Food experiments

[Zonny]

I was thinking, I can't be the only cook out there who tries new things, wants to experiment with homemade food. Since trying to provide my nine year old with a piece of moldy bread for a science experiment (we gave up after nine weeks, bread was hard but not moldy), I've been trying to focus on more homemade foods.

I make wine and mead. I mix up my own seasoning mix for tacos, I've made mozzarella cheese, I make rolls and bread for my family using a bread machine to mix the dough and then forming my own rolls. I recently made creme fraiche (which tastes much like sour cream) using whipping cream, buttermilk and time (SO easy and very tasty!). Once strawberries are in season I plan to try making some jam with berries, chia seeds to thicken, and honey to sweeten if necessary. No more Certo! I have a hard clay yard, but I planted some cucumbers in containers on my deck, as well as my usual little container herb garden. Might still plant some peppers.

My latest thing is an electric pressure cooker (Instant Pot, bought it from Amazon last week), which interestingly enough, has a yogurt setting. I've been testing it out cooking different foods, but guess what my next experiment is? Apparently making your own yogurt is pretty easy even if you don't have a machine that does it for you. I looked for yogurt starter today at Superstore (active cultures you add to scalded milk), but couldn't find it there, might have to go to a health food store, or if all else fails, use some good quality plain yogurt to add the cultures to my milk. In the end I'll hopefully have tasty, creamy yogurt that has no gelatin, white sugar, cornstarch or any other funky things. We'll add fresh or frozen fruit, sweeten with honey if needed.

Have you tried anything adventurous in the kitchen (cooking people, I mean COOKING!)? What would you like to try? Maybe someone here has already done it and would like to share!

[walkonby]

Zonny, no I am not quite that adventurous anymore. It is a hit and miss thing with me, it would only happen if the mood strikes and the stars align for me to attempt anything really unusual. I sure admire all that you have done to his point though, plus I love the lessons you are teaching your son by doing things from scratch.
Actually there is one thing you mentioned that i do as well , I've never bothered to buy pre-seasoned packages ( no Shake 'n Bake, no Taco stuff ) I have always made my own to avoid the salt. That is something I guess. lol
Keep up the great work.

[joseff]

I have made yogurt using a machine. makes 8 cups, plugs in overnight, really simple to make. I love it, because I add cinnamon and a touch of sugar to mine, dh doesn't like it all because of the tartness. I bought the starter at our local Farm Boy (supplier of produce, butcher in store, unique more expensive food items) and then just used the home make yogurt for the next starter. I love greek yogurt so find that straining the yogurt through a cheesecloth gives me a thicker consistency. I would LOVE to make cheese, but alas, working fulltime in retail doesn't give me many hours at home to experiment much.

[SnowFlakey]

Im not an adventerous cook but since hubby retired i started rethinking our menus, so im using ingredients differently. Ive always made my own breadcrumbs and dried my own parsley, oregano and basil. But i also started making my own fine herbs mix (parsley, oregano, basil, thyme, sage and chives). And i also dry Rosemary. We have loads of mint growing and i harvest that for mint tea for use during winter.

[SassyAshley]

I tried to cut out all packaged foods last year and quickly learned with lifestyle (working over 50 hours a week normally more like 60) this will not work. But it kind of shot myself in the food as there are now some things I have to make homemade as the packaged version just does not taste the same. We make:
Taco Seasoning (Have been for years the package stuff is gross)
Granola
Bread (I do not make all our bread but when I can we do)
Pizza Pockets (We make a homemade bread dough and use it to make homemade pizza pockets)
Pizza Sauce
Apple Sauce
Raspberry Jelly
Cherry Jam

[Zonny]

SassyAshley, what do you put in your pizza sauce?

Today's experiment is yogurt, I wanted to get a start on it early since it's a long process (over eight hours), but most of that time is just spent waiting. I just scalded the milk in my Instant Pot (pressure cooker), now I need to wait for the milk to cool enough to add the cultures. I looked in a couple stores for yogurt starter and couldn't find any, so I bought a tub of plain yogurt from Fox Hill Cheese (local company that makes dairy products) and I'll use that. It will probably be 9 a.m. before I can put the cultures in and get it incubating. I'll let y'all know how it turns out!

[SnowFlakey]

I also make my own apple sauce and/or apple/rhubarb sauce. And garlic butter, simplest thing in the world.

[SassyAshley]

Zonny, I will have to check the recipe and get back to you, I got 25 lbs of tomatoes last year for $4 as they were not the best quality so one of the things we made was pizza sauce.

[Zonny]

No need for the recipe, just wondered if you used fresh or canned tomatoes.

[quynn75]

This week, I´ve found out DANDELIONS on some list of superfood - so my next adventure is going to be experimenting with dandelions! My mother did dandelion honey when I was a child... I want to learn that as well, but in the post about superfood they mentioned that eating leaves is really good to get some (I think) vitamins..
Another experiment: 1 ground eggshell per day for 1 month - e.g. in smoothie (with lemon - ! - there is a recipe somewhere on internet) - is perfect for teeth!

[SnowFlakey]

You can also make Dandelion wine. Young dandelion greens are great in a salad. In the counry during spring, we see lots of people cutting young dandelion greens. You can also pick your own Fiddleheads in Spring if you live near a forest that has ferns. My mom and i used to do that but i never liked the taste of Fiddleheads.

[Angela273]

I think this will be an interesting thread, so I don't want to lose it. I'll probably post another time. I wouldn't call myself much of an adventurous cook, but I make most of the meals in our house. I'm known for my baking, among family and friends.

[padyofurniture]

Growing up it was always very plain or bland meals. Protein and two veg really. Now that I do more cooking for the family, I'm always on the lookout for different recipes. So I suppose I'm experimental that way. I've been making my own taco seasoning, adobe seasoning and seasoning salt for a little while now.

I don't make bread often but it's really nice when I make up a loaf in the bread machine.

When strawberries are in season, I hope to make strawberry jam as well. I do use one of the bernardin packets for thickening however.

I wish that cucumbers were super cheap because I'd have to take another shot at making mustard pickles. The last time I made them was more than a decade ago but they were delish. I can't stand the store bought ones.

[SnowFlakey]

padyofurniture, wait for the fall and then you can make mustard pickles all you want!

[Darth Penguin]

I love playing wih food.And I love the Internet.

I've made so many meals by typing in protein/starch/veggies into google and getting recipes back...Most of which are worth repeating..