If you do just one thing this holiday season to make your holidays simpler and merrier, try this. With Christmas just 7 weeks away, now is the perfect time to help your family create an online holiday gift wish list. Our extended family has used Christmas Wish List since 2002, and we love it. 

Here’s how it works: you create an online group for your family, and then each family member logs on and creates a wish list of things they could really use and enjoy for holiday gifts. Group members can note when an item is purchased, but you can’t see the status of your own list. It feels a little funny at first, being so transparent about  The Stuff You Want. However, I predict that if you try it for one year you’ll be hooked.

The advantages are many.  You’ll save hours of shopping time because you’ll know exactly what your hard-to-buy-for father wants. You’ll save time after the holidays, too, because you won’t be returning the light-up Rudolph sweater (size XS Petite), that Grandma bought you. You’ll save storage space, because you won’t be tucking away the fishing lure toilet seat your brother-in-law bought so that you can bring it out the next time he visits. And you’ll probably save money, because you can comparison shop online for the best prices.

Meanwhile, you can ask for something you could really use and enjoy — perhaps a gift certificate to a nursery to buy vegetable seeds next spring. Or something to support your green lifestyle, like a solar-powered battery charger or a rain barrel. Perhaps you have all the stuff you need, and you’d love to direct givers to support your favorite charitable organization in lieu of a gift.

What steps are you taking this year to simplify and ‘green’ your holidays? I’d love to hear your ideas and share them with our readers.

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I’ve always wanted to try cheesemaking, and I recently found a recipe for homemade ricotta cheese that was originally published in the now-shuttered Gourmet magazine. Creative Director Richard Ferretti’s recipe was so simple, it gave me the courage to make a batch — no rennet or thermometers needed! Since then I’ve made several pounds of this creamy cheese, and EVERYONE (everyone, I tell you) begs for the recipe. (Everyone.) So here we go.

First, line a sieve with a double layer of cheesecloth and place it in a bowl like this: 

Next,  bring 1 quart of milk, 1/2 cup of heavy cream and 1/4 teaspoon of salt to a rolling boil in a heavy saucepan. (By the way, I only make half of Ferretti’s recipe at a time because I am trying, trying to keep my butt from getting as big as a barn.)

Now, you add 1 1/2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice, reduce the heat to low, and simmer — stirring constantly — until the mixture curdles, about 2 minutes. It looks sort of gross at this point, but stay with me.

Now, simply dump the whole mess into that nice cheesecloth-lined sieve, like this:

Errrgh!  Let it drain for about an hour, and you’ll have a nice batch of ricotta that looks something like this:

Transfer the ricotta to a tightly lidded container and refrigerate it. For a crazy good snack, spread it on lightly toasted slices of French bread, sprinkle with salt and pepper and top with sliced fresh tomatoes or roasted red peppers. It’s also wonderful spread on crackers and topped with a drizzle of olive oil and Balsamic vinegar. Or spread it on hot buttered toast and drizzle with honey or sprinkle with a little cinnamon sugar for a completely decadent breakfast. Ferretti says to eat it within 2 days, which shouldn’t be difficult to do.

Have you tried making your own cheese? If so, I’d love to hear about your experiences.

A dusting of snow covers the mint plants in the garden

It’s snowing here in Colorado today, and in anticipation of last night’s hard freeze I picked all the basil. I’ll use it to prepare a fresh variation on pesto sauce enlivened with fresh mint. The pesto freezes well and I portion it into 1/3 cup servings so that we can easily thaw a little to toss with hot linguine, whisk into salad dressing, or spread on a pizza when summertime is a distant memory. Here’s the simple recipe:

Fresh Minted Pesto Sauce

1 1/2 cups loosely packed fresh basil leaves (no stems)

1/4 cup loosely packed mint leaves, no stems

1/4 cup fresh parsley

2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

1/4 cup blanched almonds

4 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

4 to 6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Put the basil, mint, parsley, garlic and almonds in a food processor. Blend at low speed for a few moments until the ingredients are coarsely chopped. Add the cheese and half of the olive oil and blend again. Scrape the mixture down from the side of the container. Turn the speed to low and trickle in the remaining olive oil while blending. By hand, stir in salt and pepper to taste. Makes 1 cup.

The peaches this year have been more delicious than any I can ever remember — heavy, fragrant, juicy and sweet from the sunshine of late summer.

A display of Colorado peaches at Whole Foods

Before they’re gone, you can easily preserve fresh peaches’ fleeting, nectared essance by making a batch of homemade jam.  Perfect for holiday gift giving, I also love opening a jar of homemade jam on a snowy winter morning, slathering it on a hot, buttery biscuit and being transported back to sweet memories of the previous summer.

I used to make jam the old-fashioned way, standing at the stove for hours boiling and stirring the mixture and trying to keep it from scorching.  Recently I made a batch with packaged pectin, and I think the jam tastes better and retains more of the true peach flavor.  You don’t need to use as much sugar or cook it as long, and the process is much faster and easier, too. 

Here’s the simple recipe I used:

FRESH PEACH PRESERVES

4 cups peeled, chopped organic peaches (about 3 pounds of fruit)
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 package powdered pectin like Kraft Sure-Jel
¼ teaspoon butter (Kraft recommends this to reduce foaming)
5 1/2 cups sugar

Prepare the canner and sanitize the jars. The Kraft web site has detailed directions about how to do this, plus a handy altitude chart if you need to make adjustments:  http://brands.kraftfoods.com/SureJell/jamming.htm

To peel the peaches, cut an “X” in the bottom end of the peach and drop it in a pan of boiling water for about 30 seconds. Remove with a slotted spoon, cool briefly, and the peel should rub right off. If not, return to the water for another 30 seconds. Finely chop or mash the peaches and measure 4 cups of fruit. Stir the fruit and lemon juice together and pour into a large, heavy bottomed sauce pot.

Stir in the pectin, and add the butter. Turn the burner to high heat and bring the mixture to a full boil, stirring constantly. Add the sugar and stir it constantly to dissolve. Return the mixture to a full boil and boil for 4 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove the pot from the heat, and skim off any foam that has risen to the surface.

Ladle the jam into the prepared jars, filling to within 1/8 inch of tops. Wipe the jar rims and threads with a clean damp cloth. Cover with the two-piece lids and screw the bands on tightly. Process according to your canner’s directions; I processed mine for about ten minutes. Remove the jars and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. When the jars cool to room temperature, check the seals by pressing the middle of the lid. They lids shouldn’t ‘give,’ but if one springs back don’t worry; just move this jar to the refrigerator and plan to use the jam in the next week or so. Store the jam jars in a cool, dark place. This recipe makes about 7 cups of jam.

There is something deeply satisfying about ‘putting up preserves.’ Try it and see if you don’t agree.

There’s a little convenience store not far from our house called “Farm Crest Milk Store” that I’ve driven by many times. A few weeks ago I happened to remember that we needed milk right as I was approaching the store, so I pulled in the parking lot.  I was curious about a whole store devoted to milk but discovered that it’s a lot like a 7-11, with a few gas pumps outside and the usual impulse buy items inside. What was different, however, was a large bank of glass cases full of milk containers. The milk is from a local dairy, it’s raised without growth hormones or antibiotics, it costs a mere $2.22 a gallon, and if you put a $1 deposit on a bottle one time then you can swap your empty bottle for a full one when you return it.  We go through one to two gallons of milk a week in this household, so just by making this one switch we’ve eliminated at least 52 plastic gallon milk bottles from the recycling bin.

Milk in a returnable bottle

This exciting development got me thinking about reusable packaging. Remember the old days, when you’d return your pop bottles to the store for a nickle? I haven’t found any other examples of reusable packaging yet, but I’m beginning to see more and more opportunities to buy in bulk and simply eliminate packaging — even better!

 A big, beautiful Whole Foods store recently opened at the Streets of Southglenn, and we stopped in to check out the offerings.

 The store is simply amazing, from a huge selection of prepared foods to an in-store sushi bar. But I digress. The store also offers a huge variety of bulk items, such as bath salts:

…a huge aisle of bulk beans, rice and grains:

 …a machine to fill your own container with filtered water:

…and plenty more. Why not seek out sources of bulk products and reusable packaging in your neighborhood and see what you can find? I’d love to hear about your discoveries.

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     Most store-bought sweetened iced teas are full of it — high fructose corn syrup, that is — and the ‘light’ versions are loaded with artificial sweeteners. Instead, make your own cool, delicious sweetened tea with natural ingredients and you’ll reap all of the antioxidant health benefits while keeping unnessary bottles out of the landfill; you’ll also save money!  We sweeten our iced tea with organic agave nectar from Madhava, a Colorado company. Agave nectar is a mild-flavored, all-natural sweetener that is harvested from wild agave plants; it has a low glycemic index, but is 1.4 times sweeter than refined sugar. Here’s the simple recipe:

Iced Citrus Tea with Agave and Mint

2 quarts cold water (2 quarts = 8 cups)

6 to 8 tea bags – your choice (I’m partial to Earl Grey, myself)

1 large handful fresh mint leaves, washed

3 – 4 tablespoons agave nectar

2 tablespoons fresh-squeezed lemon juice

the juice of one large orange

Optional garnish: mint sprigs and lemon slices or wedges

If the tea bags have tags, remove them; if they have strings, tie them all together to make removing the tea bags easier. Heat the water to a full rolling boil in a large saucepan. Remove from the heat and add the tea bags and fresh mint. Allow to steep for 30 minutes. Strain the mixture and add the agave nectar, lemon and orange juices; stir until combined. Cool to room temperature, pour in an airtight container and refrigerate. Serve the tea over ice and garnish with mint sprigs and lemon if you wish; the tea will keep in the refrigerator for up to 7 days.

     By the way, I know that making sun tea – combining tea and water in a glass jar and leaving it outdoors – is a popular way to make iced tea, but when I was researching an article about cooking with the sun for Gaiam I learned that the practice can be potentially dangerous. Using the sun’s rays to make tea can facilitate the growth of bacteria so it’s best to use the old tried-and-true boiling water method.

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In our efforts to convert more of our yard to gardening space, I wanted to add a raised garden for planting vegetables. I briefly lusted after one of these kits from Plow & Hearth, made from recycled plastic:

…but the $149.95 price tag (+ $17.99 for shipping) seemed to defeat the idea of growing food to save money. Fortunately, my Pop came to the rescue with the offer of four free reclaimed angle irons that had originally supported some decorative beams at a friend’s condo. His garage is full of treasures like this, and it’s amazing how he can go in there and rummage around and emerge with just the right tool or hardware for just about any job. He proposed that we use the angle irons to secure four pieces of lumber to make a frame for the garden, and he even created CAD drawings to illustrate the process:

We planned to construct a 4- by 8-foot frame, and discussed options for lumber. We decided to build the garden with planks of redwood because it’s long-lasting, it holds up well in the extreme weather conditions we have in Colorado and also because it’s a renewable resource, generally harvested on a sustainable basis. We purchased three ’Top Choice’ redwood planks at Lowe’s, 8 feet long by 8 inches tall and 2 inches thick, for a cost of  $11.91 each or $35.73 total. We cut one of the boards in half to make the two 4-foot sections.

This is a close-up of one of the angle irons securing two boards:

A note from Pop about angle irons: “You can buy angle iron that has holes every 1-1/2″ or so on both sides, in 3-foot or 4-foot lengths. One advantage of that is you could leave them longer and drive them into the ground to hold the frame in place.”

Here’s how the frame looked before we filled it:

Note the abundance of weeds surrounding the garden frame! After filling it with 10 cubic feet of organic soil, I laid down a weedproof barrier:

Finally, I added several more cubic feet of organic soil and five assorted tomato plants.

I surrounded the bed with some rocks from around the yard laid over a six-inch strip of weedproof barrier.

If you’ve built a low-cost raised garden or discovered any other money-saving gardening strategies, let me know and I’ll gladly post your links and ideas. Happy gardening, everyone!

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Follow up – August 22, 2009 

The tomatoes absolutely love the new garden and we are harvesting tomatoes nearly every day.

   You might have once read that you could save water by putting a brick in your toilet tank. That is no longer recommended, as bricks break down over time and the residue can lead to plumbing damage. Instead, you can recycle a used soda pop bottle and use it to displace water, saving you 2 liters of water with every flush. The average person flushes 4 times a day at home (you really do learn something new every day), so a family of four can easily save 3000 gallons of water a year just by following these easy steps.

First, remove the label and wash an empty plastic 2-liter soda pop bottle.

Fill the bottle almost to the top with water and add a handful of marbles or pebbles. Don’t skip this step or the bottle will  float in the toilet tank and could interfere with the flushing mechanism.

Add a few drops of bleach to the water so it doesn’t get funky. Then put the lid on tightly.

Position the bottle carefully in the tank so it doesn’t interfere with the flushing mechanism.

Check the tank periodically to make sure the bottle hasn’t shifted. That’s all there is to it!

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After reading about homemade pita bread on the King Arthur Flour blog, I was obsessed with making a batch from scratch. I love pita bread, but I was spoiled years ago by warm, fresh-from-the-oven pitas in Athens and have never found anything close here in Colorado. Even at one of Denver’s largest Middle Eastern grocery stores, the pitas are chewy and a bit cardboardy.

Using the King Arthur recipe as a guideline (and based on research that recommended a mix of no more than 33% whole wheat flour for reliable rising), I substituted 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup of spelt flour for one cup of the all-purpose flour. I didn’t have any King Arthur’s Dough Improver so I added a pinch of baking powder. Once the dough was ready to bake, I divided it into 8 portions and flattened the first ball slightly with my fingers like this:

Then I rolled the dough as evenly as possible into a round that was about 6 inches:

Based on the comments on the King Arthur blog, I positioned a metal cooling rack over a foil-lined baking sheet and preheated it in a 500-degree oven. Once it was hot, I slid the pita dough on the rack:

Amazingly, every pita bread puffed perfectly after 3 to 4 minutes in the oven!

Finally, as I took the pitas from the oven I tucked them in a clean dishtowel to keep them soft:

We ate some of the pitas right away, by splitting them in half, stuffing them with roast beef and cheese, wrapping them in foil and cooking them in the oven for a minute or two until the cheese melted. Then we added sliced avocado and tomato and ate them warm from the oven. They were the kind of pitas you dream about — fresh, warm, soft and lightly browned — and oh, so delicious!! I stored the remaining pitas in a zip-lock plastic bag, and the next day when we reheated them in the oven (wrapped in foil, sprinkled with a couple of drops of water) they were almost as good as the first. I do recommend eating them as soon as possible after you make them!

Here’s a simple recipe that you can use to make your own healthy breakfast cereal. You can use organic and/or vegetarian ingredients if you wish, and substitute other goodies to suit your taste. Plus — with the cost of organic rolled oats at about $1 a pound — you can save tons of money by making your own!

Here’s the basic recipe for my favorite granola blend. I call it Oatmeal Cookie Granola and your kitchen will smell just like homemade oatmeal raisin cookies while you’re baking it! This granola makes a satisfying, filling breakfast served with milk and is also great sprinkled over yogurt.

Oatmeal Cookie Granola

4 cups organic rolled oats (the old-fashioned kind, not the instant or quick-cook type)

1/2 cup raisins

1/4 cup wheat germ

1/2 cup chopped, blanched almonds

3 tablespoons butter (or substitute canola oil for the vegan version)

3 tablespoons canola oil

2/3 cup honey (or substitute maple syrup or packed brown sugar for the vegan version)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Grease a large cookie sheet and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Combine all of the ingredients in a mixing bowl and spread on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes, stirring once or twice during the baking process. Cool to room temperature and store in an airtight container. Makes about 5 cups, or 10 servings.

Feel free to adjust this recipe to suit your own tastes. You might like to experiment with other dried fruits (dried cherries are a personal favorite) like dates, currants, chopped apricots, pineapple, craisins, dried apples, banana chips, coconut, etc. as well as nuts and seeds such as pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, ground flax seed, pepitas, etc.

If you like crunchy clusters in your granola, add 2 tablespoons of water to the mixture and squeeze the clusters together with your hands prior to baking.