Figgy Oaty Bars

I found myself with an overabundance of figs, enough to make a man out of a mouse, and their presence on my counter was starting to damage my calm. I sprung into action looking up recipes and came across the idea of making some sort of bar cookie, a figgy, oaty, sort of bar. Then the music came in (Fruity Oaty Bars), the credits rolled, and my invention was born.

The Recipe (For Disaster) 

The base recipe I used as a springboard is from the 1989 Betty Crocker Cookbook 

Crust

1/2 Cup Brown Sugar (You can double this but I felt the filling was sweet enough)
1 1/2 Cup Butter (Melted) 
        (Update: I experiemented and you can use half butter as much or somewhere in between)

1 3/4 Cups of Flour

1 1/2 Cup Quick-Cooking Oats (Or long-cooking oats, I don't judge) 

1 Tsp Salt (I added a little more because I like salty baked goods)

1/2 Tsp Baking Soda

Mix all your dry stuff and make sure you get any lumps out. The melted butter is a must, it is your only liquid. Add more butter if you feel your dough is too thick and dry, and it will be thick. 

Figgy Filling

The enormous Ziploc bag of figs that I smuggled in the hold were from an Alliance feast and had been soaked in a rosewater syrup that I don't have a recipe for. I pureed (term used lightly) the figs in the food processor using 1/4 cup of warm water and a few tablespoons of lemon juice (exact amount unknown because I was experimenting). I ended up using somewhere around three cups of figgy paste, probably about a pound before pureed. I was making this up as I went along.

You'll have to process the figs in small batches and add liquid until you get a really thick and sticky fig paste. Since my figs were already in a syrup there was some liquid to start with. I would say somewhere near a quarter cup of rosewater syrup would do: maybe this will help.

Some Assembly Required

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

Lightly Grease the 9 x 9 pan. You can use a 13 x 9 pan but you'll need to spread everything thinner and adjust the time.

Take half of your crust mixture and smash it into the bottom of the pan to form an even coating. I used the bottom of my measuring cup to smooth it out. Then grab Vera (the spatula) and spread a whole heap of figgy paste on top. I'm gauging my thickness on these layers at about a half an inch.

Once you've got those two layers together you'll need to put on the top layer. I crumbled it on and then gently pressed it before I lightly smoothed it over. Which is to say, I didn't compress it into infinity like I did the bottom layer for fear of disrupting it. The top ended up a bit more crumbly that I wanted so next time I'm going to smear it into oblivion with gusto. Alternatively I could add more liquid to the mixture.

Crumbled 

Gently Smoothed

Bake for 20-30 minutes until the crust is golden brown.

Cut into bars or squares immediately upon removing from the oven. Wet your knife in between each cut to help keep it from sticking. Let it cool an hour before attempting to remove from the pan. 

My not so even layering

The results are a somewhat moist, somewhat crunchy bar of figgy oaty goodness; singing not mandatory. The taste will make you burst out of your blouse! 

The Competition is A'Brewing

In addition to the many homesteading activities I already do in and around my kitchen I also brew alcohol. Nothing fancy, no distilling,  I mostly make wines and meads based on what I have. I also try to recreate brews based on historical documents. A few months ago, at an SCA arts event, I had the pleasure of sitting in one of the biggest brewing competitions the Kingdom has to offer. As the current Baronial brewing champion (who did not come with entries of her own) I thought I should offer my services to the judges and listen in on the process to better my understanding. I learned a lot. I wrote a class, which is really more of a rambling stream of consciousness, on how to "up your game" in competitions. You would think that some of this stuff is common knowledge but, considering some of the entries I have seen, most people don't consider that their presentation counts near as much as it actually does!

I intend this class to be more of a discussion than a lecture and hope to have lots of input from students and fellow brewers.

Brewing for Competitions

Eilon bat Miriam -  MKA:  D. Brianne Galgano

Eilon.bat.miriam@gmail.com       

If you plan to be known for your brewing in society you need to consider making a good showing at competitions. You can't just rely on the good word of the people who were at your camp party last night. When you are planning to bring your brews to competition you need to consider a how to present them. When brewing wines or meads, for example, you might think it silly to "prepare" for a competition that hasn't been thought  because, your brew won't be ready 'till years from now. How do you make your brew for said competition's judges? Luckily, most judging for brewing has been standardized. If you read over the standard judging form in Atlantia you can get the idea of where your points come from. The judging  is out of 100 points and has 9 categories but, around 35% of that score can be chalked up to how you present your entry. This following is a discussion about how to improve your overall presentation to wow the judges and other interested parties (pun intended).

Venue

This isn't something that people seem to discuss a lot but is the first and most important thing you need to concern yourself with. Bring appropriate entries to the competition you're going to. Don't assume that the judges are willing or able to accept all your entries; maybe they aren't interested in or allowing  non-alcoholic beverages or mixed drinks.

Read the conditions carefully. If they ask for four entries that cover at least two categories you need to honor that, get creative, or maybe not enter.  Also, if they ask for four don't bring six, it makes it harder for the judges, and they may throw out entries that would have netted you more points.

Many brewers love the zany experiments their colleagues come up with but, remember that we are a historical society. If you are entering in your household drink competition and want to enter your Jolly Rancher Cordial, fine. If you are entering in The Royal Brewer competition you might find your candy-based, completely modern, beverage and affront to the judges and other competitors. 

Presentation is EVERYTHING!

Not only is it a ten point category on the judging sheet, but when you get down to the bottom line it can be as many as 35 points of your score. Besides points, you are creating an impression. If you are allowed to be present, your demeanor, the way you are dressed, and the layout of your entries all play a part in the overall impression. Think of it like choosing a dining establishment: if you walk in and the place is dirty and dark, the staff seems disinterested, and you know nothing about what the food will taste like, you might be more likely to go to the familiar place two doors down that seems a little brighter, friendlier.

Labels don't have to be pretty but, they do have to have a minimum of information, and be there at all. Bottles get mixed up, especially the further down the line the judges have drunk. They need to see your name, the name or type of brew, and the ingredients. Gone is the idea that snooty wine judges guess at the ingredients...they need to know because of allergies, and so they can tell what came through in the final product and give commentary.

The bottle should be clean. We can only assume that you sterilized the bottle. If the outside of your bottle still has bits of label stuck on we get this creeping feeling in the back of our head that you didn't clean the inside properly either. Recycling bottles is fine just use the best ones for your judging.

Speaking of bottles, the type matters. Again, recycling bottles is great, just choose the right ones for your presentation. Colored glass has a purpose, it keeps the light out, but not all colors are the same. Blue glass is pretty but has very little historical precedence and in terms of brewing and does very little for keeping out the light. Flip-top bottles are AWESOME but, if you are using them for anything other than your late-period beer, or maybe a cordial or syrup, it seems a little off. 

Bottle fill and corking are a huge deal too. You should aim for (and learn more than you ever wanted about) proper  headspace, and a level set cork.

Documentation

Documentation doesn't have to be that scary. The judges need to know what is in your brew. The judges need to know if there is a period source you are drawing from. They need to know what you did. It might be helpful to let them know the start date and the bottle date. They need to know if you did anything different.  So, we are up to a paragraph, a copied text from a historic source, and a list. And after all that, don't forget your name. But seriously, back to the venue section, your documentation should be tailored to your competition.  Go the extra mile to show those period sources and talk about the methods and where you had to change things because of modern practices or availability. Don't talk for too long though, brevity is key.

Sneaky Little Tricks

Whenever possible find out who the judges will be or play to the hosting group. Do they have a favorite color? Do they despise anise? Are they allergic to anything? Do they prefer sweet or dry; fruity or spicy? You can't please everyone but sometimes something as simple as a towel in the right color can sway the judges in your favor. The Overall Impression is worth 15 points. While I have grouped that in the Presentation section above you should consider this the ultimate tie breaker between you and your competitors. The judges try to be unbiased but, sometimes little things you do sway them more to your side than the alcohol itself.

Be prepared. Bring a pitcher of water, spoons, sample cups, a tray of bread or crackers (for between sampling), and make them all pretty. You aren't bribing the judges, you are making sure they are comfortable and able to focus on the judging... but they might also consider that you understand that and express it in the form of some unquantifiable Impression points.

Have Fun!

The Bottom line is still your brew. Just remember that  a substantial amount of points in a competition can come from your presentation alone.

Must-Read Mustard

My boyfriend and I participate in a medieval living history group called the SCA. A large part of our activities involve re-creating art, object, and most importantly: food. My boyfriend is a fighter, and lover of all things fighting. He is knowledgeable in the history of fighting and armies and armor. He is a patron of the arts....whether he likes it or not, because he lives with ME. He and I had a discussion a few years ago about him finding his art; another dimension to his living history experience. He went to a collegium and took several classes on varying topics. He came back with a desire to create mustard. He wasn't interested in cooking or food, just mustard. I took what I could get and encouraged him further.

I am proud to show off his very first (hopefully not his last) entry into the arts re-creation side of medieval history. He presented this, with my prodding and formatting assistance, in display at our Spring Coronation event. I believe that it was well received, if not only for a good laugh, but the mustard was pretty good too.

Lumbard mustard

Sa'id ibn-Ali ibn-Yussef al-Maghibi

Spring coronation XLIX.

This is my first arts & sciences!!

I mentioned I wanted to learn mustard, I took a class, then my lady Eilon made me do this....   I love her.  And this is what happened......

I decided to try to make Lumbard Mustard from "Pleyn Delit"

The authors redaction is thus:

1/4 cup of honey 2 oz finely ground dried mustard

1tbsp wine vinegar

3 tbsp red wine

Warm honey, then mix all ingredients together. Note that the sauce will be far more liquid when it is still warm than it will be when it cools to room temperature.

I ground a 1/4 cup of yellow mustard in a mortar and pestle.  Then I added the red wine, and vinegar that my lady makes.  Then mixed it together while waiting for the honey to warm on the double boiler.  Once the honey warmed I mixed it into the mix and I let it set over night to taste.   The author stated that there are some spices to add to the mix for taste, but I found that to complicated... after all I am a simple man who just wanted to know about mustard, how did I get conned into this, why does this happen to me, ALL I WANTED TO KNOW WAS ABOUT MUSTARD!  Now I have mustard powder in my eyes, on my glasses, my cat is crying, I am crying. 

Here is a picture of the stuff I used.

After letting it sit for almost two days, you are tasting it now.  After one night of sitting in the fridge, it did mellow but not by much, still pretty spicy. 
 Ta-da! 

Source:

Hieatt, Constance B., and Sharon Butler. Pleyn Delit: Medieval Cookery for Modern Cooks. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1976. (Gives original and modern versions of the recipes _and_ provides suggested menus.)



And here is a picture of his display:

Etiquette For the Recipients of Homemade Goods

You got canned goods, or home brewed alcohol, or fresh eggs; people love you. 

You bought things from a local small farmer or craftsman at your farmers' market; they didn't charge you near as much as they should have. 

Return their bottles and jars!

[Sanctimonious Statement Warning] For the most part we have become wasteful people. When it's impersonal we forget or become lazy about recycling. Let's make it personal again and give it back to the supplier to reduce their overhead. There are some obvious things that shouldn't be returned or be reused but, packing supplies and jars and such cost money and time. If I told you how much time I spend scraping labels off of bottles and jars you'd think I was crazy. For me, making jars/bottles of things to give or trade, is a labor of love. Just because I love it doesn't mean that I always enjoy the whole process. 

I am a homebrewer and homesteader so I recycle everything I can to keep costs down (I've yet to learn to do everything from scratch). Because I can't legally sell alcohol I give it away for free and take donations for supplies for the next batch. I have also trained my friends to bring me their empty bottles of wine for me to scrape, sanitize, and reuse. For the love of pete, I swear I almost never get my empties that I've painstakingly made clean and free of labels for their peace of mind! That's really what I'm doing it for, the illusion of new and clean. Never mind the 4 step (or more) process of cleaning and sanitizing (more than once) if there is even glue residue from the old label on my bottles some people turn their nose up at the chance to drink my awesome brew. I love getting new bottles...but, what I really want is my bottle back whenever possible because it saves me lots of time. 

Because I thought this post needed a picture and this was the most appropriate one I could find

I can/bottle vegetables, pickles, sauces, syrups, jams, ink, etc. and so does your friend/mother/grandmother. If that person isn't yard sale savvy, lucky, or sacrificing precious things to dark sale gods, they are spending a ton of money on jars and lids. While the jars can be reused for a long time (unless they explode) the lids and rings must be replaced every time, and that's not counting the time it takes to prep and sterilize them and all the equipment used before they put their love and food inside. Unless they tell you explicitly not to return the jars, whenever possible, you should. Common sense would dictate that if you are in constant trade with said person don't sweat it. If you aren't trading maybe you should consider it...maybe that person would really like something you make in return. Or, surprise Grandma with a box of jars...she's going to love you for being so thoughtful and just make you that much more stuff to fill them with. When it comes to your local farmer that has a licensed kitchen: ask them if they are under specific laws that prevent them from recycling the jars and if not give them back...they might give you a discount off your next order!

I'm mostly talking about food and alcohol here (because kitchen blog) but, it applies to other things too. You can return packing paper, boxes, egg crates, plastic bags, etc. If your gifter/craftsperson was inspired enough to use neat things like fabric wrapping instead of paper return that stuff if you can't use it because they probably will. When in doubt, ask. Or if they are the type of person who doesn't want to be a bother and gives you the passive kind of answer, like "oh it's really not that big a deal," you leave that stuff on their porch when you know they aren't home so that they can't argue and you know you've done the right thing.

Reciprocity isn't always neat and tidy like I propose. I've been guilty once in a while of not returning jars or making things to return in jars directly, but I try to always share with those that do so with me in other ways; and that is the foundation of community. And, while not everything I've said here may apply to your situation use that thing between your ears and come up with a solution that works for you. In other words: be canny for your canners. 

Pinterest Challenge: Upcycled Baby Gate Herb Drying Rack

I posted about a month ago about not letting cat flossing get in the way of things. By which I mean that we sometimes spend a lot of time looking at things we'd like to have or do and spend countless hours saving those ideas in notebooks or Pinterest instead of doing things. Sometimes we make excuses like not having the time (you know the stuff you're wasting pinning) and/or resources, or we make excuses about how we have more important things to do; see: flossing the cat.

If you're not already familiar with the new "recycling"  terminology I will help explain.

• Upcycled - a fancy way of saying recycled (modified) into something new, vs. recycling the materials to later be turned into something else.
• Repurposed - When you take something and use it for a new purpose. Can include repainting and Modification for completely different uses....or basically the same thing as upcycling and recycling. 

Either way, if you're looking for things on pinterest or the earth-sized-spider-feeder sometimes you need to type in the right words to find what you want. For this project I typed in "upcycled baby gate," because I had a baby gate that had been slightly damaged by dogs and the family I worked for was going to throw it out...and I despise waste. After about four hours of perusing the endless random tangents I got involved in (up to and including learning how to read Hmong so I could find better info on a really neat hat) I determined that I really needed an herb drying rack for all the herbs I was growing in the garden. I wanted something that would allow me to hang it from the ceiling and still have lots of space for drying.

Rack from the bottom now drying rosemary. None of the sprigs are tied, they are just pushed up from underneath and then pulled back down until the "branches" catch the sides of the grid.

On top of the rack some of the sprigs that were not bushy enough to hang on on their own are just laid out in the middle for drying.

Construction Notes:

This is a really low-tech design that utilized things I had laying around the house and took all of ten minutes (it took me a lot longer to blog about it). The great thing about this particular style of gate is that the frame is made of pine which is soft. I was able to quickly disassemble the gate with a saw and then sand the rough edges. Next I screwed a cup hook in each corner. I applied a little wood glue in the joints and then "lashed it together with nylon cording.

As you can see I am not an expert at "lashing" corners.

The whole rig is suspended from another cup hook in the ceiling. The suspension is two equal sized pieces of nylon cord that are looped through the short sides of the rack (folded in half and then knotting the loose ends). Both strings are then brought together and slipped on the ceiling hook.

View of one side's string

View of the pyramid the two strings create at the ceiling

So here is my baby gate rack (and I still have another piece to use for something else). Admittedly I'm so backlogged on blogging that I've lost the original link that I got the idea from. But if you are looking for other great ideas on similar repurposing projects pinterest is a great place to start. If you want to follow my board of crazy things you know what to do.

Next pinterest challenge backlog will be citrus infused vinegar cleaner, but not until I've posted all about my homemade vinegar.

Chicken updates and SNAKE!

We recently updated the chicken habitat a little. I finally got around to grommeting the tarp roof and attaching it via shower curtain hooks that I had on hand.

And In the pictures you can see that we are still employing the recycled low tech method of keeping our chickens. Their coop for roosting is a large plastic dog kennel for example. 

Bolted frame, loose wire that needs replacing, and zip ties; oh my!

It is getting near time that we consider making a new structure for them entirely. The tractor we have was a hand-me-down. It is tied together with zip ties which need to be replaced fairly often because they dry and crack from the sun. The center pole has also bowed quite a bit from water weight.

The hens like to play a game of king of the roost on top of this bucket sometimes.

I've been so busy with other projects I forgot to post my obligatory Happy-Chicken-Mama-first-eggs-of-Spring

And then....SNAKE!

This is not THE snake, this is A snake that was lurking near the perimeter.
 

Last week my boyfriend came in from the morning feeding of the velociraptors and calmly informed me that there were only two eggs today....because there is a large snake in the computer monitor, and that I could tend to that at my leisure. We have been known to have all kinds of the really nasty kinda snakes out here so I went prepared with a sword (because I'm lacking a more practical machete), and a robotic arm (because I don't own a snake stick),  and all the knowledge I have about snakes from when I used to hang out with a herpetologist years ago. By the time I got out there it had moved on so I was not able to identify it. 

We looked through pictures and as best as we can guess it was some kind of "black snake" or rat snake, and not the venomous types.

The repurposed Computer monitor complete with fake egg

The snake in question was curled up inside the computer monitor digesting his meal whilst the chickens complained in the other corner of the tractor. Two of the hens laid on top of the dog kennel later and took turns sitting on them.  We knew we would have to deal with snakes eventually so we reviewed our research and employed a strategy.

 The first stop was to the craft store to purchase wooden eggs. They cost about a dollar a piece and have more uses than just tricking snakes. We had read that snakes might grab these as an attack of opportunity vs. the actual eggs and that it would cause them digestive issues and well... what would happen if you swallowed a wooden egg whole? There is another interesting thing that occurs with the deployment of decoys: the chickens tend to lay near them. My apologies I don't have a nifty picture of this because the boyfriend was trying to be nice today and brought in the eggs for me before I could snap a shot. 

Real eggs with fake eggs

On the one hand this really makes it easier to collect eggs from my feisty girls who love to make it a hunt every day. On the other hand I'm not sure what the odds are on the snakes picking the fake egg over the real ones if they are all just laying in one convenient location. You can also see that most of our eggs are quite small in comparison to the wooden eggs which are much more duck-sized. 

Step two was to find some snake-away. We wanted to completely free-range our chickens but, found that there were too many predators in our wooded home and we just didn't want to have to keep an eye all the time or chase them around for their own protection. As a result we keep them in the tractor and move them every few weeks. During the winter they tend to stay in one place but we give them lots of straw to play in. We have a fenced in portion around the house that serves as a perimeter in case we wish to let them run or in the case of runaways when we're moving them. So we put some snake repellent around the outside perimeter. Snake  repellent may have "chemicals" or more specifically sulphur that you don't want near your chickens! Read your labels well and take precautions. We chose the most natural one we could find and we didn't put it that close to the hens. 

The black snake in the picture was found OUTSIDE the chicken area the day after the snake repellent so, I assume it did its job. We've also tried to be more vigilant about collecting eggs to avoid more losses. Some further reading indicated that having a larger quantity of chickens would be a further deterrent for snakes. I think five is enough for now. 

P.S. Dorking eggs are some of the tastiest ever!

Homemade Reese’s Shapes: A Lesson in Substitutions and Rhetorical Questions

Because you can’t mess up peanut butter and chocolate, right?

I saw a post about handmade Reese’s eggs cycle through various friends in my Facebook network and decided I had to try it. The pin, as you may be familiar with, is from The Recipe Critic blog, http://therecipecritic.com/2013/03/homemade-reeses-eggs/.

As my first pintersperiment I chose these. I love Reese’s shapes. Something about them just tastes better. They taste saltier to me. They have a more pleasing texture than the regular cups. They are pleasingly shaped. I can’t quit them.

Like the start of any well-meaning science experiment I gathered my supplies according. The only thing I did not have in stock was shortening. I chose butter as my substitution. For my second deviation I chose to make a totally different shape and used the Alien Egg Ice mold I got my boyfriend for Christmas because that’s the kind of geek I am. With this I am prepared to not feel horrible if my eggs look nothing like the picture (Hypothesis) because that is exactly how it will most likely turn out.

Silicon Ice Mold of Alien Egg Awesomeness

Birth

I created my peanut dough as per the recipe except for two things: I added salt and omitted the milk. I was also too lazy to break out the mixer and mixed it by hand. I didn't need the milk at that point as it had exactly the texture I was looking for. After evidence gathering on the blog site I determined that the milk was there to make it easier to mix and not be so “crumbly.” I did not have this problem.

I lightly dusted my mold with flour and proceeded to create little half eggs that, in retrospect, look deviously like something inappropriate (if someone had sliced it on the bottom and flattened it out). I froze them as directed and moved on to the chocolate phase.

I should add here that I have no concept of "lightly" flouring anything.

Substitutiary Fluidity

Let’s talk about substitutions, otherwise known as variables. When cooking, there are plenty of options for use as substitutions. Maybe you need to change a recipe for the sake of allergies, taste, health, or availability. In this recipe the ingredient in question is shortening. The reason for the shortening in this recipe is to create a more fluid chocolate to dip or spread over our eggs. As the Recipe Critic suggests, her recipe tastes less oily than the commercial one, so I threw oil right out of my lineup. Here is a quick guide to alternatives for shortening:

Oil – depending on the oil it could take away from the sweet. Coconut oil might be a good alternative. Oil is typically a straight measurement substitution for shortening.

Butter – you will almost always have to add a bit more butter than the recipe asks for in shortening by about 1/16^th- to 1/8^th more.

Lard – I associate this with a savory dish and not with sweet. It can, like oils, can potentially change the flavor of your dish slightly. You need to use 1/16^th - 1/8^th less than the required shortening.

And if your recipe is of the type that would be able to use it, fruit sauces or even nut butters could be used at about half the requested shortening amount. This recipe was not going to work with either of those options.

Why Not?

The recipe suggests that you might need more than one bag of chocolate chips. I have one. I have also accidentally (didn't even bother to measure) added too much butter in an attempt to make the chocolate an acceptable level of fluidity for coating. So now my chocolate is too fluid and too oily looking. With determination and little thought I head to the pantry and find dark cocoa powder. At this point you know my experiment is a self-fulfillment of my hypothesis. I also know that in terms of Alien eggs, the grittier the better, so it does not matter at all that the mixture starts to look like a mud pie I made in kindergarten and I am going to apply it to my frozen rock of peanut butter anyway. It’s not like the mold impression was going to show through the chocolate, but I will know it’s there.

Dipping the frozen eggs in my measuring cup of ill-mixed choco-mud was not feasible so I used the back of my spoon to “spread” it over all of my peanut butter eggs and soon it looked like the picture… of the egg chamber in Alien. 

Because my mixture was hard to spread, and because I realized I had no wax paper, I coated the tops and sides as best as I could and put them back in the freezer for a few minutes to set before doing the bottoms. I then got impatient and froze them again to set the bottom so I could get to the best part of the experiment: data gathering.

And now for the results and comparison poster section of my science project:

My Egg

Movie Prop Egg 

My egg chamber. Eggs shown back to back for dramatic effect

Movie Egg Chamber

More horrifying view of how quickly eggsperiments can get out of hand

How Did It Taste?

It tasted like victory and don’t you forget it. Once I realized that the recipe called for all that extra sugar I had to counteract it. By adding the salt I created a slight counterbalance and brought back some of the peanut flavor. I also like saltier baked goods so; it was win-win for me. Next by adding the unsweetened  dark cocoa powder I neutralized a little more of the overall sweetness of the mixture.

Chocoholic Boyfriend Approved