning.  Hopefully they thrive.  If they don't like it in their new home and decide to vacate the premises, I know how to plant more.

Once the husband figured out we were doing pretty good at this gardening thing, he wanted to plant summer squash. Then, a few weeks ago, we picked up some crazy melon that had the skin of a cantaloupe, but the inside looked like a honeydew melon.  It tasted like a mix of both.  I just found out this morning that it's called a Galia melon.  (Got to love Google search!)  

Hopefully this gardening thing works out. It's all on me to keep it going since I am the one at home with these things. I have a lot of reading to do and the Arizona heat to consider. Keep the faith, Food Junkie!

SIDE NOTE:  I was inspired to make garden sticks out of used plastic knives. Another re-purpose idea, but it came from my brain for a change.  Woohoo!

Time to pin it!

Cake Pops

Sometimes things go beautifully and other times, things go horribly wrong.

I felt I had perfected the cake ball pops and was ready to try something I had glanced at on a magazine rack in Michael's last week.  The headline mentioned using cookie cutters to form various cake pops. I thought that was a really cool idea, so I wanted to put it into motion sooner rather than later.

This past weekend was my first opportunity and I had the perfect "guinea pig". My nephew is turning twelve and asked for Funfetti cake pops.  We're a group that LOVES Disney. No joke. Look up "Disneyphile"(Disney's name for it's freaky fans), and you just might see a picture of our crazy crowd.

Back to the task.

I have a Mickey Icon Cookie cutter. It's about two inches tall and about an inch thick - a little big for a normal-sized one-inch cake ball, but it's Mickey! So, why not?

I was forming the Mickey Icons and was loving how they were turning out.  It was so hard not to show anyone what I was doing.  I was so excited and couldn't wait to see the look on my nephew's face.

Normally I can get 40-50 cake balls from one cake box recipe, whereas these Mickey cookie cutter cake pops only allowed for fifteen big pops and one teensy little ball.  The pops were going to be about serving size for fifteen people.  I decided the ball would have his birthday year, and he could decide who got that little nob.

Easy solution!  

I put the sticks in with a little bit of chocolate and then had a thought that these might fall apart at the ears, given the size and weight of them.  I decided one of the flat sides needed to be painted with white chocolate so that no disasters would befall Mickey.

**No mice, fictional or otherwise, were harmed in the making of these cake pops**

I decided to test my theory on the first Mickey Icon pop.

**Remember my opening remark**

Painting one side wasn't enough.  Poor Mickey split right up the middle and took a header (pun intended) right into the melted chocolate.  I, not wanting anything to go to waste, took both halves out, pushed the two together, stuck the stick back in, let it lay in all it's chocolaty goodness, and told it I would deal with it later.  Yes, I spoke to it. I was that upset.

Since painting one side hadn't worked, I stepped away from the cake pops, and the mess, looked at my tools and tried to hash out another plan of attack.  I had plenty of gadgets and yet not enough.

The question that popped into my head next was, "What would Grandma or Nana have done without all the fancy-pancy kitchen gadgets?"  The answer came back so quickly, and given my calm, I knew someone was watching out for me. :~D

Spoon it! 

So that's what I did. I used a spoon for the remainder of my venture. It worked out much better than I'd expected.


Though they were ridiculously rich - the kids loved them - they weren't too horrible. They were messy to look at for someone who is ridiculously picky about how things should be presented.  Given that this was the first attempt at cookie cutter pops, I'm letting it slide.

Ta Da!

Lessons learned:

*     Use smaller cookie cutters.  One inch is plenty big enough for a cake pop and the results will most likely be cleaner.
*     "Basting" chocolate on is a good idea for frosting, but not for candy coating.
*     When that inner voice tells you that something is too heavy and maybe you should rethink what you're doing, listen to it!  It knows of what it speaks!

And if you're wondering what happened to the Mickey that took a fall, I shaved off the excess chocolate with a knife and smoothed on a thin layer of chocolate. I was the only one that knew which one had fallen apart.

If you'd like to make your own attempts at Cake Pops, check out Bakerella.  A friend introduced me to the site last year, and it's been great for some really cute ideas!

Some of my more successful attempts at "Cake Poppery"

Easter eggs - Sprinkles over the candy coat while wet.

Cowboys! - Had to mix the Cowboy blue myself.

My very first attempt at Cake Pops. Notice the "sweating" from the chocolate. I was upset about it until I saw the Mickey in the center. I've since perfected the melting of the chocolate and the coolness of the cake.