Look at how incredibly tall the tomato plants are now! To think that just one month ago, they were only one foot tall, and now they're reaching over the balcony railing!
This is why the garden update is first today ... TOMATOES ARE FORMING! Seems like my vibrating-with-electric-toothbrush-to-release-pollen has been working!
Another spot where tomatoes are forming
And again, more tomatoes!
Shiso is growing so fast I have to give it away ... this is after I cut about 5 or 6 inches off of the top to give away. Anybody else want some Shiso?
Lettuce, Chives, and Garlic Chives ... but I transplanted the lettuce today:
Transplanted the lettuce into their new home to give them more room to expand
And now for the picture overload of all the stuff I've been making. So besides the jam, our friend Molly came over last night to teach me how to use the leftover buttermilk that we saved from when we made our oregano herb butter to use to make buttermilk sandwich bread:
Kneading the dough (usually I make no-knead bread, so learning the texture I needed to reach with kneading was new for me)
After 40 minutes first rise ... finger poke test reveals dough is perfect - indentation stays in the dough
Second rise ... dinner rolls on left and my loaf on the right. Second finger poke test after the second rise should pop back out, and it did, so ...
Ready for baking after a light brushing of butter
Enjoying my drink of Tayberry-infused sparkling water (from the tayberries we bought from the farms when we went berry hunting for jam making) while waiting for the bread to bake
3 o'clock in the morning and it's done! Soft and moist thanks to the buttermilk that we used.
I have also been craving some middle eastern food so I decided to do a couple basic things from scratch as well. First up is Lubneh (a Lebanese strained yogurt cheese). I used REAL, natural plain yogurt ... by "real" and "natural", I mean that it has not been homogenized so that it naturally separates into curds and whey if left alone in the container - regular store bought plain yogurt from big manufacturers never separate since they add a bunch of chemicals and homogenizers to prevent the yogurt from separating naturally.
Stirring up the yogurt into a uniform mix, adding some salt
Pour into a cheesecloth
Create a sling so that they whey can drain
I managed to suspend the yogurt sling in the refrigerator to maintain freshness - most people just suspend it at room temp over the sink which is totally fine too
After 24 hrs, now we have Lubneh (left) and the filtered-out whey (right)
Lubneh! Yum. Think of it as a slightly tangy cream cheese that is plopped into a dish with plenty of olive oil and eaten with bread (or whatever you want)
Next up, I made Tahina (also called Tahini depending on who you speak to), which is a sesame paste used frequently in middle eastern/mediterranean cooking.
Lightly toasting the raw sesame seeds in an iron skillet
After mixing with 1/2 cup olive oil (for 2 cups sesame seeds), we have Tahina!
Thennn, we use this Tahina to make our hummus. But first, we have to cook the garbanzo beans:
About 1.5 cups of dry garbanzo beans (chickpeas) in a pot filled with water ... boil gently for a couple of hours until tender
After blending the garbanzo beans (chickpeas) with the Tahina that we made, the water that the beans were cooked in, the juice of three lemons, 3 large roasted garlic cloves, and some salt, we have our hummus!
FINALLY .... all of the previously described combines into dinner (and plenty of leftovers for a nice light mediterranean lunch .... maybe I'll make some falafel to go with all of this tomorrow)
Everything combined ... our buttermilk bread, the hummus with a well of greek olive oil, the lubneh (white dollops) on either side of the hummus ... all washed down with homemade chai (in back) with a splash of homemade soy milk.
Wonderful how it all comes together, isn't it? I'm getting addicted to doing everything from scratch and realizing really quickly that for $1 worth of sesame seeds, I made two jars of Tahina which would cost about $5 per jar at the store. Thus, $1 worth of sesame seeds = $10 of store-bought Tahina. Likewise, $1 worth of garbanzo beans = a big tub of hummus which would have cost about $15 at the store for the equivalent amount that I made at home.
As long as you are willing to put in the time, trying things from scratch can REALLY save you $$$$. Plus it's ridiculously fun. All in all, the tiny $2.50 bottle of cream that we bought from the dairy farm in the Skagit River Valley paid itself off ten times over. $2.50 for fresh farm cream = entire loaf of sandwich bread, dinner rolls, and two tubs of butter. I don't even have to mention the value of turning $5 worth of a half flat of berries into 7 jars of jam (which would have cost $5 each at the store), or that $4 worth of spices and black tea yields $25 worth of chai tea if bought at the coffee shop or grocery store. .... You do the math ... Try finding those deals at the supermarket.
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