Ginger Love (and a recipe for how to make sweet pickled ginger at home)

I am a ginger devotee. It is probably one of my most favorite ingredients to eat or cook with. At Japanese restaurants there is never enough pickled ginger on my plate and I am willing to endure the hollow, sour feeling in my stomach that comes free eating far too much pickled food in one seating. Oddly, I have never attempted to make my own pickled ginger. Today, however is a new day, and guess what, I made what will now most likely become a staple in my kitchen—pickled ginger! 

What brought it all to the forefront was a batch of fast pickled radishes I put together at the food truck yesterday. I was needing a little salad pizazz and had a small bin full of fresh pink radishes (I'll actually give you all that recipe another time, once I figure out the precise proportions to use.) Either way, yesterday evening I was too tired to bother with ginger but my mind was already running with ginger thoughts and laughing at the idea I had never before even tried to make my own fast pickled ginger. Well today it was my priority. Between biscuits and omelets, pies and ice tea, I shuffled aside some time for ginger experimentation. 

The result is utterly satisfying. After eight hours of soaking, the pickles are fantastic; bright, extremely potent, sweet and with a true bite. I will bet tomorrow and even the day after, they will have come to terms with their fate and settled down to a somewhat milder delivery of their pickled ginger charm. 

Pickled Ginger Recipe

First wash and peel your ginger then slice very thinly until you have about one cup. I used a peeler, but a cheese slicer could work as well. Be sure to follow the grain or the ginger will be rougher in texture. Also note, the ginger gets more stringy as it gets closer to the center so optimally just use the outer portion for this recipe. Place the ginger in a bowl and mix with the following ingredients and then let sit covered in the refrigerator for at least 8 hours: 

1+1/2 teaspoons sea salt

1/3 cup white sugar

1/2 cup rice vinegar

1 cup water

Please enjoy and let me know how they come out!

                                                        ~Marica

An old post for a busy week...

I've been up to my ears and haven't even put a thought into Valentines day until today.

 Too many wonderful distracting things...

 

 

We're not moved in yet, but I feel it getting closer...

 

 Luckily, I did manage to put together a couple of berry cheesecake pies for the truck...

 Of course it down poured all afternoon and evening—which I love—

though it made for slim pickings when it came to customers.

 Anyway, as an ode to Valentines day, I thought I'd paste here an old post that holds a sweet spot in my memories, a time when I had more time:

Could Valentine's Day be any more cheesy? What is the definition of cheesy anyway? Is cheesy a simplified stereotype of something wonderful? I always tend to use the word when I am describing something good, but overly obvious, overdone, or sapped out.

Well, I decided to put my sticky chocolate fingers all the way into the pie this year and make chocolate heart shaped pops . . .

and mini chocolate hearts . . .

The process was fabulously fun . . . I loved melting and combing chocolates to make fancy treats. The large heart pops were very easy ~

Chocolate Valentine Pops

 I melted:

1 pound chocolate

1 tablespoon coconut oil

Then I added and mixed gently but thoroughly:

1 cup puffed rice cereal 

 I poured it into a heart shaped pan that had a ready made slot for the sticks so the sticks could come out at the exact bottom. I laid the sticks in almost all to the way across to the top of the heart, then covered them with melted unsweetened chocolate. I think that was the key to how yummy they came out. The unsweetened chocolate gave them a depth of flavor. On one part of your tongue you are experiencing sweet, while other parts are involved in bitter. Mmm, and don't forget the crunchy rice. Unfortunately these tasty treats stuck in the mold, so I had to warm the bottom of the pan with hot water to get them out. It was suggested to me that next time I butter the pan, 

so in future times I will try that. 

Happy Love Day, and Cheers to Chocolate and Sweets ~ Marica

Vegan Sweet Potato and Lime Soup Recipe

BLOG OVERLAP FROM DEAR COUNTRY MOUSE

Dear Country Mouse,

Oh my gosh it is so dark and rainy up here. I do love it, but seriously it is rain, rain, rain right now. I'm trying to send some of this dripping, wet, goodness southward, but I have yet to succeed.

Your succulents are so wonderful! How fun to find the old pieces of ceramic-ware to turn into pots. Come spring, I think I will do that with a couple of my cracked tea pots I've been holding on to.

I made a nice sweet potato and lime soup today. Just note, I kept it vegan for the sake of some of my regular customers that I was expecting, though it would be lovely with chicken stock instead. You'd think my food truck was vegan as lately all the recipes I send you tend to be vegan. But truth is, as you know, we are far from it.

Vegan Cream of Sweet Potato Soup

Bake at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes or until soft:

2 lbs sweet potatoes

In a decent size pot sauté for several minutes:

1 teaspoon safflower oil

1 large sweet yellow onion chopped

Add and continue to sauté for several more minutes:

2 cloves garlic chopped

Add and simmer for 20 minutes:

4 cups vegetable stock

Once the sweet potatoes are cool enough to handle, peel and blend with:

1 14-ounce can coconut milk

Continue to blend adding the soup stock and add:

2 limes zest and juice

3 tablespoons molasses

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon salt or more to taste

1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon black pepper 

Return to the pot and bring to a desired temperature.

Also, I liked it with tabasco and  fresh parsley or cilantro on top. 

Anyway, I love you to pieces! Thanks for the cool idea on plant pots, I will be on that soon.

Hugs and hugs again,

City Mouse

Vegan Banana Muffins Recipe

I have a real soft spot for banana muffins. These particular muffins are yummy and yet still a tiny bit healthy. I often make a batch at the pie truck and then bring them home at the end of the day for my kiddos—They love when I bring treats. These days it's hard to keep my fifteen-year-old from eating us out of house and home. Seriously! As an added piece—so you can get in the mind of a crazy pie-maker/mother/obsesser-of-story-books—I have an old love affair with the Betsy Tacy and Tib books. I read each and every one multiple times as a child, and to be truthful, I even read some of her later books not so very long ago. Either way, in the stories the house keeper/cook always makes the family muffins on their first day back to school. I found this tradition so romantic. Every time I make my children muffins I think of Betsy and her family and the simple tradition that somehow has made a lasting impression on me. Silly as it sounds, I feel like these are the things that matter. These bits and pieces are what keeps us inspired, warm and decent people in a very complicated world.

VEGAN BANANA MUFFINS

In a large bowl mix:

3 ripe bananas 

1 cup orange juice 

1/2 cup grape seed oil

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon cardamom

3/4 cup dark brown sugar

1 cup ground walnuts

In a separate bowl sift together:

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup white flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix both sets of ingredients together. Pour into an oiled muffin pan and bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes and then rotate the the pan and bake for another 12 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.


                                                                    Cheers ~
                                                                                Marica

And a million pies later...

This was a good week. A long week, but good in so many ways. Firstly, I felt in tune with the pie truck—and that is a must to feeling good. Sometimes the inside me doesn't align properly with the tasks the world is requiring which certainly causes a lousy battle.  I find that when I feel as if I am playing, I am most at ease. It is a constant wonder in my mind if I am completely loopy, partially loopy, or if most people "play" when they are doing their best work. I hope some of you understand what I mean, because alas, it would be unfortunate to find I am the only one...

Secondly, this week I completed a project so huge and satisfying that my soul doesn't know how to withstand the comfort in having it done. I keep wanting to go back, tweak this, adjust that, yet there is nothing necessary to tweak or adjust. The project is done, at least for this stretch of the road. I am not going to be so thoughtful as to include you all in what the project is, I am not being coy or sassy, it is just that it needs to be kept unrevealed at this time. (Is unrevealed a word? My computer doesn't seem to think so). I will however say it is a book project, so no one will start believing that I built a house from ice blocks or sculpted a goddess in a giant boulder. 

Lastly, I managed to have my children clean the house—just enough—that my "weekend" was not fiddling with dishes, washing floors and scrubbing toilets. I'll admit, I did do all of those things; wash dishes, clean floors and scrub toilets, but they were all minimal versions of what would usually be defined as major cleaning. I am so thankful.

Oh, and on a simple, minor note of satisfaction, I bought a small wood-desk at Goodwill. I thought it was for my daughter's room, but my husband reminded my what a stack of things would gather on it in oh so short a time—and he is right—it will be of so much more use downstairs as a wee work spot for me. Now here I sit, so professional, writing this and feeling quite complete with my forearms resting appropriately as I type. What a lucky trick for me, guiltlessly buying something for someone else, and then reaping the benefit of its luxury.

Well, that just about does it.

All my best to Everyone!

                                                           Cheers ~

                                                                 Marica

Bits of these days…

May happened so fast, is it true we almost have made it through half this year already? It surely doesn't feel possible. May has brought many hot days. I feel like I should embrace them, but instead I still detest too much sun. 

Our little neighborhood here hosts an annul parade. Exactly one year ago Sunday, the pie-truck opened during the festivities of this yearly event.

This year we're far more experienced and no longer the newbies on the block. The pie-truck has had a good year. Winter was harsh, so harsh I often began to think we were nutty dimwits for opening the whole pie deal, but as weather warms and rain becomes an occasional treat, the pie patrons are returning. As well as the resurgence of orders for salad… 

Lazy afternoon naps are something I cherish as often as possible, especially since 

my schedule has returned to morning til night; it's all pie, all the live long day. 

Fittingly I must sing; in the tune of I've been working on the rail road:

I've been working in a pie truck

All the live long day

I've been working in a pie truck

Just to pass the time away ay-ay-ay

Can't your hear the timer blaring

Biscuits out to cool

Now the customers awaiting

There's still more dough to roll

Paiku won't you roll

Paiku won't you roll

Paiku won't you roll the dough ho-ho-ho

Paiku won't you roll

Paiku won't you roll

Paiku won't you roll the dough

Someone's in the kitchen at Paiku

Someone's in the kitchen I know oh-oh-oh

Someones in the kitchen at Paiku

Rollin' out the ol' pie dough

And singing

Fee-fi-roll out the dough

Fee-fi-filly-i-roll that dough-ho

Fee-fi-filly-i-oh

Rollin' out the old pie dough

Other bits of non pie life:

                                                   I hope everyone had a tremendous Mother's Day!

      

                                                                          All my best and many cheers ~

                                                                                                Marica

Holidays… Pie Days…

It's happening fast. December has nearly doubled its speed. 

Make way for Christmas, make way for New Years, hold onto your hat! Here we go...

  

 

                                                                     Cheers ~ 

                                                                                   Marica