Can bread ever really taste so bad that no one will eat it? YES!

Baking tip of the day: Make sure you label your flours immediately when you get home from the bulk store.

Ok this was a tough lesson for me yesterday folks. I went to the bulk store a couple of days ago to buy a plethora of flours, nuts, and seeds for my bread baking. I have been religiously using my bread machine lately in an attempt to bring more fiber in our diet as well as really control the amount of salt and chemicals in what we eat.

So yesterday I baked a loaf of Boston brown bread as well as a loaf of cheese bread to use up some of the three year old cheddar in my crisper that was just beginning to turn fuzzy. The Boston brown turned out delightful. It rose nicely and although a denser loaf, was everything I had hoped it would be. The cheese bread, on the other hand, emerged as a deflated hockey puck with a terrible sour taste and a doughy, chewy, almost a not-cooked nasty consistency. I couldn't figure it out. What had I done wrong? Once cooled I put it in a large ziplock bag and figured that toasting it for breakfast in the morning might help the situation.

During the night I dreamt of bread. I baked a lot of it apparently during my sleep, trying the recipe over and over again, since when I awoke my brain had solved the problem. What had I done? Unknowingly, I had mixed up the bags of sourdough flour for bread flour. Of course! That would totally explain the really chewy texture, the sour taste, and the hockey puck like appearance. It all makes sense now.

Well I tried toasting the bread this morning for breakfast, and I have to tell you it was still a dunce. Even my spouse who will pretty much consume anything baked took one bite and spat it out. I tried to choke mine down too, but the sourness left a biley taste in my mouth, and I just couldn't seem to chew through the doughy mess. So sadly the remainder of the loaf went into the garbage. I don't think that I could have even fed it to the dogs. And so, my lesson for today is that I need to remember to label all of my bulk bags either in store or immediately when I get home or risk more nasty disasters. I suppose I should count my blessings that I have had many bread baking successes to date. Since those who know me well know that I am in fact not a baker, but a burner, albeit an enthusiastic one!

Finding ways to stretch a dollar and make our lives easier: Shopping the advertised specials, & buying in bulk

It seems that everyone is trying to be more economical in these tough times and find easy ways to stretch a dollar. For me, this usually begins on Friday afternoon when the local store flyers are delivered to my apartment building. I scan through all of the flyers and make note of the stores that are having great specials on meat and fish as well as my core pantry and personal care items. This helps me set my menu for the upcoming week, as well gives me the opportunity to stock up on any of my core essentials like toilet paper, tissues, coffee, re-sealable bags, canned pantry basics such as crushed tomatoes, pasta, cleaning supplies, toothpaste and shampoo. Let’s face it – no matter how much we try to squeeze and eliminate out non-essentials, there will always remain a core number of items that we can’t just manage without.

If the saving are significant (especially for my core items) I usually plan to buy at least double of my regular quantity. I have a specially designated cupboard just for these essential staples. For any meat servings I will buy anywhere between 2-3 x the required serving for my family. For instance, if you have a family of four, you might plan to buy anywhere from 8-12 pork chops at one time. You may be thinking, “Jen…I only have a small freezer – I can’t store all that meat!” Well, I assure you that if you follow these simple steps that you will be able too, since everything will be frozen flat and be really easy to stack. So here’s what you do:

1. When you get home, chop any meat into the serving portions that you will need for each meal. For instance – A roast may be cut into two different preparations: cubes for a stew or for the crockpot, and steaks for the grill. Hint: Often meat and chicken that is sold as whole pieces is often considerably cheaper. Don’t be intimidated about cutting it up yourself. Check out YouTube for tons of instructional videos on how to cut up a chicken or a roast.

2. Place meat servings into an appropriately sized ziplock freezer bag ( I generally use the medium size which will hold two salmon steaks or two pork chops flat).

3. Pour your favorite marinade into each bag. I usually opt for bottled ones such as Diane's or Kikkoman or Mama Sita's but I have also been know to toss in any combination of soya sauce, honey, garlic, juices (pineapple or orange), wine (red or white), and mustards (grainy, dijon).

4. Take a straw and suck out the air in the bags until the marinade completely engulfs the meat and no air remains. Hint: The key to doing this effectively is to zip the bag up at both sides around the straw before you begin sucking, and if you need to take a breath simply pinch the straw so as not to release any air.

5. Label each bag with the contents as well as the date. That way you can not easily track your inventory easily but you can also instruct your spouse on what to pull out of the freezer when it is their turn to cook :)

6. Place the meat flat in your freezer and stack as high as needed.

7. The morning that you plan on cooking the meat, simply take it out of the freezer and place it in the fridge. When dinner time comes your meat will be nicely marinated and should be defrosted. If your fridge is set particularly cold you might want to take the meat out of the freezer the night before.

Hint: If you are feeling lazy you can also just dump the contents into your slow cooker along with a handful of your favorite veg and an onion, a tin of cream of mushroom soup, about a cup of your favorite liquid (chicken broth, wine, water etc.) as well as any of your favorite seasonings (salt, pepper, garlic, mixed Italian herbs etc. You can then head off to work knowing that you will have a yummy hot meal when you walk in the door from work. For other slow cooker ideas check out my crockpot tips.

Although it may seem like a lot of work up front I assure you that it will be a time saver in the long run as well as a great budget saver. At any given time I usually have one full week’s rotation of our favorite fish, pork chops, chicken breasts, chicken legs, steak, and beef short ribs that my butcher cuts into bite sized pieces for me and are a favorite for my slow cooker. And when supermarkets like T&T (my favorite supermarket of all time) have exceptional specials like chicken wings for $1.58 /lb like they did last week, or pork ribs at $ 1.38/lb like they do this week, I will find myself buying much more.

The best carrot cake ever!

Many in my life boast that I know my way around the kitchen. Those who know me really well though know that I although I can make a mean entrée, that I am generally not a baker, but instead a burner.

In digging through my crisper last night I found a very old bag of carrots – Not yet at the liquefied stage, but definitely past their prime. Never wanting to throw anything away (a trait endowed upon me by my parents) I went in search of a recipe that would use them all up. One of my favorite consistently great sources of recipes has always been Canadian Living Magazine. Their recipes are tested and true, and I have been able to recreate them and have them look as they do in the magazine and online. I made a few modifications that I have posted below to suit my personal taste, as well as to reduce the calorie content but I imagine that the original recipe would be just as delectable. This cake turned out so moist, and really yummy. It has frozen really well too – I just wrapped it in foil and then in a zip lock bag.

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

¼ cup + 2 TBS Splenda Brown Sugar
1 cup Splenda granulated sugar
3 eggs

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla

2 heaped cups grated carrots

1 cup drained canned crushed pineapple

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Icing: 1 pkg brick cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup butter, softened

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup icing sugar

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Preparation:

Grease and flour a bundt pan or a square or round cake pan and set aside. In a large bowl beat together granulated and brown sugars, eggs, oil and vanilla until smooth. Add in the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and stir just until moistened. Stir in carrots, pineapple and walnuts. Spread in prepared pan.

Bake in centre of 350°F (180°C) oven for 30-40 minutes or until cake tester inserted in centre comes out clean. (A fully baked cake will spring back when touched in the center. The cake also draws away from the side of the pan, and a cake tester (a toothpick of skewer works well) inserted in the center comes out clean. Also trust your sense of smell: the fresh aroma of butter and sugar wafting out of the oven can be the signal to check the cake.)

Let cool in pan on rack. Ice with cream cheese icing and decorate with whole walnuts.

Icing: In bowl, beat cream cheese with butter until smooth. Beat in vanilla and icing sugar until smooth.

Sugar Sugar Everywhere

My friend Jim is coming up to the cottage next week to help my sister and I open the place up, and assist with much of the labour that is required, like extensive raking, gutter cleaning, and gardening. In exchange for his efforts I have agreed to provide some good home cooking and a peaceful place for some meditation.

Over the past year, Jim has been working hard to eat healthily, and so I wasn't suprised when wrote to me last week to let me know of some of his dietary restrictions. Milk & dairy products, eggs, meat, chicken, and sugar were off of his list. My sister is also on a sugar cleanse, but unlike Jim, can't even have sugar substitutes like Agave Nectar. No problem I thought, this can't be that difficult can it? So I began to plan a simple menu that included as many non-processed ingredients as possible. Breakfasts would include a cooked twelve grain cereal with dried fruits, or toasts with some kind of sugar free jams. Lunches would be bean salads, tinned fish, and veggie wraps. I planned the dinner menu as follows:

Monday: Grilled Salmon, mixed veggies, brown rice

Tuesday: Whole Wheat Pasta with Sauce & Salad

Wednesday: Steak (for Liz & I)/Grilled Tofu burger & Grilled Veg & Potatoes

Thurs: Eggplant & TVP tortillas

Friday: Tofu Stir Fry

Saturday: Vegetarian chili

Sunday: Thai Green curry

Monday: Shrimp Stir fry

Tuesday: Indian curried cauliflower/potato/chickpeas/tempeh

Being optimistic, I headed to the grocery store with my list, expecting a quick and easy trip. Tinned tomatoes, some dried fruit & nuts, and some soya products. No problem. Well let me tell you...quick and easy it was not. Much to my surprise, sugar is litereally in EVERYTHING that comes either in a can or is pre-prepared. Most dried fruit is apparently cured with it (!?!). Tinned tomatoes are filled with it. Steak seasonings, salad dressings, and marinades had well more than traces of it. Even soya products contained it. So I read label after label, and went to bulk store after bulk store. I was completely dumbstruck by the amount of processed sugar that is found in what would be considered by most as "healthy" foods.

In the book "The Omnivores Dilemma" by Michael Polan he discusses the insidious inclusion of corn and corn products in over forty-five thousand items, in everything from toothpaste to cosmetics, disposable diaper bags, cleansers, charcoal briquettes, matches and batteries and to thousands of processed foods. Corn appears as many incarnations including high fructose corn syrop, modified or unmodified starch,maltodextrin, ascorbic asid, lecithin, dextrose, lactic acid, lysine, & xanthan gum. Wanting to be prepared I decided to research the variety of sugar incarnations that I should keep an eye out for. Here's the incredible list that I found:

• amazake
• barley malt
• beet sugar
• brown sugar
• buttered syrup
• cane-juice crystals
• cane sugar
• caramel
• carob syrup
• corn syrup
• corn syrup solids
• date sugar
• dextran
• dextrose
• diatase
• diastatic malt
• ethyl maltol
• fructose
• fruit juice
• fruit juice concentrate
• glucose
• glucose solids
• golden sugar
• golden syrup
• grape sugar
• high-fructose corn syrup
• honey
• invert sugar
• lactose
• malt syrup
• maltodextrin
• maltose
• maple sugar
• mannitol
• molasses
• raw sugar
• refiner's syrup
• sorbitol
• sorghum syrup
• sucrose
• sugar
• turbinado sugar
• yellow sugar

Astounding isn't it? The reality is that if you are eating any processed foods, including breads, or tinned anything, chances are you are eating a LOT of sugar. An article published by the CBC argues that even cutting back to 12 teaspoons a day would be difficult. 12 TEASPOONS!!! OMG!

Well I can finally say that what I will serve for breakfast, lunch, and dinner up at the cottage will be completely sugar free. What have I taken away from this experience is that my personal diet needs a complete overhaul, and that I have been kidding myself with the amount of sugar that I have been ingesting in condiments and marinades. I think that over the next little while that I will be going back to basics, and although I have always tended to buy and cook fresh, that I will make a greater effort to do so, as well as read more labels for everything else. To those who have already been doing this on a regular basis, I applaud you. Inspired, I pulled out my really dusty bread machine this morning to bake a loaf of chewy, whole grain sugarless bread. As it turns out, agave nectar replaces sugar and honey really well. And the breaking of the hot, crusty, wonderful smelling bread became symbolic for my new committment to the healthier, reduced sugar meals to come.