Scraps and Snippets ~ Citrus Sesame Glaze

Delicious!!!

I had a few oranges that had seen better days. So I squeezed them, measured the juice, calculated a few combinations and put it all together.

Citrus Sesame Glaze

1/4 Cup rice vinegar

1/4 Cup sesame oil

3/4 Cup orange juice

1/3 Cup maple syrup

2 tsps sesame seeds

1 pinch of garlic powder

1 pinch of ground ginger

Heat orange juice and oil in saucepan. Add vinegar, maple syrup and sesame seeds. Let simmer approx 20 minutes until sauce thickens and reduces to a syrupy consistency. Stir frequently but not constantly. When it's the consistency you want add the pinch of garlic and ginger. Serve over veggies, meat subs or meat. We braised sliced seitan in it for 20 minutes and served over brown rice. Yummy.

It would work as a salad dressing, too.

Scraps and Snippets ~ "Hamburger" Crumbles

I did not post yesterday. I can't blame it on my internet connection, which may or may not be fixed as I had to reboot it this morning. (Happy thoughts, happy thoughts, butterflies and daisies, ah yes, I feel better.) 

I spent the evening crafting. Why? Because I'm making a few gifts this year. Oh, and because I'm INSANE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have a closet full of craft items that I just want to use up. And since I'll be having company in about two weeks and that will require massive cleaning, I decided it's time to HAUL 

everything out. That way my stress level can be OFF THE CHARTS 24/7 until Christmas Eve morning. Ha.Ha.Ha (add the deranged, twisty-eye look and a touch of desperation to the ha, ha, ha, and you've got it.) 

However, while I'm crafting Netflix is making sure I'm catching up on all sorts of stuff. In the meantime, still looking for those recipe ideas to incorporate into the family file. Here's a great one. Really. And inexpensive, too. And if my grand craft ideas turn out, I'll even share those pictures and success stories with you all. (After I gift them, of course.)

"Hamburger" Crumbles

2 Cups brown rice

2 Cups prepared lentils

1 Cup oatmeal

1/2 Cup TVP (textured Veggie Protein or more rice if you prefer)

3/4 Cup finely chopped mushrooms (not minced, but small) (or extra pecans or rice)

1/2 Cup chopped (small) pecans (Or use more rice or more mushrooms)

2 tsp black pepper

1 TBSP garlic powder

1/2 tsp tumeric

1/4 tsp cayenne

1/4 tsp cumin

1/8 Cup olive oil

1/8 Cup soy sauce

Mix this all together very well. Place in lightly greased 9 x 13 pan. Place in 300 degree oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes or so.

You don't have to use TVP, it doesn't hold the recipe together but does give a little extra protein. I loved the texture and taste of this. I probably got 6 or 7 cups. Keeps in the fridge for a week or so. I froze cup sized bags for future use and it freezes well.

Here is the original recipe. 

My tweaks made it way easier. It did not require a trip to a store and helped use up some of the stuff I have on hand.

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Farm away from Farm Part 2

Yesterday I shared a bit about the grower's conference we attended. One of the experts is a tree guy who travels the world because of his knowledge of trees. With him he brought loads of pictures of places he's traveled. And the crops they grow. Golden wheat fields in Australia, corn fields in parts of Asia etc. Bottom line, exotic and different places with crops that look freakishly like our own heartland.

And then he shared some disturbing information. Disturbing because I really want to know what has touched my food. Disturbing because I think eating local saves so much wear and tear on the planet and makes for food that actually still retains taste and food value.

Shipping, exporting and importing of food is big business. If we don't eat local, we may be eating something grown in another part of the world and shipped to us. While this is pretty much necessary when talking about things like bananas, should it be when we are talking about apples? Do we not all live within 50 miles of an orchard?

He said that much of the fish that is caught in Norway is shipped to China for processing and then back to Norway before coming to the states. It's cheaper to ship it back and forth than to process it where it was caught. He said that China has a goal of supplying 40% of America's food by 2020. What? Yeah. China. He also said he is not surprised with some of the food issues and contamination problems as he has seen the quality and processing of crops first hand.

Like I said, disturbing.

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Farm away from Farm Fun

& and I went to a tri-state farm conference put on by the three state extension offices. Fascinating information. 

I learned there are lots of ways to kill bugs. The key is to start early and show no mercy. Bad bug life spans are fleeting and impressive. Get em before they multiply themselves by thousands and you have a chance. 

Growing ethnic vegetables is a tongue twister adventure. Most can't easily be pronounced by the Midwesterner and apparently our tastebuds are pretty wimpy in America. Other cultures favor bitter. Most of the ethnic vegetables I learned about will not end up on my to grow list, but I’m thinking Bok Choy sounds good and possible.

A farmer who started growing strawberries and selling them to co-workers has built a multimillion dollar harvest empire out of that very humble beginning. Another speaker, a farm manager went into the ins and outs of his CSA (Community Sustained Agriculture) experiences. (After listening to his talk, I'm pretty sure our little CSA is way better than I even realized.)

A well-traveled tree expert shared much about what he’s learned on his travels, and as a grower who runs a pick-your-own raspberry farm. He shared the do’s and don’ts if you want to attempt to make any sort of money growing fruits or vegetables. His advice was to plan, plan, plan. With his power point expertise he shared an entertaining look at good get-rich-quick agricultural ideas gone bad. Christmas tree farms. (How difficult can they be? Grow and chop 8 years later, lots of pictures of abandoned farms.) Llamas. Emu’s. Loads of people invested a whole lot of money into ideas that sounded good but just never took off. The advice…go slow, have a plan, know that you aren't going to get rich quick, or without blisters. If you don't love getting dirty, you are going to grow to hate what you do. I think that's advice that covers a lot of areas.

This conference food was the best I've ever had. All locally grown and produced. Carrot cake, roasted root vegetables. Yum. After arriving back at the farm, the farmer gave us one last load of garden booty. She had harvested lettuces, kale, chard and had a few tomatoes. Unbelievable. Especially since the lettuce was picked just days before Saturday's snow. (Pictured).

All in all, it was a very good, interesting and tasty day. 

And there was an element of disturbing, too. Come back tomorrow for that. 

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Technical Difficulties...

I had the internet provider fix-it squad come to the house on Saturday. My internet suffers from a cute little ebb and flow nervous tic. One minute it’ll be fully fine, so much so that three of us can be using the internet at the same time. Speed? Check. Continuity? Check. But then. Something hiccups and we lose it. The cable company aka internet provider offers an automatic troubleshooter line and I have gotten very well acquainted with the computer who asks the same questions, tells me that my internet indeed is not working, resets it and all is well. For a time. The quicker, and more often, fix has been to reset the modem myself. But. As you can imagine, this is very frustrating. When I am posting a blog post and the whole thing goes down. BIG FROWNIE FACE. When I just want to check my e-mail. BIG FROWNIE FACE. When I’m trying to make payments or look up a recipe or zone out at Netflix instant streaming or Pinterest. GRRRRR BIG ANGRY FACE. The cable guy diagnosed the problem, but didn’t fix it. He put an order in with the guys with the big trucks. And this morning I got a trickle of internet, that’s all. TRIPLE FROWNIE FACE DOUBLE DOG DARE INTENSITY ANGRY FACE.

Then I went to work. And my tower is DEAD. It’s been acting weird every once in awhile. Today it refused to do anything but look at me with it’s green eye. No heat, no fan, no power up or down noises. NADA. At least the IT guy, who is located a thousand miles away, didn't ask me if I was sure it was plugged in. Whew. He pronounced it dead. A new one is on order. I do love technology. When it works.

All that to say. Guess I’m posting when I can, if I can, and don't expect it to make sense if it dies mi.....

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Road Trips and Word Clounds..

Thought I'd buzz over to Wordle to see what word cloud came out of recent Scrambled Dregs ingredients.


Today I head out with two farmers, & and an unknown earth girl for an organic gardening conference. Should be rich. I'll see what I can glean and share.

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Fowl Score and Twenty...

Slightly odd happenings and happenstances over the Thanksgiving weekend.

A) Settlers of Catan. A favorite game. Kind of like Monopoly/Pit and not sure what else. You build little wooden empires. Usually, I lose. I'm pretty sure I can count my wins on one hand and I've played it a few dozen times. Pictured is one of those few times. I trounced the table of wannabe winners.

Skill? Luck? Hmmm. A little of both. And the pictured loser is one who usually eats no meat, and he succumbed to the siren call of turkey...dare I suggest it slowed him down a bit?

And he's also prone to gloating when he wins, which is frequently. His version of gloating is subtle, Tweeting about it, taking pictures. That kind of thing.

Can I resist? No. I'll be tweaking a link so he'll be sure to see it. Ha. Ha. Salt in wound, Scott. Salt in wound. You'll lay off the turkey at Christmas won't you?

B) My folks went shopping in Walnut. Home of many antiques and apparently the original Christmas Geese. They wear diapers, too. How cute is that? I'm tempted to visit just to see this is in person.