For the past year or two my allergies have been building and building. I was never allergic to anything as a child but things change as you get older. I definitely have some tree pollen allergies and wine. Red wine is worse but I’ve noticed white wine makes me have a sneezing fit too.

This spring they were pretty bad and I started taking an OTC allergy medication. It helped but I don’t really like taking medications unless I really have to. My allergies aren’t pleasant but it’s not like they interfere with being able to function and do daily activities. So I stopped taking the medication and I’m back to watery eyes and sneezing.

My husband keeps trying to get me to do something about it and heard from a co-worker that eating local honey can help with allergies. It’s a folk-remedy and it doesn’t work for everyone but I’m willing to try it and see if it helps.

The theory behind it is that the bees who live around you are collecting pollen from the local plants and flowers and bits of that pollen is in the honey.  The honey acts as an immune booster and can help reduce your reaction to those pollens over time. I’ve read a few different articles and people suggest taking a small amount at first, maybe starting with a half teaspoon a day and increasing it to 1 or 2 teaspoons. You should ideally start the process a couple months before the pollen season.

It seems like it would work. It’s kind of the same idea behind allergy shots. You expose your body to a small manageable dose of the allergen so when you are exposed to a large amount you are better equipped to dealing with it.

So the hunt began for local honey. I remember reading an article a while ago about the City Hall apiary and their famous ‘Roof Top Honey’. I also read that it’s really hard to track down and pretty pricey, though the proceeds do go to Gallery 37 which is a great organization.

I decided to just take a look at the grocery store yesterday and try to find some local honey there. They had some from Indiana, close but not close enough.

After a little more digging I found the Chicago Honey Co-Op! It’s located about 13 miles from my house. Can’t really get much closer than that. I’m going to buy some this week and start the experiment.

A little disclaimer here.. I’m not a doctor. There is no scientific evidence that this will work and if you have really severe allergies this might not be the right answer for you.

I will definitely post an update on my progress. If anyone else has tried this and has any opinions or tips please let me know!

I just realized that I never did post the instructions/ recipe for olive curing on here.. So here’s the way I did it.

You’ll need a crock or jar or plastic bucket big enough to hold the olives and water.

Before you start you need to crack the olives. You can do it either by placing a board over them and gently smashing them, or by cutting a slit in each one. I cut a slit in each one. It took a long time for 10 pounds of olives but I was afraid smashing would ruin the texture. Just my personal preference. If you do cut them make sure you have a container of water to put them in immediately. Once the fruit is exposed to air it will start turning brown.

For the first 7-10 days you just soak the olives in plain old water. You need to change the water daily to keep it from developing mold and bacteria. I used distilled water for the whole process. Some of the olives will float so you’ll need something to keep them all submerged.

You want to keep doing the water cure until the bitterness is mostly gone. Taste them to check the progress.

When they’re ready you can start brining. The brine is roughly 1 part salt to 10 parts water. You can test the brine by placing an egg in the water. If the egg floats the brine is perfect. If it doesn’t float add more salt. Put the olives in the brine and make sure all of them are submerged. You should stir the olives daily and change the solution every 4 days.

It took about a month from this point. We tasted the olives every week to check the progress. This is all personal taste. When they taste good to you they’re done.

Then it’s on to the final step, pickling and canning.

You’ll need enough clean and sanitized jars for your olives. I got the standard jam jars with the lid and separate ring. These are pretty easy to work with even if you’ve never done this before. You should be able to find them at the grocery store, I found mine at Ace Hardware. To sanitize them you can run them through the rinse cycle on your dishwasher or dip them in a pot of boiling water.

For the pickling solution you use equal parts vinegar (white, apple cider or red wine) add 1/2 cup salt per gallon. Mix the solution together in a stock pot and heat it to a boil.

In a separate small sauce pan simmer a small amount of water and put the lids and rings in there.

Fill the jars with olives and seasonings. I did a couple different varieties. One that I tried out was a citrus fennel (thin slices of lemon and orange with fennel seeds) the other was a spicy one with crushed red pepper flakes and garlic.

One note on garlic.. Don’t use fresh garlic cloves. Use jarred garlic. It works better.

When you fill the jars you want to pack them tightly but leave a little room at the top. If the olives touch the lid it might not seal properly. Pour the hot pickling solution over the olives and wipe the top edge of the jar with a clean dry towel. Get one of the lids and rings and seal the jar. Be careful with handling the jars since they will be hot. Let the sealed jars sit on a table or counter to cool. Space them out so air can circulate around the jars. They will make a popping noise when they’re sealed.

If you have a jar that doesn’t seal just pour out the liquid and heat it to boiling again, put it back in the jar, wipe the top and seal it. It’ll usually seals on the second try.

You can eat them once they cool but I’d recommend letting them hang out in the pickling solution for at least a couple days for the best flavor.

You can store them in the fridge if you want but you don’t have to. They will keep about 6 months.

I know it seems like a lot of work but it’s really more waiting than anything. And it’s all worth it.

So we get home and are trying to figure out what to do with these things. I was thinking there has to be something else you can do with radishes besides just throwing them in a salad or a slaw. I found this recipe and it was awesome! Really easy to make and nice summer dish.

This version makes enough for 2

2 skinless boneless chicken breasts
Juice of one small to medium sized lime (about 2 tbsp-ish I don’t really measure)
2 chipotle peppers (I used the canned ones in adobo sauce if you don’t really like spicy only use one)

5 tsp olive oil (enough to lightly cover the bottom of your skillet)
3 green onions – thinly sliced
1/2 cup chicken broth

5 or 6 radishes – trimmed halved and thinly sliced
1 tbsp fresh cilantro chopped

6 flour or corn tortillas

Combine chicken, half the lime juice and chipotles in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper, toss to blend and let stand for 10 minutes. Heat 4 tsp of olive oil in a skillet over high heat. Add chicken mixture and sauté for 3 minutes. Stir in green onions and broth cover and cook for 5 minutes.

Uncover and stir. Continue cooking until chicken is cooked through and most of the liquid evaporates (2-5 minutes). Season to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer to a bowl and shred the chicken breasts. Cover the bowl to keep warm.

Heat remaining 1 tsp of olive oil in the same skillet over high heat and sauté the radishes for 1 minute. Stir in the remaining lime juice. Season with salt and pepper. Add radishes and cilantro to bowl with chicken and toss to blend.

Divide the mixture between the 6 tortillas and serve with or without standard taco fixin’ (lettuce, tomato, cheese, hot sauce, salsa, beans whatever you want)

1 gallon pasteurized whole or skim milk (if you use skim the cheese will be a little drier)

1 packet direct-set fromage blanc starter

Butter Muslin – to drain the curd

Heat the milk to 86° F. Add the starter and mix thoroughly

Cover and let the curd set at room temperature for 12 hours or until it’s the consistency of yogurt.

Line a colander with butter muslin and gently ladle the curd into the colander. Tie the corners of the muslin into a knot and hang it to drain. I used a narrow board propped up on a mixing bowl and a stock pot on either side of the sink. Then I tied the bag to it with twine. Just make sure you have it over a sink or a bowl to catch the liquid.

Let the curd drain at room temperature for 6-12 hours or until it reached a desired consistency. The longer you drain it the firmer the cheese will be.

Put the cheese in a covered container and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.

I added chopped carrots and green onion, herbs de provence, small amount of dill and some kosher salt to give it a little flavor.

This recipe makes a fairly large amount of cheese but the two of us have made our way through most of it over the past week. We’ve been eating it regularly but not at every meal.

At some point we got lazy and buy everything pre-made to save time. What do most people do with that extra time? Work and stress out. What a waste.

When I was a kid my grandmothers both had big gardens and cooked a lot. In the fall they would spend days canning vegetables and making huge vats of tomato sauce to can and put on the shelves on their basements to use over the winter.

I miss that. I miss that tradition. It really bothers me that parents feel their day is so busy that they can’t even make a “peanut butter sandwich for their kid’s lunches”:http://www.smuckers.com/fg/otg/uncrustables/default.asp

I think the frozen peanut butter sandwiches was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me. Before that I have to admit I was the queen of convenience, but over the past couple years I’ve gotten into inconvenient, time consuming things. Now I’m hooked.

The processes and techniques are what fascinate me more than anything. People have been making bread forever, same with curing olives and cheese too. There have been a few improvements as far as equipment and technology but basically it’s the same process. Especially if you’re doing it on a small scale. Most of the recipes I found for curing olives still were pretty vague with things like add enough salt to the water until you can float an egg in it. No specific measurements. Thats the kind of stuff that makes it fun.

I’m really very excited to get started on them.

A few months ago the hubby and I were having daydreams about pulling up the stakes and heading somewhere where we could have an olive orchard and make olive oil. I know it’s very lawyer turned winemaker or something but we were both excited about it. I think being from a rural area and moving to the city kind of makes you long for your roots. I couldn’t wait to get out of Wisconsin but now I kind of miss it sometimes. My way to ease the longing for the simpler life… baking bread and pickling things.

I looked all over trying to find a place to purchase fresh olives online and found a farm in California that does just that. After waiting 5 months for harvest time I finally put in my order and have been anxiously awaiting their arrival. I really wanted to try making olive oil, and maybe will still do it, but it requires more machinery. Curing olives is easier. It’s takes about 8 days – 3weeks (I’ve found a bunch of conflicting info on exactly how long it takes) to leach out the oleuropein (this is the chemical that makes raw uncured olives extremely bitter) when water curing them. If you use lye it takes a day, but I’m not really keen on using caustic chemicals on my food so I’ll wait the extra bit. After that we’ll be transferring them to jars with different combinations of garlic and maybe some spicy peppers etc.

I’m really excited. My grandmother is sending me some tips on canning and some pickle recipes so we’ll try some of those too.

I’m hoping it isn’t too much of a pain in the ass and we can make it a yearly thing. I’ll be posting recipes, and photos of the process. And be warned dear friends you’ll probably be getting a big ol jar of pickley goodness in your stocking, if they turn out well.

I couldn’t find malt powder for the recipe so I substituted barley malt syrup and reduced the sugar to 1/2 tablespoon. It seemed to work out just fine.

Kaiser Rolls
Makes 8-12 rolls, depending on how large you like them
3 1/2-4 cups (1 lb.) bread or unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon malt powder
1 tablespoon shortening, butter, or oil
1 egg
1 egg white
1 1/4 cups (10 oz.) water Combine 3 cups of the flour and the other dry ingredients in a mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix in the water, eggs, and shortening. Knead by hand for approximately 10 minutes or 5-7 minutes in a mixer, adding more flour by the handful as necessary. The dough should still be tacky but not terribly wet. Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover, and allow to rise until doubled in size, approximately 1 hour. Allow it to rise a second time for an hour before shaping. To shape the rolls, divide the dough into smaller pieces (if you are particular, use a scale to get them the same size). Roll the pieces of dough into balls and cover them with a damp kitchen towel so they can relax for 5 minutes.

To shape them, first I press them out into flat disks on a well floured surface (Clayton suggests using rye flour, though any type of flour will do). I let them rest, covered, another 5 minutes. Then I stretch the dough a bit thinner again and fold pieces up into the center.

Finally I press down in the center to seal it up tight.

I place them face down on a sheet pan covered with poppy seeds while they are rising for the final hour.

One could just as well let them rise face up and then spritz them with water and sprinkle the poppy seeds on, but doing it this way prevents the seals from splitting while they rise.

Preheat the oven to 450 during the final rise. Just before placing them in the oven, flip the rolls upright. You want to have steam in the oven when you bake them, so use whatever technique you prefer: squirting them with water, squirting the oven sides with water, pouring boiling water in a preheated cast-iron pan or a cookie sheet. These rolls take around 20 to 25 minutes to bake. I suggest rotating the pan once 10 minutes into it so they’ll brown evenly.

For Chicken:

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 tablespoons of sugar

1 1/2 tablespoons Fish Sauce or Tamari Soy Sauce

1 1/2 tablespoons vagetable oil

1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

1 1/2 teaspoons Sriracha or other Asian hot chile sauce

1 1/2 lb skinless boneless chicken breasts cut into 1/4 inch slices

For Pickle:

2 medium carrots

1/2 lb daikon radish peeled

1/2 cup non-seasoned rice vinegar (if you only have seasoned it’s not the end of the world)

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon salt

Marinate Chicken:

Whick together garlic, sugar, fish or soy sauce, oil, lime juice and hot sauce in a large bowl until sugar is dissolved. Add chicken and toss to coat. Let sit in fridge for at least 15 minutes.

Make Pickle while chicken is getting all yummy:

Cut carrots and radish into thin matchsticks. Whisk together vinegar, sugar and salt in bowl until sugar is dissolved then add veggies and toss to coat. Let stand until wilted, about 15 minutes.

Grill Chicken:

If you have a grill pan, I am jealous and will be coming to ‘borrow’ it soon If not use whatever sort of pan, cast iron works great but a regular big saute pan works too. Cook marinated chicken until cooked through.

Serve chicken and pickle with:

Boston lettuce leaves, fresh mint, basil and cilantro. This is really good with the spicy peanut sauce or just Sriracha. You eat the chicken wrapped in a leaf of lettuce with a little bit of the pickled veggies and fresh herbs with your hands.

1 package of bean-thread/ cellophane noodles (The ones I found came in a big package with 4 bunches only use one bunch for this recipe.)
1 1/2 tablespoons of rice vinegar

4 leaves of Boston Lettuce washed well and dried

8- 8inch rounds of rice paper

2 tablespoons of crushed peanuts

2 scallions cut into thin matchstick strips

1/4 cup shredded carrot

1/3 cup thinly sliced cabbage (napa, green or red – doesn’t really matter)

1/4 cup fresh basil leaves (if you can find Thai basil great use that but sweet basil is okay)

1/4 cup fresh mint leaves

1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves

In a bowl soak the cellophane noodles in very hot water to cover, 15 minutes and drain well in a colander. With a scissors cut the noodles into 3-4 inch sections and in a small bowl toss with a little bit of vinegar and salt to taste.

Cut out and discard the ribs from the Boston lettuce, halving each leaf.

In a shallow baking pan or cake pan soak 2 rounds of rice paper in hot water until pliable, 45 seconds to 1 minute.

Carefully spread 1 soaked round on a paper towel, leaving the remaining round in the water, and blot with paper towels. Place one lettuce leaf on the bottom half of the sheet, leaving about an inch from the edge. Top lettuce with a sprinkle of peanuts, a small bunch of the noodles (arrange the noodles in a line across the lettuce). Top the noodles with a bit of the scallion, carrot, cabbage and herbs. Roll up filling tightly in rice paper, folding the sides in after the first roll to secure the filling, and continue rolling.

Repeat the process with the other 7 rolls. These can be made ahead of time and chilled. Just be sure to wrap the rolls with damp paper towel and covered with plastic until you are ready eat them. The rice paper will get crunchy if it’s not kept damp.

Cut the rolls diagonally in half and serve with spicy peanut sauce-

Spicy Peanut Sauce-

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 teaspoon dried hot red pepper flakes, or to taste (if you like spicy go for 1/2 teaspoon)

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 tablespoon tomato paste

3 tablespoons creamy peanut butter

3 tablespoons hoisin sauce

1/2 teaspoon sugar

3/4 cup water

In a small saucepan cook garlic and red pepper flakes in oil over medium heat until garlic is golden. Whisk in remaining ingredients and bring to a boil, whisking. Simmer sauce, whisking until thickened, about 1 minute. This will keep for 4-5 days in the fridge. You can serve it cold or warm.