tub scrub and delicates wash (soap nuts)

The wash
Buy your soap nuts in bulk, put five nuts in a bag or old sock. Wash your laundry up to 3 times. Allow the old nuts to dry. When you have a few cups saved, break up the nuts and throw them in a cook pot (as long as you wash it well after you should be fine.) boil in a qt of water until the water turns dark brown and silty. Remove nuts and allow to cool. Pour the liquid and silt into a bottle(we use an old dish liquid bottle.) It smells bad cooking and otherwise but rinses away with no scent. If this bothers you add up to 10 drops essential oil of choice directly to the bottle after removing the solids and shake. We find that lavender is relatively neutral and covers the smell well. Do not use tea tree if you have sensitive skin and might use this as shampoo. This can be used to wash delicates, dishes, or your hair (if your skin is not very sensitive and your hair is either very dirty or very oily-most of the time we use plain goat soap). It does not foam much but the naturally occurring saponins remove dirt and odor very well. It can also be diluted 1 part liquid to five parts water as floor soap.

 Tub scrub

you will need a blender, immersion blender or food processor.

After making the wash you will want to blend the still squishy soap nut carcasses with the blender until as smooth as possible, add 1/2 cup baking soda , 10 drops essential oil,   and 1/4 cup salt. mix well. store in well labeled jar in fridge.                                                                                                                                                                                                   

sesame spinach ( and other greens) gf if needed

You just roasted some tofu and made some rice
You need edible greens...

Take 1 lb leaves wash em'. Remove woody parts.
Please don't be skittish about ingesting a variety of edible greens. Use what's in season, you can grow it and will be ok cooked. Eating what's available encourages biodviersity, your health and can save you money. (For ex right now in may spinach is tres expensive but the kale is coming up, and so is arugula and dandelion greens. Last month cress was cheap...and if the strawberry spinach would grow it should have shown up then..alas.
Pour 1 tb off the top of your tahini or direct from a bottle of sesame oil
add 1 tb lemon juice and 3 cloves garlic, if desired grate in 1/2 inch fresh ginger.
Heat and allow greens to wilt . Add 3 tb soy sauce (gf if needed) and a small handful of sesame or sesame and flax seeds. Serve hot or chilled. Some greens freeze well, some do not.

Cook until most of the liquid is dissolved and evaporated and your greens are bright green.
options:
add 1 tsp honey or maple syrup if sweetness is desired with the soysauce
add 1/4 tsp thai or korean chili powder with the soysauce.
This is good packed with a protein and rice balls for lunch, as part of bibimbap, sushi filling, as a sandwich topping or omlette filling and along side bbq tempeh or pulled jackfruit bbq.

apple cheddar rice cooker risotto (veg,gf with dairy free / veganoptions)

I'm going to start out by saying that you shouldn't do this. Your rice cooker is not designed for it and you might set something on fire..Really.

I do it at least once a month but I don't leave the house when I do and I check it every 15 or so minutes. Even then it's really good but not quite risotto textured.

1.Take 1 cup rice (can be med or long grain) add 2 cups water with broth paste (or cubes) or broth
meanwhile sautee 1 chopped sweet onion (like a red or yellow) or one sliced clean leek.
5 cloves minced garlic
and one lb of clean and chopped mild or bitter greens (kale, collard, dandelion, chard,cress,broccoli leaves or spinach. Mustard and Turnip do not work well here)
if you want to add a chopped mushroom or a chopped apple feel free
add a bit of salt nutmeg and pepper
use olive or sunflower oil as your oil
add a handful of walnuts or pecans if you can afford to and want to


2.Cover and let sit until rice is cooked

with cheese 3.  Grate or mince up 1/2 cup very sharp cheddar. add this and 1 tb dijon to your rice and stir thoroughly.

dairy free   3. Take 1 tb dry mustard , 1 tb dijon,1 tb lemon juice, 1/3 cup nutritional yeast and 3 tb sesame paste, if you have almond or cashew butter add 3 tb. Mix all thoroughly. Now mix into rice.

4. Add 1/2 bottle gf hard cider to your pot. stir. The more you stir the more creamy.
5. Reset cooker and put back on cook cycle. allow to be used in keep warm cycle for up to 24 hours. garnish with cress or parsley if desired.

The rub down- softening shower scrub

Put these in a clean jar :
1 cup sea salt
1 cup turbinado sugar
1tb almond extract
1/4 cup apricot or olive oil
1/2 cup honey
stir until completely mixed.
Use as below:

Wet body. Apply in a circular pattern. Avoid genital and urinary region. Rinse well and use before soap.

how rice ate chicago- lazy lentil risotto

This month this been insane. As a result not only have my posts been more sporadic at best. The status of my frequency in the kitchen is not much better. But we still have to eat and hopefully it'll be quick and not too intense or frequent and it should be hearty and contain nutrients...which brings us to my rice cooker. Several years back, in the throes of a bad fever I purchased a rice cooker online. One of those non stick vacuum sealed bucket kinds. It was a very good deal. No, seriously. Despite it's fever related origins this device is used almost as much as my cast iron, my cutting boards and my knives. Better yet it can keep food warm for a day so I make one big batch of something and it's good for 24 hours without changing serving devices. Please keep in mind the method I am suggesting is not recommended by manufacturers , may cause fires and is done entirely at your own risk. I have successfully been doing this and crazy stuff like it with my rice cooker for 7 years. It's not supposed to do sushi rice or brown rice either but it has been doing that for years too. It's still working. I do have to clean the vents more often. We make pilaf,  rice and beans, sushi rice for handrolls etc in it. We use it an average of 4 days a week. Rice cookers save my sanity, such as it is. This is the best thing I can make in it besides plain  rice. That being said I have seen enough recipes calling for similar that I would assume you can throw these ingredients in a crockpot on low for 8 hours and get similar results. I haven't tried it yet, so I don't know but it might work.


In your rice cooker put:
1 cup lentils

1 1/2 cup rice
3-4 cup water or broth
1 cup red or white wine or hard cider ( my favorite)
1 half head of garlic and 1 sauteed onion or 2 cleaned and sauteed leeks and 2 tb butter/ olive oil/ mixture to sautee them in.
1 lb chopped veg of choice (lately peppers from the freezer or chunks of squash form previous cooking)
1 handful frozen peas
1tb grated nutmeg
chives or scapes when available
1 tsp salt
a few grinds of black pepper
1/2 lb to 1 lb small cooking greens (little kale, dandelion,baby mustard, mizuna, cress,spinach, chard, caulifower leaves,whatever is popping up) washed
1/2 lb grated cheese (swiss, gouda, cheddar, parmesan...whatever)
4 oz sliced mushrooms or 5 dried shitake broken up into the rice cooker pot.

Throw everything but the cheese in. Stir. Put on a full cook cycle. adjust flavours to preference. Stir in cheese. wait 15 minutes, stir again....serve.

Slow cooker cheesy Grits

This recipe was altered from the gourmet vegetarian slow cooker by Lynn Alley
Please use yellow cornmeal rather than the kind bleached with cleaning solvents, kay?

 In a little crockpot

Take
1 cup coarse cornmeal (often marketed as polenta or grits)
4 cups water
(optional 1-2 cups thinly sliced greens like mustard, collard or kale)
1 poblano chile diced (I get them when they go on sale, wash them and leave them in the freezer until I feel like using them)
Plug in, put the lid on and leave alone for 8 hours. 
Before serving stir in 3/4 cup cheese (strong flavours work best here so cheddar, gouda, smoked provolone) and recover for about 15 minutes so it can melt. Stir again. Divide 1/4 cup of cheese between your 2-4 servings so it can be pretty. Sprinkle a touch of paprika on top. Eat.

paneer pizza and cilantro mint chutney

Things have been hectic around here. Rabbit is gradually recovering from being hit by a car, the library is moving, and I'm in the home stretch of the last semester at this school which includes service learning. That and needing to get a garden planted, family concerns and trying to breathe means a need for faster meals. Also, possibly a maid. Seriously, our apartment looks like a gentle laundry producing tornado hit. We went out for dinner for our anniversary...an Indian vegetarian place  we love, Uru Swati (very vegan and gluten/ wheat free friendly) after getting some wheat free flours and spices at a nearby Desi grocery. Sorghum (Jowar), Besan (chickpea),and some paneer, also 1 lb of cumin runs 3$ there and we use the stuff like water. In said grocery store we saw pizza like things made on naan (you could use pita I'm sure) with a cilantro or tamarind chutney, veggies and paneer. It was frozen and looked like it was mostly actual food.  Now those of you who can't eat wheat know naan is ,sadly, stuff we shouldn't eat. (If anyone has a recipe for good gf naan I'd love to try it.)But ...chickpeas go with virtually every Indian influenced type of food known to man ..and that farinata/ socce type crust I told you guys about is down to a science in this house. It's something even Rabbit feels confident cooking. Rabbit has been known to panic about making stirfry despite their  master level chowing skills, so this is saying quite a bit. So last night I came home to a lovely surprise  which I am sharing here with Rabbit's permission.

For the crust
Mix:
 1 1/2 cups chickpea flour
 1 c water
 2 tb  olive oil
 pinch salt
 (optional 1 tsp whole cumin)
Pour into  a cast iron skillet and bake at 425 F until the crust is firm in the middle 15-20 minutes or up 30 minutes for a crisper crust

While the crust is baking wash some spinach, slice up some veg, 2-3 oz  of diced paneer cheese and some red peppers (in our case ancient red was cheap as I've been hoarding them in the freezer. To do this just wash and put them in the freezer) I'm thinking red onion, cauliflower, and frozen okra slices next time.

When the crust is done remove from oven and spread crust with chutney of choice using the back of a spoon. In our case Rabbit used about 1/2 cup of  jarred cilantro mint chutney (I'll share my homestyle recipe for this kind of chutney at the end). Now add your veg and a quick drizzle of olive oil over the paneer chunks so they brown a bit. You could probably sub bake fried tofu here for the vegans or those with no access to paneer with minimal flavor change. Stick this back in the oven for 10-15 minutes at 425F. Serve. The leftovers are even pretty awesome. If you are me ...spread this with an unholy quantity of hot lime pickle.

Cilantro-mint Chutney
Put the following in a blender/ food processor:
2 inches peeled fresh ginger
5-6 peeled cloves garlic
1 tb cumin
1 pinch salt
1 bunch washed green onions - remove stump
1 large bunch cilantro (including stems)
1 small washed bunch of mint (also including stems
1/4 cup water
juice of two limes or 1 lemon
 Blend until it becomes smooth.