Tom Eppenberger Jr’s blog

On Fourth of July, rather than going out and battling the crowds (and the heat), we decided to do something that Shelly has wanted to do as a family for several weeks now… make Seitan.

What’s Seitan? From Wikipedia:

Wheat gluten, also called seitan ([ˈseɪtɑn]), wheat meat, gluten meat, or simply gluten, is a food made from the gluten of wheat. It is made by washing wheat flour dough with water until all the starch dissolves, leaving insoluble gluten as a gummy mass, which is subject to further processing.

We followed a recipe from one of our Native Foods cookbooks, and it all together took something in the ballpark of 4 hours to complete. This is not bad considering how little the ingredients cost, and how much we generally pay at Whole Foods for the pre-made stuff.

Mixing the dry goods with the sifter, kneading the dough and then finally rinsing the dough were Lane’s favorite steps. He didn’t seem to care for the process of adding water to the dry goods and making the broth.

After the dough had simmered in the broth for an hour and a half, and cooled off on a plate, we prepared our Fourth of July dinner. Lane helped me puree carrots, potatoes and turnips for a base. Shelly steamed and then pan fried asparagus spears with sesame oil. And then we pan fried some steaks made from our homemade Seitan.

Man, was this ever delicious. All the hard work throughout the day really did make the whole meal taste a lot better! And, now we have a whole bunch of Seitan on hand to use over the next few weeks! Hurray!

We had picked baskets full of plums from our tree in the back yard…

Shelly found a recipe for a Plum Crumble on the internets…

I picked up some vanilla ice cream on my way home from work…

And there was much rejoicing…

Here is the recipe that Shelly used for the great German pancakes:

1 Tablespoon butter (use butter substitute for WW)
1/2 cup milk (use non-fat milk for WW)
1/2 cup flour
2 eggs (use egg substitute for WW)
dash salt
dash cinnamon

1) Preheat oven to 425 degrees. While oven is preheating, melt 1 tablespoon butter in 9-inch square pan by putting it in the preheating oven.

2) In large bowl, using a wire whisk, beat together: 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 cup flour, 2 eggs, a dash of salt, and a dash of cinnamon.

3) Pour batter into 9-inch square pan that has the melted butter. Put it back in the oven.

4) Bake for 12-15 minutes.

5) Serve with powdered sugar or syrup.

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Here is a recipe for lemon butter, but Shelly didn’t exactly follow it. She used butter substitute, and added lemon juice and lemon rind to taste.

She also topped the pancakes with a combination of mashed blackberries and a pinch of sugar.

Shelly and I have talked a lot lately about buying more produce that is both in season and grown locally. We have struggled with this at times (especially during the cold months because of our love for berries), but lately Shelly has done a great job of making sure we have lots of seasonal stuff in the house.

We have been eating lots of butternut squash, sweet potatoes and oranges. And the past week has seen a lot of Strawberries, as they are starting to come into season a little earlier than normal this year! Hurray!

Two sites that Lifehacker recently posted about, (both aptly named) Seasonal Chef and Seasonal Recipes, both do a really good job of listing foods that are in season, and giving recipe ideas for them.

There are a lot of really great reasons for buying foods grown locally, or at least foods that are in season and not imported, not the least of which is saving some cash. The in season stuff is usually always less expensive than the imported stuff. So, read your labels, buy locally grown stuff, and save some money. Everyone wins.