Getting There

A dreary day, saved by Samuel Whiskers.

This winter that is not continues. It rained cats and dogs all night last night - and I live in Canada! Amy is sick with the flu (again!) and was up fussing. Maybe the sound of the storm bothered her, too. I hardly got any sleep. This morning it was still dark, rainy and incredibly dreary.

I naturally slept in too late and was behind schedule. I somewhat grumpily rushed through breakfast and had just enough time to get a quick shower before we started our homeschool lessons (I try to start at the same time each morning). But just I was sprinting for the shower, hoping that this was not going to be One of Those mornings, Jasper tugged on my sleeve and showed me a book he had picked out: The Tale of Samuel Whiskers, by Beatrix Potter. "Can you please read this book to me, Mom?" he asked politely with a smile. My heart flooded with warmth and happiness. How could I refuse? Sometimes it's better to forget about the schedule.

As he often does, this little guy reminded me to slow down and enjoy the moment, and not be so serious! He listened intently to the whole story - he has an amazing attention span for a 3 year old. It's a funny story. After it was done I carried on the rest of the day's activities with a different attitude. And you know what? I notice that when I make an effort to slow down more, and concentrate on each task before me, instead of trying to do many things at once, I actually get more done.

The rain continued all day. The common behind our house is entirely flooded. Really not a good day to play outside. The children weren't quite as chipper as usual, being cooped up inside. So I decided that after lunch, it was necessary to make chocolate cupcakes with sprinkles. That makes sense, right?

I had a helper in the kitchen, as usual...

I am happy to say these cupcakes (topped with ganache rather than icing) were ridiculously good. Maybe some time I'll share the recipe!

There was still a few meltdowns and tense moments today, and naps were taken...but all in all I think this day was much better than it could have been. :)

The Perfect Christmas Cookie.

Only ten days to go until Christmas! I am just getting started on my baking - it has been a difficult few weeks for our family, as the flu really wiped us out for a good while. I think we are all past the worst of it now, though, and I am starting to get back in the mood for holiday things. (At least as well as I can being serverely sleep deprived. Amy has surely taken the prize for my Baby Who Sleeps Less Than I Would Have Thought Humanly Possible. What an accomplishment.)

The first thing I baked was these cookies. It is a recipe my mom made every year when I was growing up. I figured it was time for me to carry on the torch, so I gave them a try this year - and found that they turned out just perfectly! I guess it's hard to go wrong when they contain that much butter...

These cookies absolutely melt in your mouth and have such a delicious flavour. They look pretty, too, and are perfect for gift giving in a festive tin.

This recipe is fairly small - it only made 18 cookies for me, so you might want to double it!

The Perfect Christmas Cookie

1 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
candied cherries
1 cup icing sugar
1/2 tsp almond extract

Cream butter and sugar. (Since I used my homemade brown sugar with the larger organic crystals, it didn't dissolve, but it worked just fine.) Add yolks and vanilla and mix well. Mix in flour with a wooden spoon - it will look a bit crumbly.

Squish and roll bits of dough in your hands to make small balls. Place them on an ungreased cookie sheet, press them down a little bit and indent the centre of each cookie with your thumb.

Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Cool.

Place one candied cherry on the top of each cookie. Make icing: mix together icing sugar, almond extract, and enough water to make of drizzling consistency. Drizzle over cookies. Try to not eat them all today.

What is everyone else baking lately? Please share!

Pumpkin Spice Cake

It is the time of the year for pumpkins. If you have some pumpkin fresh or frozen you need to use up, pumpkin spice cake is a delicious way to do it--one of my favourites, anyway. When I was a girl, I often asked for pumpkin cake instead of chocolate for my birthday! Odd, I know.

I recently made up this recipe, which comes from a very old magazine clipping of my mom's. I'm not sure if it is the recipe she used to make for me, but it was very good, rich, moist and spicy. And I only used canned pumpkin! Some day, I'll have a garden of my own and I'll be able to use my own pumpkins for baking. For now though, canned is all right.

Pumpkin Spice Cake.

4 eggs, room temperature
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cloves
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups of pureed pumpkin (I used more like 2 1/2 cups)
Pecan or walnut halves

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Stir together flour, baking soda, salt, and spices.

2. With an electric mixer, beat eggs and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in oil and pumpkin and blend well.

3. At low speed, beat in the flour mixture until just combined.

4. Pour into a greased 9 inch tube pan. Bake about 1 hour, or until surface springs back when gently pressed.

5. Cool cake in pan. Remove to a plate, and frost with Cream Cheese Frosting. Decorate with nuts.

Cream Cheese Frosting

3/4 cup cream cheese (6 oz)
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 to 3 cups icing sugar

1. In medium bowl, with electric mixer at medium speed, beat cheese with vanilla until creamy.

2. Gradually beat in sugar until desired consistency is reached.

3. Spread over cake, making swirls with a knife.

I think this would make a perfect dessert for Thanksgiving. (Our Thanksgiving was done over a month ago, but I know the American one is still coming up!)

Home Cooking: Beef Stew and Dumplings

Happy November! The cold weather is definitely here. I turned on the electric heater in our livingroom on for half an hour today to take the chill out of the air. And as I sit here typing, I'm wearing a warm hat.

This morning I read a November poem with the children, from Around the Year--

Grey is November
cold as cold.
Stormy November,
wind and rain.
No snow.
No ice.
No glittering sun.
Grey is November,
except
by the bright fire
with a story,
a cushion for the cat,
the dark shut outside
and
the light in the flames
where mysteries lie
and
we dream.

Indeed, November is a good time to start spending more time indoors, taking comfort from the warmth there. We don't have a fireplace in our home like the children in the book, but can still warm ourselves on chilly days with good, hot, homecooked meals.

A few nights ago I made beef stew and dumplings, and I decided to take some pictures so that I could do another cooking tutorial post, for those poor souls out there who have never enjoyed a pot of hot, bubbling stew on a cold November evening.

Stew is one of my favourite meals to make because not only is it warm and good, it's nutritious with all the vegetables in it. Also, it's really quite easy, although it does take a while to chop everything up beforehand.

Beef Stew and Dumplings.

This recipe makes enough for 6 to 8 servings. It's easy to cut in half if you need to.

First, assemble your ingredients for the stew:
2 lbs stewing beef
2 tbsp flour
2 tbsp butter or vegetable oil
1 large (900mL) carton of beef broth, or about 1 L homemade broth
1 large onion (I used 3 small ones)
2 large carrots
2 parsnips
1 smallish turnip
3 smallish potatoes, or 2 medium ones
1/2 cup frozen green peas
1/4 cup barley
1/4 tsp dried thyme
Bay leaves
salt and pepper


First, cut up half the stewing beef into bite size pieces (I find the chunks it comes in from the store are way too big for children to manage). Dredge these small chunks in 1 tbsp of the flour. An easy way to do this is to shake them up with the flour in a ziploc bag.

Put the floured beef into a dutch oven or other heavy pot, along with 1 tbsp of butter, oil, or bacon grease. While the first half of the beef is browning up, chop up the second half of the meat and dredge it in the other tbsp of flour.

When the first batch of beef is browned, remove it to a bowl and brown the second batch. Meanwhile, chop up the onions, turnip, parsnips and carrots. Don't chop up the potatoes, yet.

Once the second batch of beef is nicely browned (and don't worry if the bottom of the pot gets pretty dark looking, as long as it doesn't smell burned it's okay) add the other beef back and pour in the beef broth. Add all the chopped vegetables (minus the potatoes and peas), a few bay leaves, the thyme and barley.

You should have a mixture that looks something like this:

Now put the lid on, turn the burner down to low and let it simmer for about an hour, stirring occasionally. (Barley takes about 45 minutes to cook, so I say an hour just to be sure it's done.)

Okay, at this point you can peel and chop the potatoes and add them in. Also, season with salt and pepper the way you like it.

Put the lid back on for a few minutes while you mix up the dumplings.

Mix together 2 cups flour, 4 tsp baking powder, and 1 tsp salt. Then mix separately 1 cup of milk and 4 tbsp oil or melted butter, and add to the flour mixture. Stir it up quickly. Don't stir it too long or the dumplings will be tough. You may have to add some extra liquid--I always do.

I didn't forget the peas! Now is the time to add them in (I personally think over cooked peas are not very appealing, so I add them in at the last minute!)

Take the dumpling batter and drop it onto the bubbling stew, one spoonful at a time. It's that easy! It should look something like this:

Put the lid back on, make sure the burner is on low, and go do something else for 15 minutes. No peeking! The dumplings need the steam to cook properly.

After 15 minutes is up, it's done.

Enjoy your warm, homecooked meal. If you like, pretend you are pioneers on the frontier and you cooked your stew in a cast iron pot hanging over the fireplace. (Other people pretend things like that too, right?)

Stew is also excellent reheated the next day for a hot lunch.

Making Brown Sugar.

I apologize for the pause in posts--I had planned on posting on Monday, but on that morning I got the news that my father had had a heart attack. He is fine now! The hospital has taken excellent care of him, and he expects to fully recover. We are so happy and relieved. However, needless to say, I was shaken by this event and forgot about my blog for a while.

I was in such a worried, fretful state on that day. I knew I had to pull myself together for the children, so I did two things. The sun was shining brightly, so I went outside with the baby and harvested some herbs from the garden. Nothing is more soothing to me than working in the garden.

It's also so pleasing to see bunches of herbs I grew myself hanging to dry.

And then of course, I did what most women do in a time of distress--made food. In this case, chocolate chip cookies. I almost used up all the brown sugar, and instead of adding it to the shopping list this morning, I decided to try making some of my own.

Did you know the brown sugar you buy in the grocery store is in fact refined white sugar that has had some molasses added back into it? I found this info on Wikepedia:

Brown sugar is often produced by adding cane molasses to completely refined white sugar crystals in order to more carefully control the ratio of molasses to sugar crystals and to reduce manufacturing costs.^[1] This also allows the production of brown sugars to be based predominantly on beet sugar.

I don't know if the brands sold in my area are made from beet sugar or cane sugar. I hope not beet sugar, since most sugar beets grown are genetically modified varieties. However, even if the sugar I normally buy comes from sugar cane, it still has been refined, and I much prefer to use organic, unbleached sugar in all my baking.

I have been buying organic "white" sugar for some time, but I have never seen organic brown sugar anywhere for sale. So, time to try it myself! I took two cups of organic sugar and mixed in 1 tablespoon of dark organic molasses. I was suprised that the resulting sugar was so dark and rich tasting.

In the photo, the homemade sugar is on the left, the store bought "dark" brown sugar is on the right:

I think this sugar will be lovely for baking, although I might have to add more white sugar to get a product my children will eat on their oatmeal. Since it is so easy to do, I will certainly continue to make my own brown sugar. I know that any kind of sugar isn't healthy--but I know that if I am going to make cookies anyway, it's healthier to use only organic sugar that has never been bleached. And I think that the cost of this organic brown sugar is about the same as the small bags of processed brown sugar in the grocery store.

Has anyone else ever tried making brown sugar?

Basic white bread: A tutorial.

In my online travels, I have noticed that a lot of folks consider baking your own bread as an almost essential ingredient to living "the simple life." While I would certainly not say it's essential, I do understand this sentiment. Baking your own bread is a deliberate step away from the predominant culture of consumerism and instant gratification. For those with large families to feed, baking bread can really save money. And it must be one of life's simplest pleasures to enjoy the yeasty aroma of freshly baked bread filling your home. This is a pleasure that people have enjoyed for many centuries.

It's a pleasure I think everyone should enjoy at least now and then. So I decided to do a basic bread making tutorial. Of course, most of my readers already know how to make bread...but perhaps there are a few out there who aren't sure how to go about it. If you are one of those timid souls, this post is for you. :)

I am by no means an expert, and in fact I have only been making my family's bread for a few months. So I am only sharing how I do it. There are infinite variations on baking bread, and many of them are probably better than my own method! But here we go:

 

Basic White Bread: A Tutorial in 10 Easy Steps

1. First, I take the yeast--I use the traditional kind, not quick rising--and stir it into 1/2 cup of warm water until it is dissolved. I have found the the amount of yeast needed varies according to how warm the house is. On a warm summer day, 2 tsp is enough. In the winter, 4 tsp is a good idea. I know this is less yeast than most recipes use, but I find this amount works just fine. Honestly, I don't think it matters much how much yeast you use, unless you want to be able to time things exactly. If you don't use quite enough, you'll just have to wait a bit longer for it to rise. So I prefer to use a smaller amount most of the time, since it saves money.

2. In a large bowl, I mix 2 cups of unbleached flour, 2 tbsp wheat gluten (optional; this makes the loaves more chewy), 2 tbsp sweetener (I use organic cane sugar, but honey would work too), and 2 tsp sea salt.

3. I measure out 2 cups of warm liquid--it can be milk, water, or half of each. What I normally do is measure out 1 cup of cold homo milk, and then add 1 cup of boiling water. This gives a nice warm temperature without being hot (temperatures too hot will kill the yeast). I have found that the coconut milk you buy in cartons at the grocery store works nicely for making bread too, but it is sweetened, so if I use that I leave the sugar out in the second step.

Milk obviously makes a slightly richer tasting loaf. Bread made with only water is still good, just lighter.

I add some melted butter to this liquid. Or sometimes olive oil. I never measure, but I guess I'm using around 2 tbsp.

4. I pour this liquid mixture into the dry ingredients, and stir it up. Then I add in the yeast and water, and stir it up again.

5. I add scoops of flour one by one (not measuring), until it gets too difficult to stir. Then I dump it out on the clean countertop and start to knead. I scrape the bits out of the bowl with a butter knife.

6. I knead the dough for around 10 minutes, sprinkling it with flour as needed to keep it from being sticky. This is a nice time do some daydreaming. When the dough looks and feels smooth and springy, it's done. If you aren't sure how to tell if it's done, just keep an eye on the clock. 10 minutes will usually do it.

7. I cover this lump of dough with butter or oil, and place it back in the bowl. I cover it with a damp dish towel and let it sit until it looks about doubled in size. This takes around an hour, or less if the house is really warm.

8. I punch down the dough, divide it into three parts (using a sharp knife), form these chunks into rough loaf shapes, and place them into greased bread pans. This will make 3 small loaves. Or you could make 2 larger loaves, it's up to you.

I have done some experimenting over time, and I found that butter is by far the best thing to grease pans with. It's the only thing that works perfectly every time.

9. Once the dough has doubled in size again (it should be at the top of the pan), I bake it at 345 degrees for 30 minutes. (I used to bake it at a higher temperature, until Melanie shared that you have to bake bread at a lower temperature if you want a soft crust.)

10. As long as the bread looks nicely browned, I take it out, put a towel over the loaves, and let them cool at least somewhat before slicing into one. Very hot bread does not slice very well. But don't let it cool down all the way! Fresh, warm bread spread with soft butter is one of the tastiest things I know.

I hope this little tutorial will encourage a few people who have never baked bread before to give it a try. It really isn't difficult. As long as you don't kill the yeast with too much heat (something I did the first time I made bread, or rather bricks), I guarantee you'll end up with something that your family will enjoy. Happy baking!

Raspberry jam.

I haven't been able to think of anything to post lately. Life has been moving along, quietly and well. Amy is 3 and a half months old now, getting chubby, and has started to laugh! Few things are more delightful than a baby's first belly laugh. :)

Today was noteworthy, because although my husband is working a 12-hour shift tonight, he got up early this morning and drove out to the country to pick a whole slew of raspberries for us. We go through a lot, because Chris loves to make his own raspberry lemonade all summer long, and the children and I go through a lot of raspberry jam.

I made 2 batches of jam this afternoon, which went very nicely with the batch of fresh bread I made this morning.

I am continuing to make all of our bread. Because I knead it by hand--and because we go through a lot of bread!--it's rather a time consuming chore. I do enjoy it, but I can see right now that I am not going to be able to manage this during busy times, such as in the autumn when we will resume our regular homeschool lessons, and our toy shop will start getting busy. But when I can, I'm going to do it. I like knowing that my kids are eating bread free of preservatives and other undesireables. And of course, the taste is rather an improvement over Wonderbread. :)

I do wonder though, how some people can manage to make all their family's bread by hand all year round? Mothers with large families must have to make several loaves every day. That's a lot of kneading!

I was pretty enthusiastic about hanging our laundry outside since our dryer broke a little while ago. But today I had to bring everything in still damp because it started raining. I was able to hang two loads inside, but that is the most I can manage. I also have been wondering, how do some of you ladies manage it who don't have or who choose not to use a dryer? I imagine we're going to be calling our landlord to fix our dryer very soon. Because if it rains for the next few days (as the forecast indicates), the laundry is going to start backing up, since we average about 3 loads every 2 days. I just can't fit that much laundry into our back room to dry when things like blue jeans take 2 days to dry indoors.

Well, that pretty much sums up what I've been up to lately. Caring for a baby, and baking bread, and doing lots of laundry. The regular stuff. I did stay up late last night with Chris to watch a funny movie, which was nice. I can't remember the last time I had a chance to watch a movie all the way through. I'm glad I did, even though I was a bit tired today, and after the second batch of jam was done I had to take a nap, when what I really wanted to do was make another batch of granola bars and reorganize the toy cupboard. I love the life of a homemaker, but it's a constant frustration for me that I don't have endless energy to do all the things I'd like to do in a day.

Harvesting lamb's quarters.

I had heard of lamb's quarters many times in the past, and I was aware that it was a weed that was commonly eaten in the Great Depression, but I did not realize until quite recently that that is the weed which tries to take over my garden every year! Chances are, they are in your back yard too. Here is a page which can help you to identify the plant.

It's also called Goosefoot, because the young leaves are the shape of goose feet.

Lamb's quarters, apparently, are highly nutritious--the leaves contain more calcium than kale, for one, and are also high in B vitamins. So, since my little herb gardens were full of lamb's quarters, I decided I might as well go ahead and give it a try.

This morning I pulled out a big handful of lamb's quarters, washed the plants very well, and then pulled off all the leaves. I sauteed the leaves with a bit of sweet onion and some olive oil, salt and pepper, and then added this mixture to some brown rice. Topped with a piece of fish, it was the perfect lunch! I only wished I had picked more lamb's quarters, because they cooked down quite a lot.

The cooked leaves tasted similar to spinach, but I also thought I detected the taste of asparagus--maybe that's just me. They were tasty, anyhow, and I would recommend giving this "vegetable" a try, if you are sure you can positively identify it. You can't beat the price!

After this delicious lunch, I had a piece of scrumptious homemade bread and strawberry jam for dessert. I wanted to thank once more everyone who gave me bread-baking tips. This time I made bread, I made 3 loaves instead of 2, and they were a better size. And, I set the oven at 345 degrees. What a difference that made!

The crust was totally soft and the bread was perfect. After taking it out of the oven, I did a bit of an experiment: I wrapped one loaf in a cloth, I spread butter over one, and I left one alone. I found that it made no difference at all to wrap the bread in a cloth. It did make the top of the bread a bit softer to put butter on top, but the main factor, it seems, is how hot the oven is. I'll never bake bread at a high temperature again--unless, of course, I want to have a crusty loaf.

Jam and bread.

Last weekend my dear husband carved some time out of his busy day and drove out to the county to pick some strawberries for me, for this year's supply of jam. By the time he finally got back home, I was starting to get worried! Apparently because of the heavy rain we had this spring, many of the strawberry plants rotted in the fields and the local crop was very poor. Chris had to pick for several hours to bring home a decent quantity of berries, and they weren't the best looking ones we've ever gotten either.

I set to work right away to make jam, and I did get one batch done. It was delicious! I love the brilliant red colour of strawberry jam.

There weren't enough berries leftover to make a second batch, only for us to eat a few, and to freeze some for making smoothies.

I noticed that there are Ontario berries in the grocery store this weekend. They're more expensive than pick-your-own, but not too bad. Maybe I will pick some up to make more jam, I haven't decided yet. I do love homemade strawberry jam on top of oatmeal on a cold winter morning!

Also this past week, I made two loaves of regular white bread, because we were out of bread and I knew there was none on sale at the grocery store. (I refuse to pay $3.50 or even more for a single loaf!) I accidentally left the loaves to rise a bit too long, and they turned out huge!

I'd like to make homemade bread more often to replace store bread for sandwiches, but I am confused about a few things. For one, how can I make the crust softer? Whenever I bake bread the crust is downright hard, which makes it difficult to slice evenly, and isn't very nice to eat sideways in a sandwich. Also, is it possible to get loaf pans that are longer, like the length of a loaf of Wonderbread? I just have regular small loaf pans, and my loaves always end up so tall that the slices look silly, like slices of a giant mushroom. Two such slices make an enormous and strangely shaped peanut butter sandwich.

If anyone has the answers to those questions, or even just any general bread-baking tips, please do share. :)

Change of topic: Currently, Canada Post is having a labour dispute, which means we haven't had any mail service in Canada for two weeks. That means that we have had to shut down our Etsy shop. Thank goodness that right before the strike started, Chris got another job, as an industrial mechanic. It isn't quite full time but it's been such a blessing for us. This past week they sent him out of town, down to Tennessee. He brought me back this lovely plate from Cracker Barrel (a restaurant we don't have in Canada).

He knows I love songbirds, and it matches our livingroom walls perfectly. I can't wait to hang it up. Our nest is blessed indeed. :)

Spring sugar cookies.

I heard Canada geese overhead again early this morning, and wee birds chirping in the yard. Although a few piles of snow remain here and there, most of the grass around here is visible now (albeit rather brown). I was in the mood today to do something to celebrate the imminent return of spring, so I decided to make some cookies!

In my 1920s copy of the Good Housekeeping cookbook I found a simple recipe for brown sugar cookies, which can be rolled out and cut into shapes. So l cut them into the shape of eggs (with a cookie cutter of course), and sprinkled cinammon and sugar over them. I was hoping they would turn out looking like brown speckled eggs. I'm not sure that they really do, but they do taste good, and the children gobbled up quite a few!

Spring Sugar Cookies

2 cups brown sugar
1 cup butter, softened
3 eggs
About 5 cups of pastry flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla

Cream together butter and sugar, then add the eggs, milk, and vanilla and beat well. Add half the flour (sifted with salt and soda) and mix in. Add more flour, enough to make a dough which may be rolled. (I had to add closer to 6 cups of flour, but it depends on what brand of pastry flour you use, I find).

Chill dough for at least half an hour and then roll out to about 1/4 inch thick and cut into shapes - eggs, bunnies or flowers. Decorate with sprinkles or cinammon and sugar if desired. Bake about 10 minutes at 400 degrees. Be sure to take the cookies out of the oven as soon as they are starting to brown around the edges--overbaked sugar cookies aren't very good.

Eat them and think about how happy you are that spring is on the way. :)

Well, there you have it. I thought I might as well share my little idea today, in case anyone else was in the mood to make cookies and happened to have an egg-shaped cookie cutter in their stash like I did!