Organic Test Kitchen

Cooking Organic Oatmeal

theo — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 13:20:41 +0000

If you’re used to traditional chemicalized oatmeal that you’ll notice a difference when switching to the organic version. … It just cooks different. With regular, that is the regular stuff that throws pesticide caution to the wind, it comes together pretty quickly and you get that porridge consistency without any trouble. With organic, and I’m not sure for why, the individual oats don’t want to break down. Like they’re individuals and they want to stay that way. Yeah right. They just need more heat more mechanical action to get them to where they need to be.

So, and easy fix is to add your oats and then put in an extra third cup of water (I use 1/2 cup of oats and 1 1/3 cups of water). Bring this up to a boil then reduce the heat. While on a reduced heat work the oats using a fork. Bnd needless to say you will get burned if you do this incorrectly. Keep going until the oats attain the consistency you like.

After that it’s up to you. Blueberries really kick butt as an adder to the porridge. The warm against the cold, the mushy against the firm, the tart against the somber. All good.

Review of Stonyfield © Organic Yogurt, Mango Honey Flavor

theo — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 02:14:59 +0000

Yogurt is really tough to beat when you’re looking for a delicious, yet healthy treat. And the other day I was looking on all the wonderful flavors and decided to give Stonyfield’s © Mango Honey a go. .. That’s really a combination you don’t see all that often but doesn’t it sound like one of those naturally good parings?

And of course it’s Stonyfield©, a really good company that’s located only about an hour away. It is of course organic and has the USDA Organic Seal to prove it. And it’s also low fat which someone like me who’s gained a few holiday pounds can really appreciate.

So it’s healthy and good for the planet as well as our bodies. But taste.. the taste was very nice. The first thing was to give it a gentle stir until ultimate creamy goodness was achieved. .. And this come across in the silky texture and creamy mouthfeel. .. The flavor was this wonderful combination of yogurt with a clear but somewhat subtle backdrop of mango and honey. Really good levels of flavor with the yogurt taking center stage and being supported by the mango and honey. Which is what I prefer. Mango flavored Yogurt not Yogurt flavored Mango if you know what I mean.

In all this is highly recommended. It’s got it all. Health, an organic pedigree and wonderful flavor.

Is Your Food Supply Guaranteed Safe?

theo — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 02:13:38 +0000

Seems that people in Germany have turned to organic in a big way after the dioxin scare. It’s easy to get complacent and just ignore the organic food movement. We’ve all heard it “a bunch of wing nuts… wasting money..” . Well, maybe most of the conventional food is perfectly safe .. we believe.. Actually most conventional foods, even the so called purest, often contain chemical residues from agriculture and processing. But one thing’s for sure and that an Organic Certification is a nice extra layer of assurance of purity. And that’s a pretty good thing.

Organic Sugar Testing Before The Nor’Easter In New England

theo — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 02:48:43 +0000

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.

Picture Set Of Gabe

theo — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 22:46:25 +0000

I mentioned Gabe yesterday, he’s the rescue dog that does the rescuing. Anyway, thought some of the readers might enjoy checking out the rest of the photos taken of him by the wood stove. If you do just click on the photo above to get to the flickr photostream (scroll right on flickr if you want to see all seven pictures).

Thanks & have a Happy & Healthy New Year.

Organic Brown Mustard Seed & Gabe

theo — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 01:53:48 +0000

This is Gabe the newest member of the household. He is a rescue dog but he’s so nice that I might be the one being rescued. Anyway is this a form or organic happiness, serenity? Yes! … No additives, preservatives, carbon footprint..I don’t think so. Is this some form of recycle? Maybe the best ever since what a tragedy to imagine this good guy being destroyed. So the new year started off new. .. and I’m grateful.

And…(and this pales by comparison but it’s still fun) looking at a new spice at the theodorerichard food blog. Mustard seeds. Bought some nice brown organic ones at the Berkshire Co-Op and can’t wait to try.

Have a good year..

Organic Coffee That you Roast At Home

theo — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 21:50:06 +0000

Organic coffee. Some feel that since the coffee bean is noting more than the pit of the fruit that it is fairly shielded from pesticides to begin with and that the processing (if wet processed) and roasting can take care of whatever residual that could be left.

Well, to quote thedailygreen.com:

Many of the beans you buy are grown in countries that don’t regulate use of chemicals and pesticides. Look for the USDA Organic label to ensure you’re not buying beans that have been grown or processed with the use of potentially harmful chemicals.

Go a step or two further, and look for the Fair Trade Certified and Rainforest Alliance (or Bird Friendly) labels to ensure that your purchase supports farmers who are paid fairly and treated well. And look for shade-grown (Rainforest Alliance- or Bird Friendly-certified) varieties for the trifecta; that way you know the coffee is being grown under the canopy of the rainforest, leaving those ancient trees intact, along with the wildlife – particularly songbirds – that call them home.

Read more: http://www.thedailygreen.com/healthy-eating/eat-safe/Dirty-Dozen-Foods#ixzz1AO3MO2SQ

So based upon this you may want to consider organic. And if you do, the practice of home roasting coffee may work for you. One of the advantages is cost. We reviewed some incredible Green Coffee Beans from Ethiopia (USDA Certified Organic). This cost us about $5.99 a pound. Very inexpensive for high quality specialty coffee. …. The second major advantage is freshness. Coffee tends to loose it’s peak flavor sometime within seven days of roasting.

Hope you found this useful. Please share it with your favorite coffee fanatic if you want. Thanks

Homemade Bread That’s Minimalist

theo — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 16:05:42 +0000

Homemade Bread is warm, delicious & comforting. My grandmother use to bake bread every morning to feed her family of eight kids and my grandfather. However, these days we may be a family of only a few or even one. And then there’s the job, the kid’s sports and all the other things we try to squeeze in. .. So with this in mind we’ve downsized the normal four loaf recipe to a single solo loaf. And after doing this we got a recipe that’s actually easy to make. And because it’s a single loaf you make it more often …. and as a result get better at knocking it out & fitting the rising times etc easily into your schedule. Fresher bread, quality bread, wonderful smells … like home is suppose to be.

So we put up this recipe on our sister food blog, theodorerichard.com/foodblog . We wrote it up for standard ingredients but of course you can just substitute organic ingredients to go ultra-pure. Hope you enjoy and Happy New Year to all.

If you like this please share with a friend. Thanks

Last Minute Organic Christmas Gifts

theo — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 18:16:59 +0000

We’re doing a three for the day blog posts. One for Organic Test Kitchen and then one each for Theodore Richard’s Food Blog & En Coffee’s Coffee Blog. I got to tell you I’m feeling burnt out about now. … But anyway, there’s still time to get some great gifts for your whole food eating friends. Here’s some ideas, nothing earth shattering, and you’ve probably already had these in mind.

Buy them some new and or exotic spices that you think they’ll use. For example, maybe you could go with a new type of peppercorns, perhaps a vanilla bean or maybe some whole nutmeg?

And then there’s the foods that they may use every day but unfortunately don’t buy organic. For some foods, as you know, this makes a Big Difference!

And of course you can go prepackaged, professionally made foods. I have got to tell you, this Almond Anise Biscotti from the Berkshire Co-Op in Great Barrington, MA was incredible.

Hope you, your family and friends have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Like this post? Please share with a friend.

Review Nature’s Path Organic Toaster Pastries

theo — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 13:07:04 +0000

With the weather starting to cool down here in New England we thought we’d purchase a box of Nature’s Path Toaster Pastries. The Apple Cinnamon Flavor sounded good so we went with it.

What we found is a Organic Product that offered convenience and real fruit while at the same time sparing us from the “not-good” aspects of chemical residues. However, how would this processed product with no preservatives hold up in comparison to the well known chemicalized versions?

First, the packaging. These guys came in what looked like the same foil wrapping as the chemicalized ones. This is a plus in my book since you know that any low tech paper wrapping just couldn’t do the job.

Second, appearance. …. Well.. as they use to say “a face that only a mother could love…on payday”. These guys I’m sorry to say are just plain ugly. Man are they ugly. However, they toast up similar to the non-organic version, smell great and let’s face it the non-organic toaster pastries wouldn’t win any beauty contests either. Here’s what they look like pre-toaster.

Once we had these guys toasted they did as mentioned smell very good. Taste. …Very nice for a convenience product. The crust had a nice flour flavor and a bit chewy as you expect from a toaster pastry. For us, the frosting added a nice touch of sweetness without being over the top. And the cinnamon played nicely off the apple flavor from the center. A lot of good mellow flavors going on with a satisfyingly texture and mouthfeel that makes you want to luxuriate over this while sipping your coffee or tea.

In summary, we enjoyed this product and felt the quality was superb for a ready to eat food. This, of course, was only enhanced with the knowledge that we were only eating food and nothing but the food since there were no chemical residues hiding in the mix.