The lack of well thought out & useful posts is partly due to feeling like I may have reached a sort of steady-state equilibrium on my low-waste techniques. Less personal revelation probably means it’s time to take on a new challenge – like making my own yogurt or growing my own mushrooms or something.
I have been domesticating and have learned how to bake GOOD english muffins and pita bread from scratch. My single best realization is that when baking from any non-canadian cookbook, one must reduce the listed quantity of flour (from 10 to 25% less). This is apparently due to the closer-to-real-wheat qualities of canadian flour. Practically speaking, things get too dense if you use US-wheat quantities.
With lots of time on my hands, this domesticating and home-economizing has brought me to another simple realization: zero waste happens more naturally when you do things the old-school way. We drink powdered milk, which is ever so much better tasting now than it was when I was a kid. I bake bread, I make stews and spreads from beans, I don’t buy much meat, I use a lot of root vegetables. I now cook much like my grandma did. I praise the vegetable goodness of celery and sprouts. Amazingly, this eliminates many of the struggles – less packaging woes, less expense, etc.
If anyone wants the english muffin recipe, it makes the best eggs bennies you have ever tasted. It’s dead easy, they freeze well, and they will help you avoid many many many little plastic bags and little plastic bag-closers. Props go to the More-With-Less and Extending-the-table cookbook. I love them. If you are fortunate enough to have access to fresh local seasonal vegetables, try Simply In Season.
I was just thinking that I needed an English muffin recipe now that I have a breadmaker. It might be something from the breadmaker that M will actually eat. Could you pass it on?
And I heart those books. More with Less is a gem. My love for it has surpassed my previous love for Simply in Season. It proves to me that there’s always something to eat even when you think the cupboards are bare.
exactly… i’m always amazed at what we can do with “nothing” and now that we have a good pantry, we can really whip up some impressive meals. So.. the english muffins recipe is on page 67 of more with less. forgive me if i don’t type it out right now – it’s late. It’s easier than making bread, so I wouldn’t bother with the breadmaker BUT… the key is to useless flour than they suggest – in the recipe it calls for up to 4.5cups of flour – I think I used 3.5cups and did not go for a “stiff” dough. more of a soft pliable (not runny, not stringy) dough. Poach the eggs, and make the hollandaise sauce either in a blender for a whole troop of people, or in a small saucepan for just the two of you. H.sauce recipe in the next section.
1c butter, 4 egg yolks, 1/4tsp salt, 1/4tsp sugar (optional) 1/4tsp tabasco or other hot sauce, 1/4 tsp dry mustard, 2Tbsp lemon juice.
bring butter *slowly* to boil, don’t brown. combine rest of ingredients in a blender, keep blender on high, slowly pouring butter into mixture. Makes 300mL of sauce. scale back as desired.
*note* you should cut back on the butter and use egg whites instead of yolks to reduce cholesterol & fat. if you use whites, add a little bit of tumeric for color. keeps for 2-2.5days only.
Interesting about the Canadian wheat content in flour. Never thought much about it at all.
yeah, I was tipped off by the quantities listed in my bread machine recipe book. Their CDN flour quantities are about 20% less than US quantities. It gets more subjective when you start using whole wheat, which messes with the liquid absorption properties and the gluten content at the same time…
Actually, Canadian cups contain more volume than US ones : 13 mL more. See the article on Wikipedia :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cup_%28unit%29
wow, that’s interesting! maybe it’s both those things that contribute to the difference. I am pretty sure I have both US and Canadian volumes… I better pay attention to which ones I use.
Sounds awesome!…and that certainly is something I’ve noticed about survival in the north. For me to eat a balanced diet, I have to dig around and make a lot of my own stuff…I’m still trying to perfect that perfect batch of yogurt.
…I miss not being able to access some sort of farmer’s market here in the north, but I do what I can. The thing is, in the smaller communities, it’s not an option to buy locally. It’s not an option to buy fresh. It’s not an option to buy organic without having it shipped up in foodmail orders. It’s not an option to buy an orange that hasn’t been shipped from Florida. It’s not an option to even recycle or compost…I try to be creative and re-use, but that can only go so far.
Anyway, can’t wait to try that english muffin recipe…I love them, but the ones available here are like little hockey pucks with a few pockets of air!
Yes, the local food aspect is almost a non-issue up here. I do try and look for Ontario or Quebec produce and limit ‘tropical’ food like lettuce and oranges (haha) … but then there is the “real food” versus “vitamin supplements” aspect as well. How do we resolve healthy eating with food transport. When I first got here, i almost felt relieved that because there really was no local option, I didn’t have to worry as much about where the food was coming from – the issue then became packaging rather than source. I’m settling into some sort of compromise now, and it’s all the same general rules no matter where you live – reduce packaging, pay attention to labels. I have yet to try my hand at yogurt. kudos to you!
Can you send me the english muffins recipe pretty please!
sorry!!! i’m so far past late! emailing you now.