Dandelion Honey

I have wanted to make dandelion honey for the past couple of years. I’ll admit, it isn’t exactally healthy, but it is interesting.  Every part of the dandelion is edible, however I’m not too sure I’d ever be caught tasting a “puffball” that results when the flower seeds.  The leaves are yummy in salads.  I almost boiled some leaves the other day to share with our youth at church.  We were learning about a group of people from the Democratic Republic of Congo who eat boiled potato leaves as an affordable meal instead of starving.  The dandelion roots can be eaten fresh or it can be dried for brewing tea.  The yellow flower is also edible fresh, or it can be cooked, or soaked in a carrier oil and is full of medicinal purposes.

I wasn’t thrilled to walk around our yard picking tons of dandelions, so I thought smart.  I offered twenty-five cents to my younger children for every filled mason jar of flower heads.  Genious!  I paid $1.00 in rewards and made a certain 4 year old and 5 year olds day!  Peeling the green outer layer off the flower head was the most difficult step.  Without peeling the green off and being left only with the yellow part of the flower supposibly makes the honey a little bitter.  After an hour of seperating the flower I considered making bitter honey, but I pulled through my determination to make it as suggested.

The end result, it is definitely sweet and tastes good spread on bread.  As we anticipate a fresh batch of raw unfiltered honey from local bees, this substitute would unhealthily hold us over in early Spring.  I much prefer honey from a comb, and the fact it takes much less work on my part to buy a jar from a friend, is an added bonus!

Dandelion Honey

• 4 cups yellow dandelion petals
• 4 cups water
• 1 orange
• 1 vanilla bean cut in half
• 2 1/2 cups sugar

Combine yellow petals, water, orange, and vanilla bean in small saucepan.  On low heat, simmer for 30 minutes.  Allow liquid mixture to cool.  Strain (cheesecloth works best) petals, orange, and vanilla bean out of liquid. Heat liquid again on low heat and slowly add sugar stirring well.  Allow mixture to simmer on low for an hour or until cold plate test yeilds a thick honeylike substance.  Jar honey and store in refrigerator.

*I cooked my mixture on a higher setting and the honey hardened more than it should have. This made spreading it more complicated. Next time, I may add a slice or two of lemon while it cooks and simmer on a much lower temperature.  We’ll see how much enthusiasm I have to try it again in early spring next year.😉

 

Sweet Potato & Apple

I’m guilty of making the same side dish over and over.  If I like it, I stick with it.  After all, I know it’ll be good.  Right?  Well as I was combing through a pile of handwritten recipes from our latest auction find, I came across one I haven’t heard of before.  Sweet potato and apples.  I just happen to have both laying around and decide to give this recipe a try.

Sweet Potato & Apples  (yields 6 – 8 servings)

6 medium sweet potatoes (about 2 lbs)

1 cup maple syrup

1/8 teaspoon salt

4 large apples (cored, peeled and sliced)

1/3 cup dry bread crumbs (these are easy to make)

2 Tablespoons melted butter

Boil sweet potatoes for 30 – 35 minutes or until tender when pierced with a fork.  Meanwhile put syrup into small saucepan, add salt and sliced apples.  Cook apples over low heat until they are tender but firm.  Once done, remove apple pan from heat and set aside.  Peel cooked sweet potatoes and slice.  In oiled (I used olive oil) 2.5qt casserole/baking dish place half of the sliced sweet potatoes followed by half of the apples and syrup.  Repeat layers using the remaining sweet potatoes, apples and syrup.  Sprinkle bread crumbs over and top with melted butter.  (I make bread crumbs by shredding slices of bread with my shredder attachment on my food processor and baking them on a cookie sheet under the broiler for 3 minutes.  For this recipe I used 2 slices of bread.  A vegetable grater could be used instead of a food processor.)

Bake in 350 F oven for 20 – 30 minutes. (I put a lid on the casserole dish for 20 minutes and took it off for the last 10 minutes to golden up a few bread crumbs that were still pale.)

*This dish was simple and good.  My kids liked it, my husband (unprompted) said he would like to have it again and I thought of about 14 other ingredients to try in it.  (This is how my sick mind works).  I believe the next time I make this I will add a small amount of raisins with the apples and possibly some wheat germ to the bread crumb mixture.  I love that this recipe did not call for brown sugar, but instead a natural sweetener and I believe I will be using more maple syrup on sweet potato recipes in the future!  (How did I not already think of this!?)  Enjoy!