Getting There

Thick and Rich Pumpkin Soup.

Recently we took a trip to a local pumpkin patch with a homeschooling group. We came home with four little pumpkins--pie pumpkins, the kind which are too small to carve.

The children promptly decorated their three pumpkins with washable marker.

These pumpkins are still sitting on display, so first I decided to bake my own pumpkin, which was the least decorated. :)

I'm not sure how one is "supposed" to cook a pumpkin, and I didn't feel like looking it up, so I just cut my pumpkin in half, removed the seeds, and put the two halves cut side down in a baking dish. Then I baked it at 350 degrees for a little over an hour, until it looked done. The skins peeled away easily, and the good pumpkin flesh that was left I put in the fridge until I decided what to do with it.

I decided to make pumpkin soup for lunch the next day, since I love soup for lunch, especially vegetable soups, and with a sudden nip in the air in these parts, hot soup is an especially desirable lunch.

After perusing a plethora of bizarre recipes online, containing everything from coconut to ravioli (although not in the same recipe!), I decided to just wing it. This is what I came up with.

Laura's Thick and Rich Pumpkin Soup

1 onion
3 tbsp butter
2 cups mashed cooked pumpkin
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 can chicken broth
1 cup evaporated milk

Chop the onions and cook gently with the butter until soft. Add all remaining ingredients except milk. Use an immersion blender to create a smooth consistency. Heat just to the boiling point; add milk, and heat through but do not boil. Serve garnished with fresh parsley.

This soup is very thick. If you prefer a thinner texture, you can add the full can of evaporated milk, instead of only 1 cup, or you could even add water.

This soup was delicious. I enjoyed mine in a wooden bowl that Chris recently made. When we sell these in our shop, we don't really recommend using them for wet things like soup--but I couldn't resist. There is something about the sight of homemade soup in a wooden bowl that just pleases me. It looks so rustic, and timeless. Add a wooden spoon in (which I didn't have) and it could have been a meal from 1000 years ago. :)

Anyhow--I made this soup with baking powder biscuits, which were delicious dipped in the soup. Here's my favourite recipe for biscuits:

Easy Baking Powder Biscuits

2 cups flour
1 tbsp baking powder
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup cold butter
2/3 cup milk

Stir together dry ingredients. Using a pastry cutter, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add the milk and stir until dough sticks together. Add another tablespoon or two of milk if needed. Knead dough a few times until it sticks together. Pat out and use a biscuit cutter to cut out biscuits.

Place on ungreased baking pan and bake at 450 degrees for about 12 minutes, or until golden brown on top. Serve immediately with butter.

With homemade applesauce for dessert, this makes the perfect fall lunch.

Recipe for green tomato relish.

I went ahead and made the recipe for the green tomato pickles from my Joy of Cooking cookbook.

In case anyone was curious, I'm posting the recipe, although I decided it should be called "relish" instead of "pickles," because the end product, delicious as it is, tastes too strong to be eaten by itself--it's obviously meant to be a condiment.

Apparently you can use this relish the same way you'd use chili sauce--on meatloaf, hamburgers, etc.  It is rather sweet, with a delightful spicey aftertaste. And I have read that it's very good if you put it through the blender and mix with cream cheese to make a spread for crackers. I would love to try this, but I am all out of cream cheese today. I also saw some similar recipes online which claimed this stuff is awesome on ham sandwiches. I'll have to try that!

Anyhow, here's the recipe:

First, take half a peck of green tomatoes. That's around 5ish quarts. All quantities in this recipe are approximate. :)

Thinly slice the tomatoes, along with 6 onions, and place in a large stainless steel bowl. Sprinkle with a generous 1/2 cup of coarse salt.

Let sit 12 hours or overnight.

In the morning, you'll have something that looks like this:

Drain this stuff and rinse well in a colandar.

Then, add to a large pot, 6 cups of vinegar. I used half and half white vinegar and apple cider vinegar, although the original recipe called for all apple cider vinegar.

Heat this to the boiling point. While it is heating, chop up 6 cloves of garlic, and some sweet peppers. The original recipe called for 6 green and 3 red peppers, but as I don't have these growing in my garden and have to buy them, I cut it way down to 1 large green pepper and two red peppers. I think though that I should have cut down the vinegar too, because I probably ended up with more vinegar than needed for this amount of veggies to float in.

Add the chopped veggies to the vinegar, along with 2 cups of brown sugar (the original called for 4 cups, but I cut it down). Add in tomatoes and onions. Make up a spice bag, by placing in a piece of cheesecloth: 1 tbsp dry mustard or mustard seed, 1 tbsp whole cloves, 1 stick cinammon, 1 tbsp powdered ginger, 1/2 tbsp salt, 1 tbsp celery seed.

Doesn't that look pretty? Tie up the bag with cotton string and place into the pot. Simmer for about 1 hour or until tomatoes are translucent. Stir often.

Ladel into sterilized jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace, and process in a hot water bath for 15 minutes.

There you have it! A real old-fashioned recipe which is an interesting way to use up those green tomatoes that we all have this time of year.

Green tomato pickles.

A few days ago I went over to my Grandma's house to pull out the small group of tomato plants we had grown there this year in a corner of her yard. She helped me (even at age 92 it's impossible to keep her out of the garden) and as we worked, and filled a bucket with the remaining green tomatoes, she told me of the green tomato pickles her mother used to make, and how much she used to love them--especially piled thick on homemade bread and butter.

She told me how the green tomatoes were chopped first, sprinkled with coarse salt and left in a crock overnight; then drained, and cooked with onions, brown sugar, vinegar, and spices. When I came home I immediately looked for a recipe within my cookbook collection. I found a recipe in my 1972 copy of The Joy of Cooking that sounded identical to the one my grandmother described. However, it called for a peck of tomatoes...I know that is 1/4 of a bushel, but how do I measure that? The recipe sounds huge, using a dozen sweet peppers and a dozen onions...I would like to cut it down, but I have no idea how many green tomatoes to use.

This is the bucket of tomatoes I have:

The bucket was originally for 5 kg (11lb) of cherries. So that's probably about the weight of the tomatoes I have too. Would that work out to about a peck? If someone knows the answer, do tell! I'd like to get started on these green tomato pickles because I love to try new things--and I'd also love to give a jar to my grandmother and ask her if it tastes anything like she remembers. :)

Something else new I tried canning last week was apple butter. I had never even tried apple butter, but hey, I had lots and lots of apples, so why not? I don't think it turned out very well. Probably because I  doubled the spices the recipe called for (in a tired late-night moment of "inspiration") and because I think I left it in the slow cooker a bit too long. Well, good thing my oldest child loves extra spicy food! I tried a bit smeared on bread and it is indeed quite spicy. I think most of the apple butter is probably going to be used as a filling for cinammon rolls!

(That's the apple butter front and centre. It turned out so dark!)

Last night I also made up one last batch of applesauce. Kira was very helpful to me and peeled each and every apple herself, while I chopped them. This system worked very well--however, I think I'm going to ask for one of these apple peeling devices for Christmas this year, to make the job go even quicker next year. Even 5 quarts of appleauce requires a lot of peeling!

I've really been enjoying canning this year. Even though I haven't done very much--only jam, apple butter, applesauce, and soon tomato pickles--it's downright fun to place those jars on the sturdy wooden shelves Chris made for me in our utility room. It's a great feeling to know we have that food preserved and stored for the winter; and it's a great feeling to know I made that food myself, from produce we picked ourselves. This is definitely a way of life I want to continue to pursue. It's my dream that someday, very little of what we eat will come from the store.

Apple Oatmeal Bars.

Since I know everyone has a surplus of apples this time of year, I thought it would be a good time to share one of my favourite apple-containing recipes. :)

I make this recipe for apple oatmeal bars quite often, since Chris likes to take them in his lunch, and because they're easy and economical. The original recipe (which I have altered a wee bit) came from a neat book I have called Stories and Recipes of the Great Depression of the 1930s. This book is out of print now, but if you can find a used copy it's a nice to have. Compiled by an eldery lady in Wisconsin in the 1980s, the old-time inexpensive recipes are interspersed with the stories that folks shared with her about how they coped in the 1930s.

These squares taste a bit like apple pie, because there isn't any sugar in the crust. They're crumbly, so you need to eat them with a fork.

Apple Oatmeal Bars

Mix in a bowl:
1 cup oats (quick or old fashioned will work)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter + 2 tbsp, melted
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Pat half of this into an 8 X 10 or an 8 X 8 pan. If it seems too dry, add a bit more butter.

Mix in a bowl:
2 1/2 cups finely chopped or grated apples
1/2 cup sugar (I use brown sugar)

Spread this mixture over the bottom crust. Top with remaining oatmeal mixture and pat down gently. Bake for 35 minutes at 350 degrees.

If anyone else has a favourite apple recipe they would like to share, please leave a comment with a link! :)

Home Cooking - Chicken Pot Pie.

Chicken pot pie has always been a comfort food for me. I have a recipe that I always use, which originally came from a website somewhere but which I have altered quite a bit. It turns out a bit different every time, but it's always good. It's a meal in itself, but if you're serving a crowd you could add some crusty rolls and a salad on the side.

Chicken Pot Pie.

Piecrust
1 1/4 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter
3 tbsp cold water

Filling
4 tbsp butter
1 onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 stalk carrot, chopped
1/4 cup flour
1 1/2 cups homemade chicken stock (the richer the better)
1 cup milk
1/4 each dried ground sage and thyme, or 1 tsp each dried (not ground)
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups diced leftover chicken
2 cups leftover vegetables, or any combination of fresh/frozen/leftover you like. I personally like to use some corn, green beans, and diced potatoes (although for the pie in the picture I used potatoes, red pepper and green peas)

Instructions
Make the piecrust first: Whisk together flour and salt. Cut in butter with a pastry blender, until the mixture is crumbly.

Sprinkle water over dough. Mix with a wooden spoon. Add another few teaspoonfuls if needed. The dough should pack together.

Pack the dough into a ball, knead once or twice, wrap with plastic wrap and press into a disk 1 inch thick. Put in the refridgerator while you make the filling.

Filling: In a large pan, over medium low heat, stir the celery, carrots and onion into melted butter. Cover the pan and gently sweat the veggies for about 8 minutes, stirring a few times. Stir in flour. Increase heat to medium.

Add stock and milk to pan and whisk to blend all ingredients. Add sage, thyme, and pepper. Don't add any salt until you've tasted the sauce. If the stock was quite salty, no more salt will be needed.

Stir in chicken and remaining vegetables. Remove pan from heat, and dump contents into a large casserole dish. I usually use a 9 X 13 pyrex dish.

Heat oven to 400 degrees. While the oven heats, roll the pastry for the top crust. Do it on a sheet of waxed paper to make it easier to life the crust onto the filling. Try to make it the approximate size of whatever dish you're using.

Poke some steam vents, or as I usually do cut out a heart shape while rolling out the dough.

Bake on center rack of oven for 40 minutes or until nicely browned and bubbling. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Enjoy! :)

Home Cooking: Making stock in a slow cooker.

Now that Autumn is here, the breeze is chilly, and the comforts of home seem all the more enjoyable, I thought I would do some posts about good old home cookin'. Although gardening, sewing, and many other domestic skills still seem to elude my grasp, cooking is one skill that I have been teaching myself for many years now. Probably, it's also the easiest. So I hope my upcoming series of posts will encourage a few people to try cooking some things from scratch that they haven't before. Food made from whole and natural ingredients at home tastes miles ahead better than anything you can buy ready made at the store. It definitely saves money making everything from scratch, which I know is an important consideration for many of us these days. And of course, when you make food yourself you know what's in it, which is no small thing either.

All right, on with it then. I have been making homemade stock for many years. Any time we have roast chicken, or chicken pieces with bones, I save the bones for stock. Homemade stock is delicious--you can use it in various cooking applications or can simply add other things to the pot and make it soup. It's less expensive than purchasing broth for cooking. It doesn't contain MSG like broth from the store. And, it has many health benefits, since minerals from the bones leach into the water. Check out this article which explains some of the health benefits of bone broth.

I used to always make stock on the stove top, but as I knew that to get really good, nutritious stock, it's best to simmer the bones for at least 12 hours, it was sometimes inconvenient to have the stock pot on the stove that long. And although I let it simmer over night a few times, I didn't really feel comfortable doing that.So when my sister gifted me with her virtually unused slow cooker recently, I decided to make chicken stock in it. I'd heard many people online say that this was their preferred way for making stock.

Last night we had two small roasted chickens for supper. After the kitchen was cleaned up, and I had put the leftover breast meat in the fridge for sandwiches, I got out the slow cooker, and placed the two chicken carcasses inside, along with the leftover gravy, the partially eaten legs, the onions that had been inside the chickens, and any little scraps and drippings from the roasting pan. I filled it up with water, set it on low, put the lid on, and forgot about it until this morning.

When I came downstairs at 8 o'clock this morning I found I had a slow cooker filled with fragrant golden stock.

I wish I could somehow put into the picture how delicious my house smelled!

I let it continue simmering through breakfast, and then turned off the slow cooker and let it cool for about an hour while we did our morning homeschool lessons. Then I scooped out the solid pieces with a slotted spoon and placed them in a bowl. I lifted the basin out of the slow cooker and carefully poured the stock through a colander lined with cheesecloth, into a large cooking pot. This step is rather important if you don't want little undesirable floaty bits in your stock. The cheesecloth isn't necessary--if you have a good strainer (not colander, an actual strainer) it should work okay. The cheesecloth just does the best job of clarifying the stock. See all the bits it filtered out?

At this point you can put the stock in the fridge, so that the fat on the surface will harden and can be easily removed. I skipped this step today because I had removed the skin from the chicken, so there wasn't too much grease (a little bit of grease doesn't bother me anyway). I wanted to use the stock right away.

There you have it, homemade stock, ready to use for anything you like.

Tomorrow I'm going to show you how to use this stock to make one of our favourite meals: Chicken pot pie. :)

Homemade chocolate milk.

I found this recipe on a can of cocoa. It tastes good, more chocolately and less sweet than commercial chocolate milk. There are no preservatives or other strange ingredients. And of course, it's much less expensive!

I'm sharing it here now because early September is back to school time, and I thought if anyone was giving their children a thermos of milk in their school lunches, they might enjoy giving the kids a surprise and making it chocolate milk once in a while. Or, if you homeschool like me, giving the kids chocolate milk with their lunch makes that milk disappear with unheard of speed!

Homemade Chocolate Milk

First you make chocolate syrup:

In a saucepan, combine 1 cup cocoa,  1 1/2 cups sugar, 1/2 tsp salt and 1 1/2 cups water. (I added a small splash of vanilla as well.) Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Store in a sealed container in the refrigerator.

To make chocolate milk, add 1 or 2 tbsp to a glass of cold milk. Or, however much you want. A large glass of milk will definitely need 3-4 tbsp. Stir and serve. Enjoy!

My baby is two already!

Yesterday was Jasper's second birthday. I can't believe this spunky, mischievous little guy has been with us for two whole years!

He was a real pro when it came to blowing out his candles.

For the birthday cake this time, I wanted to make something that Jasper would like...cheese and berries are two of his most favourite things in the world, so I made this recipe from joy of baking.com, White Butter Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, and topped it with berries. The cake looked rather pretty, but in terms of deliciousness, it was a complete flop. Seriously! Although I followed the recipe exactly, and even whipped the egg whites separately and folded them in for maximum fluffiness, the cake layers were practically as hard as rocks. Without doubt the unfluffiest cake I've ever made. I can't figure out what the problem was--was that pastry flour I bought from The Bulk Barn mislabeled? Should I not have used organic sugar, which has a larger crystal than regular white sugar? Or was the recipe wrong? The batter seemed quite dry for cake batter...I am thinking that maybe the recipe should have had more milk than 1/2 cup?

On top of the rock-hard cake, the cream cheese icing was too sweet, and the lemony flavour was too strong...nobody liked this cake, although Jasper did enjoy picking all the berries off.

Maybe I should have gotten the Dairy Queen ice cream cake that I got my other two for their second birthdays...ah, well. You win some, you lose some. :)

Jasper did like the cape I made for him, and the crown that a dear blogging friend kindly made for him.

Let me tell you...that cape was NOT fun to make. That red material, which is so pretty and silky, was H-E-double-toothpicks to work with. No matter what I did, no matter how many pins I used, that stuff slid all over the place. I could not get the two types of material to hold together, nor sew a straight seam, for the life of me. You can't see the bottom seam there, but it's completely lumpy, puckered, and weird looking!

As a side note, for the cape I used this tutorial at The Pleated Poppy, which I really liked because it was so easy. No pattern pieces--the cape was drawn freehand, which suited me just fine. Measurements make me nervous, because you can get them wrong. :) I do plan on making more play capes from this tutorial--Kira has already requested a purple one--but next time, no silky fabric!

See the foam sword in the picture? We got him two of them so the boys could play together...Jasper has already taken a large bite out of both swords. I guess he just couldn't resist the spongey texture...after all it was softer than the birthday cake. ;)

Overall though, I am pleased with our efforts to keep his birthday simple and inexpensive. Making a gift instead of buying it saved a lot of money--I didn't even pay a penny for the cape because I already had the thread and fabric. And it felt a lot more special to give him a gift I had made myself.

A quiet Monday.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm going to try getting over my fear of my sewing machine and make a simple cape for Jasper's birthday next week. But before I jump right into that project, I thought it would be a good idea to warm up a bit by doing some altering that I've been meaning to do for ages. So far, this has not gone very well. Honestly, if there is a gene for sewing, I think I'm missing it, which is shocking when both my mother and grandmother are expert sewists.

First I tried to take in a slip that was a bit big on me. I had to pull it out and redo it several times because the material was all puckering and looked weird even after I tried to press it...in retrospect I think I was using the wrong size of needle for such thin silky fabric. I just discovered that I have some size 9 needles that I inherited with the sewing machine, I should have used one of those I guess. But then, it was only last night that I was reading tutorials on Sew Mama Sew! and realized that needles even came in different sizes. (Laugh if you like, it is funny.)

Never mind that, a slip goes under clothing anyway, nobody sees it right? So I crossed that item off my list. At least it stays up when I wear it. Next I tried to hem some super long blue jeans. I figured, what could be easier than hemming a pair of pants? So I folded them up the right amount, pressed them, and ran a straight stitch around the bottom with white thread, which was the only non-funky colour I had. But I should have folded the extra material over an extra time, because it was flopping down when I wore them. So I yanked out the seams, cut the bottom of the jeans off, folded and pressed twice...but the original thread was used up, and I was using the only thread I had which was thicker, and it went all loopy on the bottom of the fabric, so I had to pull it out again.

 

Yesterday I got lots of sewing machine advice from both my mom and my grandma, so I am hoping that this afternoon I will actually be able to put in a hem that I won't have to rip out again. Third time's a charm, right? After that I'm moving onto a jean skirt I wanted to add a panel to...keeping my fingers crossed on that one as it's a project I'm totally and completely winging.

Owen was really cute yesterday, "helping" me sew. I asked him to unwind the bobbin for me after I came to the conclusion that the thread I had was too thick to do anything with...he did this for a few moments and then said meekly, "Mom, wouldn't it be a better idea to get the machine to unwind it for us?" Good thing I have him for a helper! I'm just clueless about everything having to do with machines in general.

Today the house is very quiet. Chris started a new job today at a local industrial shop. He's pleased with it, because he will only be working 3 or 4 days per week (just really long shifts), which will still give him plenty of time to do his woodworking and go with us on family outings as well. It seems strange to have him gone all day. For the past few years he's been attending college, and never really had a heavy schedule, so we've gotten used to him often being at home. Especially since school ended in April, when he's been home all the time, although he is usually in the garage making toys. :)

Perhaps I'm just spoiled, but I don't really like being apart too much. It's my hope that someday, when we finally reach our dream of having a homestead on our own land, we'll find ways to create sufficient income that don't involve either of us being gone from home for 10 or 12 hours at a time.

But for now, at least one of us has to work for wages, or we'll never realize our dreams of owning land. One thing is for sure, that I have plenty to keep me busy here at home while Chris is at work. And that's the way I like it. I love being home, and working around the house. My only problem with being a full-time homemaker is that I never have quite enough time to do everything I'd like to.

I made some jam-filled muffins this morning that I can individually wrap and put in the freezer for Chris's lunches at work. They were very easy, and I think they turned out quite well, so I thought I'd share the recipe. I know that this time of year most of us have lots of jam to spare! (Note: Maybe some day, I'll post a recipe on my blog that is not a baked good. Maybe.)

Raspberry Jam Filled Muffins

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs

2/3 cup milk

1/3 cup melted butter

1 tsp grated lemon zest (I added a squirt of juice too for good measure)

1/2 cup raspberry jam (homemade is best!)

In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl, beat eggs. Add milk, butter and lemon zest. Pour into dry mixture, stirring just until moistened. Don't over mix!

Spoon half the batter into greased muffin tins. (This recipe will make 12 small muffins, or 9-10 medium sized ones.) Add a spoonful of jam to each cup. Spoon remaining batter over jam. Bake in 400 degree oven for 20 minutes or until lightly browned.

In the kitchen.

With the two zucchinis I had in my fridge--first vegetables harvested this season!--I decided to make a chocolate zucchini cake.

I love chocolate zucchini cake--it's so moist and delicious, and it's a good way to sneak some veggies into the children, because the green flecks are barely noticeable at all. And also, because it's chocolate. :)

This is the recipe I usually use:

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

1 3/4 cups sugar

1 cup butter, softened or melted

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup sour cream

2 cups shredded zucchini (I use the small holes on my cheese grater)

1 1/2 cups flour

4 tbsp cocoa

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinammon

1/2 tsp salt

Chocolate chips

Cream butter with sugar. Add eggs, vanilla and sour cream and mix well. Mix dry ingredients and add to wet ingredients. Stir in zucchini. Spoon onto greased 9 x 13 pan. Sprinkle with a couple handfuls of chocolate chips. Bake at 325 F for 40 minutes or until done.

Yum!

Yesterday I decided to do a bit more canning. I made another small batch of raspberry jam, because the first batch I made was so delicious that I know it won't last long. I also made a batch of grape jelly, using organic grape juice from the grocery store. The jelly didn't set at first--it was downright watery. I wasn't sure what I had done wrong. I tried opening one jar and boiling the contents for a few minutes. Then I poured it back into the jar and placed it in the fridge. A few hours later, it was definitely grape jelly, much to my relief. So I guess I just didn't boil it quite long enough the first time. I'll be more careful to boil jams and jellies long enough in the future.

I like my shelf downstairs, which is starting to fill up with jam. It's a lovely sight to my eyes.

We have the makings for a lot of peanut butter sandwiches there! (Actually, this is literally true, because the shelf below is filled with jars of peanut butter I bought when they were on sale.)

I hope, before the summer is over, to learn to can some other things besides jam--dill pickles perhaps, which is something else we go through a lot of around here. There's always something new to learn. :)