Tried tweaking the homemade pancake recipe this morning. Read through a number of recipes and found two interesting variations. One called for the addition of orange zest to the batter. .. That sounded pretty good. The next one said for really fluffy pancakes to separate the egg(s) and whisk the egg whites and then fold them into the batter. The micro-bubbles would then inflate making the pancake extra fluffy (as what happens in a souffle). OK, so gave that a shot as well. What we found will be posted on our food blog tomorrow (www.theodorerichard.com/foodblog ).

And while I was at it decided to try this Organic Sugar from Domino’s. We’re working on a post on Organic vs Non-Organic Sugar. This should be ready in the day after next.

So that’s about the extent of the planning for the bid storm. .. Having the pancake recipe fine tuned (and also have wood brought in for tomorrow’s wood stove). did a post today talking about having green coffee beans on hand so you are just a roast away from fresh gourmet coffee. If interested this is posted at the En Coffee Blog .

Hope you are having a nice week. If you’re in the Northeast be careful out there tomorrow.

Related Posts:

• Della Lutes Organic Apple Dowdy Recipe
• Recipe for Organic Chocolate Butter Frosting (Icing)
• En Coffee Coffee Blog Post “Coffee & Toast An Old School Pairing

If your repertoire for cantaloupe is limited to slicing and eating on a plate consider the following:

• Cantaloupe Based Organic Fruit Salad (made with Cantaloupe, Strawberries, Pineapple, Blueberries and Banana)
• Cantaloupe Ice Pops (made with Cantaloupe, water, sugar and mint leaves)
• Cantaloupe Martini (made with pureed cantaloupe, water, sugar & lime mixed with Vodka & Midori)

Not only are there many foods we haven’t tried but many different ways to serve the foods we now love. Go ahead, be fearless. Laugh at your mistakes and delight in your successes.

If you’re not using fresh roasted organic coffee beans then your coffee is unnecessarily sub-par. .. How do I know this? Simple chemistry and the nature of the beans. Here’s the skinny:

• Roasted Coffee Looses Most Of It’s Aromatics About 1 Week After Roasting: One of the largest contributing factors to the complexity and fullness of freshly roasted coffee comes about due to the presence of volatile aromatic compounds. After about one week these will deteriorate to an unacceptable level. This is one of the reasons instant is so bad, it virtually has no aromatic compounds left.
• Sealed, Vacuumed-Pack, Nitrogen Protected Etc Will Not Solve The Problem: Big Coffee will roast beans and have an expiration date 6-7 mounts out. Your coffee will still get stale no matter how it’s packaged, all they can do is somewhat slow it down. … Don’t believe the hype.
• Buy From A Roaster Who Ships The Same Day They Roast: One of the reasons I like Cafe Valverde is that they do just that. Is the 1-2 days shipping an issue? No. The reason being that right after roasting the beans need 1-2 days to degas the residual carbon dioxide still left in the beans. So when they get to you they’ll be ready for brewing. I’m lucky Joan & Nelson from Cafe Valverde roast right up the street. When I had a “coffee emergency” (about to run out soon) they took my order and roasted on the same day. Good people, good coffee.
• Consider Roasting Your Own: Just like there was a revolution in home baked bread about 10 years ago now there is a similar thing occurring in the coffee world. People are purchasing the green coffee beans and roasting at home. My friends at Cafe Verde tell me this is growing rapidly and they are shipping the beans all around the world (including to the base in Antarctica). By the way, the green coffee bean side of their business is called Invalsa.

This is such an important topic that we have launched a new blog called EnCoffee that deals strictly with coffee & espresso, it’s enjoyment and creation. Join us if you want to take a journey and learn more of  this wonderful, friendly and satisfying world. It’s similar to the culture of wine but for me even better since I can enjoy coffee at any time of the day and actually have the option to craft the product by roasting my own beans. Please share post this with a friend. Cheers!

Related Coffee Posts at EnCoffee:

• Welcome to EnCoffee
• Roasters Coffee. Fresh is Best
• Coffee Cup for Gourmet Coffee
• Coffee Accessories: Scale for Roasting

So let’s take a look at something radical. Peanut butter made from Organically Grown Peanuts (that is, just peanuts without chemicals of any kind sprayed on them) and sea salt. It’s as pure and simple as that. This is of course is in contrast to the more mainstream peanut butter. For instance, the local store carries a Creamy Peanut Butter.. Sounds good and they are extremely proud of it being Gluten-Free (displayed in big letters). However the devil is in the small print which of course is the list of ingredients. This stuff contains: Peanuts, Sugar, Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (Rapeseed, Cottonseed, Soybean), Dextrose, Salt, Molasses, Monoglycerides. … Huh … Well I guess I’ll be a radical and go with the chemical free peanuts and sea salt option..

So one of the first things you’ll have to do is to stir all the oil back in as it would have separated itself out (that’s why they add monoglycerides, keeps separation from happening .. I’ll pass, just give me the real food). The key to doing this is a stiff wide blade butter knife and just taking your time. There’s no rush. The second thing to remember is to relax. it doesn’t have to be absolutely perfect. Good enough is good enough with peanut butter.

Now the taste… I guess I’ll fall back to a common description used in this blog. .. Bright. Clean.. really peanutty with a nice & oily mouth-feel. When compared against that chemical mish-mash known as store brand creamy as described above… Well, the store brand chemicalized PB was sort of bland and my taste buds seemed a little out of focus. There just wasn’t that sharp bang of the strong peanutty flavor. … Would I have noticed it if I never compared? Probably not. But would I notice it if I never got a good glass of  wine or a cup of fresh roast coffee?  Same thing. Live a little and bring some additional quality into your life already.

First some background, Black Pepper as you may know comes from the Piper Nigrum plant. Green Pepper comes from this same plant and is simply the berries that have been harvested before ripening has occurred.  And FYI: White Pepper is nothing more than the Black Pepper with it’s pulp removed.

Now what you’ll get from these guys is a milder kick than you’d experience from black pepper. Some typical uses are in sauces (where it’s subtlety is appreciated).  … In case you want to try this spice in a sauce you could go for a  Grilled Salmon with a Green Peppercorn Sauce  (however, be aware that I haven’t as yet tried this or any other recipe from Larry Ervin so you’re on your own).  And another from Epicurious, also untried, for Filet Mignon with a Green Peppercorn Cream Sauce.

Typically the Green Peppercorns are best fresh or when preserved in brine or vinegar. However, I picked some up in the dried form at the Co-Op and simply use them in the pepper mill. This is good for when you need some peppery notes but really want to keep them in the background. If this is the case, Green Pepper will do nicely at not overpowering your food so that the other flavors can shine.

So much for pleasing the palate. But as you know, Olive Oil is one of those rare foods that in addition to being fantastic also has this amazing list of  health benefits. Whole Foods does a good job in summarizing these on their olive oil page here. … And why organic? … Well you might want to check this out. .. Is this something we should worry about or not? … Who knows?.. But, back to flavor for a sec,  I just compared the Wild Harvest Organic Olive Oil to a leading brand of Extra Virgin Non-Organic I had laying around. Surprisingly, the Non-Organic was actually more aromatic, however,the Organic Olive Oil had, for me, superior flavor. And flavor of course is something you can really put your finger on as a definite reason to recommend this product. I know it’s a little more expensive.. Just make coffee at home for a day instead of going out and you’ll be in decent olive oil for a month.

Related Posts:

• Organic French Vinaigrette Dressing
• Taste Test: Revision..Conventional Extra Virgin Olive Oil vs. BJ’s Earth’s Pride Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Storing Olive Oil
• Organic Olive Oil Spiced Up With Some Heat

Well depending upon where you are (the Organic Test Kitchen blog reaches 25 countries around the world as of this writing) you may be use to the standard factory production butter. This is especially true if you live here in the USA. If this is all you’ve ever eaten then you’re probably OK with it, but I seriously doubt that you’re excited about it. Well, check this product out and prepare to get excited.

First, this is a cultured butter. And basically what that means is that the butter is made from fermented cream. This actually sours it and produces truly incredible taste notes in butters. And of course, the typical non-organic production butters have such a lack of character that “natural flavors” must be added to make them palatable. … That alone is a red flag to keep me away from the stuff. .. Second, this is a European Style Butter. Basically, this is a term that refers to the fact that good butters in Europe have a significantly higher butterfat content than in the USA. Typical American butters will contain about 80% butterfat which coincidentally they have to contain in order to be legally sold as butter over here. So, as expected, they will make the product as cheaply as possible and stay as close to this minimum as they can. European butters on the other hand tend to run about 84-85% butterfat providing a creamier, richer product. The Organic Valley Butter has 84% butterfat. … nice.

In writing this I’ve come to realize that we need to do a primer on butter in the future. But for the purposes of this review we’ll focus on how good this product really is. You’ll first meet this butter in the market where you’ll notice that it is sold in an 8 oz foil wrapped blocks. Percentage-wise the price is greater than that of regular or even other common organic butters. But as you know percentage differences in low cost items only amounts to a buck or so. But we did keep this in mind and one of the questions we needed to answer was “Is is worth it?”.

On the way back to the kitchen we swung around to Abraham’s in town to pick up some bagels to see how this butter really performs under mission-critical circumstances. … First, we unpacked everything and opened up the foil revealing a good looking but not over the top yellow appearance. In short, it looked real. As an aside, the producer informs us that the color or this butter will vary with the seasons. In the Summer when the cows are in pasture the cream will contain a higher beta-carotene content leading to a deeper yellow color than during the Winter when the cows are eating stored forage. This is the difference from a product that is “grown” rather than manufactured in a cookie cutter fashion. … Anyway, we then cut some thin slices and spread them on the cutting board to soften. It seemed a bit more challenging than the typical stick to cut. .. This is probably due to a combination of the rectangular block configuration and the higher butterfat content.   … Anyway, a bagel was then sliced and toasted while the butter was warming up…

Show time..  By the time the bagel was ready the butter softening wasn’t complete so we let the bagel do the rest of the work by placing the butter on it’s warm golden surface (totally reliving this experience). .. Appearance-wise the butter began to glisten and form pools of creamy happiness. .. Taste. At a new level. Words that come to mind are wonderful, creamy, buttery, homemade.

So in summary, this product definitely gets the Organic Test Kitchen “Pure Goodness” Award. It really is that good. And, really worth the price. This is now our go-to butter for topping breads and warm veggies. For now we’ll still keep with the organic stick butter for baking since it will save a few cents. But we’ll be running comparison tests and if this butter provides a superior baked product we’ll switch it for this as well. … I’m really interested to see the effect of the cultured flavor notes and the higher butterfat content. They claim that it produces a flakier pastry. Maybe they’re right, but the proof is in the baking. I’ll let you know.

Other bites. .. Being organic this product is made with no artificial this or “natural flavor additive” that. They are also earth friendly as we would expect from an organic product. In fact, they have a nice statistic on their website stating that “Your weekly purchase of 8oz European Style Cultured Butter prevents …. 10 lbs synthetic nitrogen (and) 2.3 oz synthetic herbicides & pesticides” In our opinion this is nice to keep off of the planet and out of our bodies. .. Other notes. This butter won first place at the 2009 American Cheese Society Awards (.. who knew there was an American Cheese Society anyway?). .. We think that if you try this product you will be pleased. A link to the producer’s website is here.

And as a final note, hopefully you’ve notice that this blog up is being taken up a notch. Just launched a flickr site (link to my photostream is here) that will house the photography, will be upgrading the format of this blog, have the twitter thing started (link here) and will be starting a new blog devoted solely to good cooking & baking that will be announced when ready. Anyway, the purpose of all this is that I hope you will be getting more out of this. If so, please share this blog with your friends. With even more readers I would like to take this full time so more content can be generated and hopefully more people seeing the reasons and benefits to converting to an organic lifestyle. For themselves and for the planet. Thanks.

You can almost hear the non-organic food manufacturer’s.. “Well you didn’t ask if it contains hexane.”  Well, no, and I didn’t ask whether it contains arsenic either… just assuming that the food thing you produce is sort of safe to the point where I could consume any of it’s ingredients without worry. .. Anyway on a side note, Mother Jones which broke the story now reports that rumors have been generated that the meat industry funded the Cornucopia Institute Study which found this out. Anyway, stay organic and you’ll be fine. Also, here are some links if you want some additional information as well as an Organic Test Kitchen Post on how the food industry uses furniture shellac on apples to make them shiny:

• Soy Burger with a side of toxin (CBS News)
• Mother Jones Blog regarding the rumors of the meat industry funding the Cornucopia Institute Study
• Wikipedia on Hexane
• Organic Test Kitchen Post “Shellac On Your Apples (Refinishing To Bring Out The Luster In Old Food)“

Anyway, we bought a non-organic cabbage and compare it against it’s healthy organic cousin ( and no, I refuse to say head to head).

Well, the first thing we noticed is that the Organic variety looks more real, alive and fresh. The non-organic cabbage on the right looks like it’s had a hard life. Lots of chemicals and not enough clean living. Actually it looks like a tired old man and that’s a sad thing to see. But am I sure I want to eat that thing?

Yeah I’m sure that I don’t. … This guy has nothing to offer me but trouble. Nothing I can prove mind you, but he just makes me uncomfortable. Anyway, here’s some background on the life of some non-organic cabbages. First, growing up on these massive farms they are targeted by a variety of nasties including (the cabbage looper, diamondback moth, imported cabbageworm etc…). And these pests are smart. For instance “Most of the eggs of the foliage feeding caterpillars are laid on the under-surfaces of the leaves and the larvae, until mature tend to feed on the underside of the foliage..”. So to combat this “Insecticides should be sprayed in high volume solutions …” “… at high pressure…” and “… spreading and sticking agents should also be used to improve coverage.” (the complete page from the University of Kentucky is here). … And then after this war is fought the cabbage is sent to our local supermarkets.

Now, in contrast the Organic cabbage is one lucky beast. No artificial fertilizers and no insecticides. Living cleanly off the natural land. The living was good and it shows. Just look at this guy. Isn’t that one good looking head of organic cabbage? And these good looks go beyond being just skin deep. No chemicals on it, no chemicals in me and I like that. And this is especially important for cabbage which is probably the most commonly eaten raw veggie due to the invention of coleslaw (and actually for most people the ONLY raw veggie that will ever touch their lips). And, you know as well as I do, that the average cook is not going to do a great job of washing leaves prior to shredding (and they might not even wash it at all). … SO… I’d just say no to coleslaw unless it’s organic (you know, maybe this should be your “go to” volunteer dish).

Now you should go organic because you and your family deserve it.  Also, please learn to respect this blahsay vegetable on St Patty’s Day and throughout the rest of the year as well. After all, Broccoli, Kale and Cauliflower are just a few veggies that are nothing more than selective breeding of cabbage. Yes my friends, you may already love cabbage but it’s just a funky variety of it with a different name.

Now if you like this post and think of some else would too (or they make the cold slaw) please share it with them & help spread the word. Hopefully 2010 readership will continue to grow and provide some level of support to free up time to work on www.OrganicTestKitchen.com and another cooking site. And also, thanks so much for all your support throughout these years. Have a great day!

Are these quantities enough to effect you? Who knows? Especially when considering a lifetime of exposure. Anyway here’s some of what they found … narcotics, antihistamines, antibiotics and believe it or not, cocaine. So you know what? I can purchase a gallon of Poland Springs for about a buck. No chlorine, no this and no that. My coffee tastes better, water after a run definitely taste better and no worries. For me it’s worth it. Are other spring waters just as good? I’m sure some are. But you have to be careful there are a lot out there with the fancy-schmantzy names that are just municipal water that’s been filtered and bottled. Now I have no commercial interest in Poland Springs but like it because I know that it comes out of the ground in rural Maine. Is it perfect? Probably not. Is it a positive step towards chemical free cooking and drinking? I would say yes.

The article on the Merrimack River is here if interested.

Related Posts: Water: The Most Basic of Ingredients