The Great Pine Mouth Scare of 2011

For Christmas, Eric and I were the lucky recipients of a 3 month 'organic fruit of the month' club.  In December we received a beautiful box of pears. In January we got a lovely box of oranges.  Super fresh, organic, lovely oranges.  So I went about deciding how to best make use of these (besides just straight up or with a little sprinkle of cinnamon).  I came across this recipe for Anise, Orange, Pignoli biscotti from NPR.org.


I zested oranges... so careful to not get any of the pith.  (I used the juice for a treat from the Vitamix)

 

I made the dough and baked and then sliced them carefully for the second bake.

 

While they were cooling, I did a search for other recipe ideas to use the leftover pine nuts.  I found a recipe that looked wonderful on Epicurious.com and left it on the screen while I fixed myself the perfect cup of coffee and biscotti to enjoy.

Then, as I was scrolling through the reviews and comments on the recipe I see a statement about Pine Mouth.  A result of eating pine nuts from China.  What is Pine Mouth you might ask?  Apparently 2-3 days after eating the wrong pine nut, your mouth gets a bitter metallic taste that DOESN'T GO AWAY FOR 2-3 WEEKS!! Read more about it here.

Begin the freak out.  I couldn't believe it.  I hate bitter tastes more than anything.  I went to check our Organic Pine Nuts bag, and sure enough... China.  This meant I would have to very sadly pack up the biscotti and.... wait.  3 whole days.  Did I mention the one I did eat with my coffee was delicious?  Delicious.

Luckily, 3 days passed and we were in the clear.   I talked to a friend about the torture of having these yummie biscotti sitting in the cupboard just waiting, and she said that she definitely had pine mouth this summer after a delicious batch of pesto. 

So what to do... I have looked in all our local stores and all the pine nuts I have found Organic or not are from China right now.  Apparently there have been crop problems in other places in the world.  No more pine nuts?  Risk it?  Order pine nuts online?  We'll see.  I have a feeling that there might be a more local source.  Pinyon Pines grow in Colorado- there must be someone out there with Colorado Pine nuts.  If you know where I can get some, there's some biscotti in it for you!

Weekend Experiment

This weekend, after seeing an episode of Ciao Italia featuring homemade sausage, we decided to try making our own at home.  It didn't seem that difficult, and the idea of being able to control spice and salt content were intriguing.  (there is also a serious 'cool factor' to knowing you made it your self)

Homemade Italian sausage with wilted spinach

The Verdict:

This was an easy project, made easier by having a great butcher who could grind the meat to the right consistency for us and stocked casings.

To 4 lbs of coarsely ground pork butt we added:
1 1/2 tbsp kosher salt
1 tsp black pepper
3 tbs toasted fennel seeds
1 tsp fennel pollen
2 tsp Aleppo chili pepper flakes

A few tips:  Once you have all the spices incorporated, fry up a little bit of the mixture to test the spices.  We linked half the mixture as above, and then added to the remaining 2 lbs. some spicy Hungarian paprika, and garlic.

To cook, we added 2 cups of water to a large saucepan, and simmered the sausage until gray all over, then drained the water and let the sausage brown.  While the sausage was sitting to be sliced, we filled the pan with spinach and let it just wilt.  Delicious!

Crafting Conundrum

What to do when all your loved ones already have a scarf or hat, but the knit/ crochet bug has hit your house hard?  Expand the search for people or groups in need!

Scarves for Colorado Special Olympians

Knitting for a great cause is a way to continue practicing and learning more knitting and crochet stitches long after all your friends and family have homemade scarves and hats.

These scarves are for The Special Olympics Scarf Project.  The deadline for sending in scarves for Colorado is in February, so there is still time!  See their website for details on project requirements including size and color.

The middle scarf is the only knit scarf, the rest are crochet.  I found a few patterns from the project website, and made up the two flowered crochet scarves on my own.  I hope they find happy homes with the Special Olympics athletes and families!