Day 68: Experiments

I finally bought some spelt flour. I have been wanting/waiting to try it. I made some carrot bread in my bread machine but I only used 1.5 dl of spelt because I haven't used the machine for so long and I wasn't sure how it would work. And even though the breadpan fit and looked the same as the original, who knows what could have happened. The bread turned out great, but, as you can see in the picture, the crust was quite crummy. I stopped the machine 4 minutes earlier, but I'll have to experiment how much earlier I need to stop it. We didn't notice the taste of the spelt or the carrot for that matter.

I made some homemade margarine (1 part butter, 1 part oil and 1 part water). It was edible but I don't know how versatile it is. I also tried to make a homemade cheese spread (the one with the knife) from quark. I think it is too dilly and SS thinks it tastes too much like quark. I will keep experimenting with it.

Day 66: Strawberry Jam

I can't even remember if I went to the market last year but a friend was going to buy strawberries and I asked if I could go with. I thought that if I bought a box it would be much easier to bring them home by her car rather than on the back of my bike. I ended up buying a 5 kilo box.

We aren't big jam eaters. A jar can easily be in the fridge until the best before date has long gone. I had planned to just cut up what we didn't eat and put them in the freezer. But I had a bag of jam sugar that I didn't use last year when I was going to make black currant jam (which we eat on our peanut butter sandwiches). I wouldn't have made that either but the owner of the bushes didn't want the berries to go to waste because her freezer was broken and the berries were ripe.

Anyway I decided to make some jam. Only half of the recipe (1 kilo of berries) because I didn't know how it would turn out or if we would like it or eat it. And look what I got. It was still quite liquidy at this stage but after being in the fridge overnight it thicken up well and tastes great. Next year I will consider making the whole recipe if the jam survives being in the freezer.

Day 45: English Muffins

I haven't been able to be on the computer very much, so this week's step is late. What can I take away? There are so many things but I think I need to work more on the steps that I have already taken. So I think that I will avoid sugared soft drinks (which I already do, but I'll try harder).

I made English Muffins. I don't know if it was the recipe, or that I wasn't able to make them when the rising time was over, but they were quite dense. But as you can see, we ate them anyway. Or at least I ate them anyway because my SS doesn't know what they are suppose to be like!

Day 40: Rhubarb, Part Two

This time I stayed in the kitchen when I made the rhubarb ”stew”. It was tart, tasteless and watery. I was quite disappointed.

The rhubarb upside-down cake was much better. I'll have to try to find another rhubarb cake recipe because it seemed such a waste when the melted margarine and brown sugar stayed on the dish. It wasn't easy to scrape it off.


I was so pleased with myself when I got home from the store and realized that I had walked down the chip aisle and hadn't even looked at them. The only problem is that now I can't think of eating anything else! I wonder how the different grocery store chains decide on how to organize their stores. There are four grocery stores near by. One store has their chips across from tinned and jarred goods, another frozen pizzas and breads, another juices and the last frozen vegetables.

Day 35: Hummus

I made some hummus over the weekend (on the right). I've wanted to try it for years. First I had to make my own tahini (roasting the sesame seeds in the oven and then blending them with oil in the food processor). I didn't get the pourable consistency I was suppose to get and I didn't want to add more oil as I already had had to add more than the recipe called for. So I just used the paste I got (on the left). I don't know what I'll use the rest of it for.

Of course after I made the ”tahini” I found a recipe for hummus that calls for toasting the exact amount of sesame seeds needed in the frying pan and adding them to the rest of the ingredients. I might prefer it this way because I like sesame seeds as they are. This teaches me the lesson of checking out my own cookbooks before searching the internet.

I've never used garlic in the raw before and it sure was strong. Next time I make hummus I 'll try it without using any garlic. And then I'll try toasting the garlic with the seeds in the frying pan. And then I don't know if I'll make hummus again, as I like chick peas as they are.