Keep it Real: Cheese and Crackers

And nary a box or a package involved.

This was an experimental cracker recipe. Here's what I did - cut together 2 cups whole wheat flour, 1/2 cup flax meal and 6 tablespoons of coconut oil until the coconut oil is crumbly. Then added 2 tablespoons of kombucha (you could use whey, yogurt, kefir, or apple cider vinegar) and about a cup of raw milk. Mixed together until it's all combined and wet. Let that sit covered over night. Mine went at least 12 hours.

The next day I mixed in about a teaspoon of sea salt. Then I sprinkled a generous amount of chickpea flour (you could really use any flour here) on the counter. The dough was quite wet, so I just kneaded a bit till it was a workable dough. Then I rolled it out as thin as I could get it and still be able to pick it up and put on a greased baking sheet. Sprinkle with garlic salt and bake in a 350 oven until browned (about 12 minutes). Let cool. They came out tasting similar to wheat thins.

The cheese on top is a kefir cheese. Drain milk kefir over night in a colander lined with cheesecloth and a bowl underneath to catch the whey. The next day I mixed the cheese with sea salt, fresh chopped basil, garlic and chives and some chopped crispy almonds. The almonds gave it a nice sweet flavor and also some crunch. On top of the cheese I added a bite of fermented red cabbage for some nice color and extra nutritional goodness. Yum!!

Other kitchen happenings....

Experimenting with water kefir for the first time. I like it and can see it being a welcome drink in the summer. Unfortunately I seem to be the only one in the house that likes it.

Getting reacquainted with kombucha again. I made a new batch and have the brewed one in the fridge. I've been sipping it and seem to tolerate the taste better. I'm still concerned with the sugar in the water kefir and kombucha. I let them both brew a long time, but have a hard time believing that all the sugar is gone from it. I don't seem to have blood sugar crashes when I drink it though.

I've made several batches of the whole wheat sourdough waffles. Everyone here seems to love them! That's HUGE here! The only problem is that pure maple syrup is pricey and we seem to go through a lot of it. They don't like anything else on their waffles but syrup.

There's a huge bowl of chick peas that are set to start sprouting. I think I'll make some sprouted hummus with some and not sure about the rest.

This weekend I showed Autumn how to cook a whole chicken in the crockpot and then we went on to make bone broth and then vegetable chicken soup for dinner last night. I hope to get her more involved in cooking.

I've made two batches of the fermented mayo - I love it!!

Have another batch of the english muffins ready to cook. I think they are wonderful (though I don't eat them but a bite or two) but Tim is really the only one who really likes them. Russell even went as far as to tell me not to make them anymore! But I really want to get away from buying them in the store and they all like breakfast sausage sandwiches. So I'll keep making them.

On that note, my patience and frustration with likes and dislikes around here is wearing thin. Between Autumn wrinkling her nose at most things homemade and Russell and Will refusing certain things - well, sometimes I feel like just throwing my hands up and giving them money to go do their own shopping. I'll just have to learn to cook for two. Yeah right. I could never do that. But it is overwhelming trying to get good food into all 5 of us. I'll just keep plugging along and asking God for patience and wisdom to do the best for my family.

Wardeh did a blog post along these lines and even quoted me in it. So if I read back over what she wrote, then I guess I need to remember to focus more on what goes RIGHT rather than wrong.

This post is part of Tuesday Twister over at GNOWFGLINS.