Wheat Gluten..what was I thinking?!

I have been in Ft. Lauderdale for the last week dogsitting for my S-I-L. She has this awesome kitchen which I like to call  "The Tolson Test Kitchen South". While I was there, I was experimenting with whole wheat pizza dough. I made at least 4 different recipes with varying results. As I am trying not to use any white flour, it's not easy to get a decent texture, but at least I was finally able to get a flavor that I really liked. I decided to research natural additives to make the texture lighter without affecting the flavor. I read a few articles about Vital Wheat Gluten, and decided that this was the route I should go. I saw several varieties of wheat gluten flour that could be purchased locally, but then an article caught my eye about how to make your own Wheat Gluten "meat". This substance has been used in Asian cuisine for some time now as a protein in meatless meals and is often used instead of Tofu. Now, I really have tried to like Tofu, but alas, I can't seem to acquire a taste for the crap....so, I decided to attempt to make the wheat gluten stuff. This was a little time consuming, but since I am still temporarily retired and have not hit powerball yet (so not traveling the world) I have time to play around with this.  Since I did not know how I was going to like the stuff, I decided to cut the original recipe down enough for one meat patty.

Dough ball

 I used 2 cups of whole wheat flour, and enough water to make a dough ball. I kneaded until it was elastic and would spring back when poked. (about 10 minutes).

Knead under water

  Then, soak the dough ball in cold water and continue to 

knead under water and drain the starchy liquid.

Gluten Ball

    The dough will separate and the bran will settle to the bottom of the bowl. Pour into a fine colander and keep rinsing until the water runs clear and you have a bunch of rubbery pellets. These will come together in a ball about half the size of the original dough ball. This is the gluten of the wheat and is what will be used in a recipe. I mixed in some soy sauce and garlic chili sauce and simmered in broth for about 30 minutes.
Then I browned it in some sesame oil. Took a bite, and chewed, and chewed, and chewed.........................

Tasty rubber "meat" patty

The flavor was excellent, but perhaps this isn't the best way to use this
"meat".... I spoke to my daughter, who is way further along in her research than I am, and she said "yeah Mom, even the store bought stuff is chewy", wish I had talked to her before starting this project! So, I will go to the store and get the gluten flour and add it to my bread and pizza dough to see if I "can get a rise out of it".
I'll let you know how it goes!   Now waiting for tonight's Powerball Drawing...

Rebirth of the Bonehead

Forgive me blog for it has been 2 weeks since my last post... The first week after the Goddess Wedding, we spent cutting new floors for the Bonehead.

Jim/Mike cutting new flooring

Rotted decking

We then glued new carpet down and re-installed the hardware. It's starting to look

 good! Unfortunately we are still having 

a problem

 with the motor. 

We  replaced the 

kill switch, but

New decking

New carpet going in

still couldn't get it to turn over. Finally took it to the Mercury dealer and got the call today that it's some other doohickey that would normally cost $198. but got aftermarket part for $164...I'm thinking to myself, aren't all parts for a 1988 motor "aftermarket" or does that mean something else entirely? Anyway, we should have the boat back by Friday or Saturday, then I will post the big reveal!  

Pre hardware

       

 .

A Goddess Wedding (part 2)

Well! It was a hell of a Cinco de Mayo wedding weekend! The bride was gorgeous, the Groom handsome, the bridal party amazing. Thanks to the tireless efforts of a few key people (you know who you are!) we managed to pull this thing off. The fact that nobody was murdered was a feat in itself! Much restraint was shown by a few members of the wedding party, just when I was sure things were going to come to blows!
   
The last few days have wreaked havoc on my healthy living efforts... so I cheated a little.. starting with the Krystal Burgers trip and the 42 glasses of wine I had... on Friday night. Saturday, I was in the kitchen all day preparing the carnitas and salsas for the salsa bar. Of course I had to taste everything. Most of the salsas were healthy, except for the smoky jalapeno salsa which contains sour cream. The highlight of the salsa bar though, was the NACHO CHEESE FOUNTAIN! Disgusting, but who could resist anyway!   The bride's friends from work also provided some yummy taste treats. And then there was the wedding cake!

I tried to get back into my routine on Monday...so I ate oatmeal for breakfast and went on a 3 mile walk which included the post office, where I was mailing back some of the bride's kitchen utensils that ended up in my bag. On the way back, got caught in the rain and had to find shelter under a carport at some condominiums about a mile away. There was a break in the clouds after about 30 minutes and I made a run for it. Time for lunch! I chopped up some of the leftover carnitas and tossed it into the black bean and roasted corn salsa and added some beef broth, topped with a little dollop of guacamole and I was good to go. Dinner was grilled chicken and salad.  After the weekend I thought I should dry out for a while, which wasn't too hard because I'm out of wine! Anyway...Here's to the Bride and Groom! It was a fun weekend with my Goddess girlfriends!