So it’s juvenile, adolescent, and maybe in poor taste, but I just couldn’t resist floundering down the lane of immaturity once on my blog with today’s entry. I’m hoping friends Brad and Mike can join me for a slurp.
Homemade Pasta
Mixing semolina flour, amaranth flour, mesquite, whole wheat, and white flour I am making a pasta dough for making homemade fettuccine. We use organic flour when possible and our eggs come from the Little Farm in Gilbert, our CSA or Community Supported Agriculture supplier of fresh organic veggies.
Nuts and Seeds
I’m soaking walnuts, oat groats, sunflower seeds, almonds, pumpkin seeds, and sesame seeds to make homemade living granola. After 24 hours of soaking, I grind the nut and seed mixture, mix in rolled oats and then add coconut oil, honey, vanilla, raisins, and coconut. This mixture is then dehydrated for 48 hours before Caroline and I sit down for a breakfast of granola with homemade almond milk. Yep, you don’t get much more hippy than that.
Miso
South River Miso Company in Conway, Massachusetts, is now one of our all-time favorite companies to buy from. We ordered a sampler of misos that consisted of one-pound jars with the flavors of Dandelion Leek, Azuki Bean, Sweet Tasting Brown Rice, and, Caroline’s favorite, the Chickpea Barley. Their Tamari is also quite excellent, so much so, that customers are only allowed to order two bottles per year. My favorite miso is the Azuki but having only tried four and enjoying each and every one, we have ordered the other six varieties of South River concocts.
In about a week we should receive a large box with Chickpea, Hearty Brown Rice, Three-year Barley, Sweet White, Garlic Red Pepper, and Mellow Barley misos. We had to order now as South River doesn’t ship during warm or hot months, because the miso is unpasteurized, allowing all of its living glory to remain intact.
Sprouts
As part of our ongoing attempt at eating healthier, we purchased a nearly seven-pound sampler of beans and seeds for sprouting from the Sproutpeople. We’ll add the various sprouts to salads, soups, juices along with fresh living granola and crackers.
The Sproutpeople sent us 20 packets of stand-alone beans, seeds, and a wide selection of custom mixes. A partial list of what was included: wheat, barley, rye, spelt, triticale, oats, Kamut, sesame, millet, amaranth, quinoa, buckwheat, sunflower, pumpkin, peanut, lentils including French, crimson, red, chief, pardina, eston, green, black and white, peas including green, speckled, marrowfat, yellow, and bill jump, adzuki, mung, garbanzos, red clover, cress, garlic, alfalfa, radish, fenugreek, mustard, onion, broccoli, arugula, dill, and more.
Olive Oil
Some people have too many condiments, we have too much olive oil. Well, who can ever have too much? We will use all of this and more. With our CSA subscription to The Little Farm in Gilbert we receive a lot of salad greens and so this variety and incredible quality of olive oils make dining on greens all the better.
The first and third bottle in the photo is from the Stonehouse California Olive Oil Company. We bought these last month at the Ferry Building Marketplace in San Francisco. The Olio Nuovo, also known as Sevillano Single is an early harvest and one of the most flavorful and strongest of olive oils.
The next bottle is from Joëlle, also a California company. This olive oil is my current favorite, I love the peppery, grassy flavor. This particular bottle is the hand-picked cold-pressed Early Harvest Manzanillo.
Fourth bottle is from Il Frantoio Di Montepulciano from the village of Montepulciano in Tuscany, Italy. While we tried and loved it before buying it in San Francisco, we haven’t opened this one yet.
Finally is Lapas Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Greece, which was purchased from Whole Foods, a good inexpensive everyday oil.