Memorial Day 2014

I do not think I have shared this about myself yet (maybe I have I do not remember) but I am an Army brat. My parents met during the Panama invasion in the 80's. Not only that but my Great Grandfather was a WW2 veteran and for a long time he would sit and tell me stories about fighting in the war, where he flew and what it was like. I grew up with t to the point I even was a Navy Sea Cadet. I went through the rank and eventually getting my Petty officer 3 class. I had ranks and upon turning 18 I was planning to join. I actually enlisted in the Army, I would have left for bootcamp in the summer of 2008. Instead I meet my soulmate and had kids instead. So it is easy for me to plan on my troops honoring and helping the local VA. I do my best to teach my kids about the men and women serving in the military and I explain to my kids how hard that life is not just for the soldiers but also for the families left behind.  Todays post is not about me or what I do with my family. It is a memory. We went today to cheer for the men and women who fight or fought for our country and remember those who did not make it home.

These men and women played a big part of our country. I hope you thought of them and their families while you got to enjoy your day because they are truly amazing people. 

Vegan pie crust

My husband is not a fan then again he is not  a huge pie crust guy and is weird when it comes to pie crust. I like it and lets face it that is the important part right? nice flaky melt in your mouth flavors.

The best part chances are you have everything in the pantry. I am hoping to perfect this recipe so it taste more like the egg and butter crust but for now it will do the trick. 

                                                                                          

Supplies:

Pyrex Glass Bakeware Pie Plate 9" x 1.2"

bowl 

fork 

measuring spoons 

wood rolling pin and pastry cloths 

Mrs. Anderson's Baking Ceramic Pie Weights or Aluminum foil and beans

Ingredients: 

2 1/2 Cake flour

1 1/3 cup vegetable shortening

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon sugar

small amount of water 

extra flour 

(I forgot to take pictures of making the dough.)

Grease the pie pan. If I do not say it now I may forget to say it again. 

I take all of my flour, salt, sugar and shortening dump it out in a bowl. You need to cut the shortening in the flour until it is course and tiny pieces. Then add a tiny bit of water until the dough comes together. Be very careful because over working the dough will make it tough and not appealing. Turn the dough in a flat disk.  

I then roll the dough in between my pastry cloth so it is easy to flip over on a pie pan. 

 Remove the second pastry sheet. 

Now gently press the crust into a well greased pie pan. 

(hey I remembered to mention a greased pie pan.)

My amazing husband took pictures for me. 

Now gently trim the extra off. 

Poke holes into the bottom of the crust. 

Now to make it all fancy and pretty. Take the extra and roll it out to make cut outs. 

Yasser decided on hearts with me but was upset that I did all the work. 

Preheat the oven to 350 fahrenheit.     

Very carefully put the hearts on the pie crust. Here is the tricky part to need to push it down hard enough it sticks but not so hard you ruin the shape. 

Pretty little hearts all in a row. 

Now brush the crust with a small amount of almond milk. 

Now I go the old school way of weighing my crust down for baking with some good ole aluminum foil and beans.  But you can use pie weights beads. 

Now bake until it has a beautiful golden brown and when you look at the bottom and it does now look raw. ( Only check the bottom if it is in a clear glass pie pan.) Please do not take it out of the pan it will break. 

Now let it cool. 

Hot coco!!

For most people it is almost summer. Hot weather is just around the corner and you are ready to pull out your swim gear and cool off but here we still are having cold spells. Thankfully it finally stopped snowing. I thought April showers sucked but I would have gladly traded our snow for a down pour any day. Yay upstate New York! Now we love hot coco. My kids choice breakfast drink and dessert drink and if they could convince me for lunch drink. When I decided we would go process free I did not think about having to replace our hot coco and so far only my husband seems to not love it. I know this jar looks tiny but trust me its not. This is an 8 cup mason jar and it holds just enough coco for barley a month. I have learned I love it in my coffee. (vanilla coffee, homemade vanilla creamer, Kaluha and coco mix... mmmmhmmm makes me want another cup today) I let the kids mix this because they thought it would be fun and it gave them one hell of a work out. In my food processor I dumped 2 cups coco powder and 1 cup chocolate chips and finely chop it. Then I dumped it in the jar. Next was 2 cups dried milk (sweetened dried milk is the best) finely process and then dump in the jar. 

Last is the sugar you can skip the processing part if you use powder. I use raw sugar and make my own powder sugar by grinding as fine as possible. (My middle one has food sensitivity and overly process food affect him which is what started our process free journey.) Then shake it. I put on "shake it like a polaroid picture" and made it a game with the kids, as soon as the music stopped the next person got it. I should have recorded it and loaded it on youtube because it was extremely entertaining. But that was the end of making the mix. I use my Keurig and 2 scoops (roughly two tablespoons) with 6oz water and a shot of milk ( they like it creamy and warm not hot). I think it is better than what I was buying in the store and a lot cheaper. 

Cilantro seasoned salt

We love seasoned salt. We put it on all kinds of things. When we discovered Trader Joe's we learned about the garlic salt that is amazing. It is not powdery and is in a grinder so it is that much better. Well I decided try making my own. So the Hispanic in me wanted a salt that has a nice sutler taste. What hispanic person does not like cumin? 

So here is what you need: 

A grinder : Kyocera Ceramic Fine Mill, White Top

Sea salt: Extra Coarse Sea Salt, 1 lb.

Cumin

Dried Cilantro 

Black Pepper: Spicy World Peppercorn (Whole)-Black Tellicherry, 16 Oz. bag

The tricky part is the blend. I do not measure this because it really is on the person. I like more flavor than I do salt. 

So I put 1/16 cup salt and 1/16 cup peppercorns. 

I then added 1/8 cup cumin and an 1/8 cup Cilantro. 

Mix it all together and put in a grinder. Now you have a mild Spanish seasoned Salt. 

Amazon trade in

Both my husband and I were in college this past year so we have this decent size collection of textbooks and sure enough it is sell back time. You know you paid a few hundred for the text and they offer you $10. Okay it is not always that bad but sometimes you get worse luck than that and they tell you that they are not buying it back. Honestly that sucks when you really need the cash. Well we have been eyeing a wagon for sometime now. I am thinking everyone should have one with 3 kids or if they go to markets it is handy to carry stuff. We have not had the cash for one  but we had a few textbooks that we needed to sell and you know what was great Amazon bought them. I earned $150 from textbooks the school did not want. You are not always going to make the cash but it does not hurt to try right? So here we are waiting on our wagon and I can not begin to explain how excited we are to have bought a wagon with textbooks.

Popeye's Pasta dinner

Everyone remembers Popeye's muscle growing from eating spinach to save Olive right? Or am I just dating my self now? I always want to be super strong like Popeye and ate tons of spinach but my kids well they are a different story. My kids are not overly fond of the fresh and all natural. Okay just one hates it my boys are willing to give it a try so any way to sneak fresh vegetables into Yasser's dish and get her to eat is a win. Since trying process free we stopped buying pasta. It was also rare for us to even want to make pasta because for the longest time all I had was a hand crank pasta machine. I am telling you the up front to a KitchenAid KSM75WH Classic Plus Tilt-Head 4-1/2-Quart Stand Mixer, White is crazy expensive but it pays off quickly. To make this pasta you will need the KitchenAid KPRA Pasta Roller Attachment for Stand Mixers . 

Green Vegan Pasta 

2 3/4 cup semolina flour

3/4 cup water ( you may need more or less depending on the weather)

1/2 tsp turmeric 

1/2 tsp garlic sea salt ( I love seasoned salt) 

1/8 cup olive oil

 1/2 cup spinach finely chopped

I used fresh spinach and chopped it up. You should really cook it and get the extra water out or it will be hard for the pasta to cook and not turn into mush. 

The easiest part in making to dough is just dumping it all together and let the mixer do most of the work.

Your dough will be a little soft and will take extra kneading to pull together. 

This dough was a little dry which is why it is crumbling just a touch more water and it turned in to a beautiful dough. Let it rest for about 15 minutes before working it.

Now it is time for working it. (This part was hard to take a ton of step by step pictures since I needed my hand to catch the dough.) 

It is easier to divid the dough to have small easy to handle dough chunks because the more to roll it and the more it thins the longer pieces get. 

 You need to be on the smallest setting and there will be a lot of tears but just fold it in half and keep working it until the dough is nice and smooth. Once your dough looks great on setting 1 go to the next size until the dough is as thin as you want. 

I decided I wanted it a tad thicker ( accidentally did it way to thick chasing hulk man ) to cut in a nice fettuccine. 

If you dough is a tad sticky just add more flour or it will stick to the cutter. 

Now for the best part: The Cooking!! 

You need a nice hot pot of salted water boiling and just toss it in. They will sink towards the bottom and then float once cooked. Fresh pasta takes less time to cook than dried store bought. I do not suggest walking away because it will quickly turn into mush if it is left to long. I may have made a huge chunk of mush trying to keep hulk out of trouble. 

 Tada!! it is done and looks yummy. 

So in order for me to make this more of a meal I decided to sauté  some carrots, onion, garlic, chopped sun dried tomatoes, mushrooms and peas. I used some olive oil and then when everything was cooked I added "butter" and severed. Now this is my not so vegan part but I can not live with out it.  Add some Cheese!!

Enjoy!