Category: Recipes

Posted in Blessings of Habit, Herbs, Inspiring, Recipes, Who's the mom here?, Wisdom

$aving of the Green – Blog Carnival

Posted on by Katharine

"Waste No Food... Food is Wasted... Food ...

I’ve been writing about saving money (saving resources, saving the ecology, etc.) for years, but all that work is scattered around on this site, and rather hard to find amidst over 700 posts.

Now I’ve been invited to help a fellow blogger create a “carnival” which is basically a collections of bloggers using the same topic. Rather than rewrite so much content, I am creating this list as my entry in her project.

Saving resources in a sort of do-by-self way has been the theme of our great country for many centuries. We were not always motivated by the same exact ethic when we scraped and made do, but we always just could never feel right throwing away perfectly good stuff.

I guess it came too hard. My mom always reminded me of all the starving people in some far-away place. Many of them have since moved here, but still, how cruel to throw away that last bite of food on the plate, when they would do almost anything to obtain it for themselves! Ahem — except work, that is.

Well, and then there are the ones who have managed to get the food off our plates, but that’s another subject.

The facts remain, though. If you own a patch of dirt and some seed, you can eat. If you bother with putting food up in jars, you can save our tin resources. If you eat leftovers you save food. If you grow your own, you save money on groceries.

In other words, whether you save out of poverty, stubbornness, habit, frugality, guilt, or greed, DO join in this grand, centuries-old fad and $AVE something!

Now, enjoy the list, and don’t forget, several others are contributing on other sites you can find here.

That’s all for now. I probably lost some, so let me know if you find them. Thanks.

Posted in Herbs, Recipes

Announcing Another New Page – Recipes!

Posted on by Katharine

Cookbook

Okay.

I know this site is a mix.

But so is home life.

One minute you’re mopping the face of a heart-broken pre-schooler
while dispensing wisdom about overcoming heartbreak.

The next minute, supper is due.

Or past due.

You come here for help and encouragement about the home.

Me, too, sometimes.

And if I am not feeding a soul, I am feeding a tummy.

Or 17 tummies.

And looking for that recipe.

Or wishing for a new recipe.

When one of my own recipe cards is lost, I come here, myself.

Really!

I need that recipe!

When you need a recipe,

or a boot in the motivator,

or you just want to think about food,

COME HERE!

 And have fun.

P.S. I know I have not found all the recipes I’ve posted at Home’s Cool, and need to search for more. They’re tucked into all sorts of places, kinda like at my house. If you find one somewhere, here, and it’s not on the new page, let me know, please. I’ll send you a yum recipe of your choice from my private stash as a reward.

Posted in Blessings of Habit, Homemaking, Recipes

You Can’t Fax a Fig

Posted on by Katharine

Ficus carica

We have all sorts of electronic substitutes these days. We push a button and things happen, things appear. We can bank on-line. We can borrow a book through the Kindle service. We can send an e-mail.

But it’s not real money, not a real book, and not a real letter. We’ve trained ourselves to accept the electronic substitute and taught ourselves to believe it costs us less, although usually it does not. Not if we think about all the real costs.

Anyway, I’ve been picking figs, lately, and the only, ONLY, ONLY way to get a fig that is still warm from hanging in the sunshine is to get up out of a chair, go outdoors, walk over to the tree, reach up, grab ahold, and pull a fig off the branch.

And it is worth all that incredible effort. A warm, ripe fig is a soft and squishy confection, what some might call “deliciously juicy”. Softer than a banana, sweeter than a strawberry, not sticky like caramel, yet reminiscent of all three, a fig can only truly be compared to another fig.

Oh yes — worth it.

And the people who like a fig enough to plant the tree, or to get off that chair and go on out there, or to cut the stems off the fruit and get out some canning jars, or to stir some canned fig into a cake batter — they’re worth it, too.

These are the kitchen people. The real butter people. The whole wheat flour, olive oil, honey, and home-grown eggs people. If offered store-bought, um, we really don’t mind fasting that much.

Got figs? Get these recipes!

MYO Fig Bars

2 c. chopped figs, stems removed
3/4 c. water
1/4 c. honey
2 tbsp. whole wheat flour
Boil until clear. Cool.
Dough:
1/2 c. butter
2 small eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. honey
1/2 tsp. soda
2 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
Cream butter and honey. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat until fluffy. Add flour and soda (sifted together).

Press half of dough into 9×13 pan. Spread fig filling evenly over dough. Roll remaining dough on wax paper and flip onto top of filling. Press gently. Mark bars by cutting through top, slightly. Bake at 375 degrees until lightly browned. Cool. Cut bars. Better than you-know-what.

Fig Bread

3 eggs
2 1/2 c. sugar
2 c. mashed, ripe figs
3/4 c. very fine olive oil
3 c. flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 c. buttermilk
1 c. chopped pecans
Beat sugar into eggs. Add figs and oil. Sift together dry ingredients.  Add to figs, alternately, with buttermilk. Beat well. Fold in pecans. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour in greased and floured loaf pans. Yields 3 loaves.

Have fun!

Posted in Photos, Recipes

I Like Pickles! – part 2 – The Recipes!

Posted on by Katharine
Cucumbers (specifically, Gherkins) gathered fo...
These are true Gherkins, a specific variety, but you may use any small cucumber. Mmm!

Once you have cucumbers plants zipping along, all you need is patience and a good recipe. To me, a good pickle recipe takes only one day of actual handling of the cucumbers. However, to go strictly by taste, some of the best recipes take a few days. Both types of recipe are given here.

After you have all the “baby Gherkins” you need (at the rate of eating one pint a month, twelve pints should be enough, but they are nice gifts, too) you can begin letting the cucumbers mature to the size for dills, “bread and butters”, and for use in salads.

After that you can start trying to find friends who need cucumbers.

After that you can start trying to find enemies who need cucumbers.

After that you can start a cucumber stand.

After that you can attack the row with an ax, screaming . . .

Well, twenty-five plants will be too many once you get your Gherkins, so be prepared to do the unthinkable and till that row under after a time. Tell yourself, “A weed is any plant that is growing in the wrong place.” They make good fertilizer, anyway.

One other thought about pickles. Some people pressure-can everything they put into jars. Others do not. I never recommend that practice to anyone else. I do recommend that you follow the directions on pressure or hot-water canning to the letter, always. Also, whenever a pickle recipe calls for vinegar, it means “5% acidity apple cider vinegar” unless noted otherwise. It does NOT mean “4 ½% amber-colored, distilled, apple-cider-flavored vinegar”. In other words, get the real thing. The same for salt. Do not use regular table salt, but special salt for canning or at least get un-iodized salt.

Also, think about the quality of the water you use. High quality water is better, by far. I use a pitcher type filter with good results.

Now for the recipes.

Baby Gherkins

2 gallons cold water
2 cups pickling lime
7 pounds cucumbers (about 1 gallon, but weigh them!)
2 quarts vinegar (see above, about vinegar)
1 Tbs. whole cloves
1-2 tsp. whole pickling spices
1 Tbs. canning salt
4 pounds sugar

Mix lime with 2 gallons of water. Add cucumbers. Soak 24 hours. Drain and rinse well. Cover cucumbers with clear water and soak 3 hours. Drain. Mix vinegar, spices, salt, and sugar. Bring to a boil. Pour over cucumbers and soak 12 hours. Dump all into a pan and boil hard for 35 minutes. Place into boiling hot jars. Cap with hot lids. Process for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath.

Kosher Dill Pickles

Brine:
1 cup pickling salt
3 quarts water
1 quart vinegar (see above about vinegar)

Pack cucumbers as tightly as possible into clean quart jars. Into each jar, also place:
1 clove garlic
2 heads dill (fresh) or 2 tsp. dried seed
1 cayenne pepper

Bring brine to a rolling boil. Pour brine into each jar to cover all contents. Cap with hot lids. Process in boiling water bath for 20 minutes. Allow to cure for six weeks before eating. The quantities for the brine above will make 7 to 8 quarts of pickles (or about two gallon jars, but then you cannot hot-water bath them. Many people never do and they make fine pickles.) Cucumbers may be whole, spears, chunks, or slices, but whole ones stay crisper.

Bread and Butter Pickles

8 cups sliced cucumbers*
2 cups sliced onion*
1 Tbs. canning salt
1 ¾ cups sugar
1 cup vinegar (see above about vinegar)
1 tsp. mustard seed
½ cup chopped bell pepper
1 tsp. celery seed

Stir salt into cucumbers and onions. Let soak for one hour. Heat remaining ingredients to a boil. Add cucumber mixture with all its juice. Bring to a boil again. Pack into boiling hot jars. Cap with hot lids. Process for 20 minutes in a boiling water bath. Yield: 5-6 pints. *Chop or grind to make relish instead.

Cucumber Salad

1 cup chopped cucumber
1 cup chopped tomato
1 cup chopped bell pepper
¼ cup chopped onion
1 cup Italian dressing (vinegar/oil type)

Mix and enjoy!

_________________________

photo credit: wikipedia

Posted in Homemaking, Inspiring, Photos, Recipes

Love Frozen Over!

Posted on by Katharine
Save the berries!
Save the berries!

Here’s the inside scoop on really neat tricks to make you fall in love with your freezer even more:

  • When you harvest elderberries, pick the whole stem, freeze the whole stem inside a plastic bag, and remove the berries frozen. You get more juice into your recipe and less running down your elbows.
  • If you have a problem with fruit not ripening all at once, freeze the early pieces and combine them with the later harvest for your larger recipes.
  • Save juice for jellies, frozen in recipe size batches, in freezer safe cartons, until sugar is on sale. Allow 24 hours for a gallon to thaw at room temp.
  • Start a sourdough bread business, offering a discount on frozen surplus.
  • Make your own brown and serve rolls out of any favorite bread recipe by baking the rolls at 275 degrees for 40 minutes, instead of the usual directions. Cool, bag, and freeze. Or if they are individual rolls, freeze on a tray, first, then bag. Then use as needed, right from the frozen state, baking on a cookie sheet at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes.
  • Rescue cheese by grating and freezing it. Use frozen grated cheese straight from the freezer in recipes.
  • Freeze milk while on vacation. Leave 2 inches for expansion.

Okay. You know you’re here for the RECIPES!

That Exquisite Dish

1 chicken, cleaned and skinned
2 qt. Pure water
½ c. fresh sage leaves
¼ c. fresh lemon basil leaves
2 stalks celery, chunked
1 onion, chopped, divided
1 T. salt
1 cayenne pepper
2 c. brown rice
½ stick butter
½ c. whole wheat flour
salt  to taste
8 oz. mild cheddar cheese, grated
1 pt. “rotel”, mashed in juice

Simmer chicken in 2 qt. water, sage, basil, celery, ½ onion, 1 T. salt, and cayenne, until meat separates from bone. Drain, reserving broth. Refrigerate broth until fat congeals. Remove fat. De-bone chicken. Chop meat slightly, to make bite-sized pieces. Chop cooked seasoning vegetables finely.  Mix with meat. Do not mix meat until it disintegrates – just stir some.

Bring one qt. broth and rice to boil. Cover and simmer until tender.

Cook remaining onion over medium heat, in butter, until clear. Remove from heat. Add flour and stir. Mix in carefully over medium heat with wire whip, enough broth to make medium thick sauce. Add water if necessary, salt to taste.

Layer in 9×13 glass casserole as follows:
rice
chicken
sauce
cheese
Repeat.

Pour jar of mashed Rotel over all. Bake at 350 degrees until lightly browned and bubbly. Or cover tightly and freeze no more than 3 months. Uncover, place in 350 degree oven, bake until brown and bubbly, about 45 minutes.

Serves 12.

Watermelon Ice

½ leftover watermelon
1 lemon
honey
other fruit (opt.)
milk or condensed milk (opt.)

Remove seed from melon. Puree fruit in blender. Add other pureed fruits or milk if desired. Add juice of lemon. Add honey to taste. Freeze in shallow glass pan or bowl. Stir twice while freezing. Or try freezing in sealable bag, kept upright in freezer, and mashing instead of stirring. Serve as sherbet.

Frozen Dampened Laundry

1 bu. assorted shirts
1 c. powdered soap
2 tubs water, divided
1 unpredictable day
1 unbelievable week

Mix shirts, soap, and 1 tub water. Heat and stir well. Drain. Place shirts in second tub water. Stir well. Drain. Hang shirts to dry outdoors in sun. After 5 hours, condensation will form and fall from a small cloud immediately above shirts. Remove laundry when only slightly damp. Fold and roll as for French pastry, bag, and freeze. Keeps indefinitely. Calories: minus 560.

Posted in Believe it or not!, Blessings of Habit, Health, Homemaking, Inspiring, Photos, Recipes, Who's the mom here?

Smoked Turkey

Posted on by Katharine
Smoked Turkey
Image by BBQ Junkie via Flickr

Now. May I talk you into smoking a turkey sometime soon? We have found it a most welcome way to introduce turkey into a meal. Many people prefer the taste of it.

Some say smoked meats keep better because of substances in the smoke that penetrate the surface of the flesh. It makes sense if we consider that charcoal is a good purifier and preservative. This does not mean you need not refrigerate a turkey that has been smoked, but everything we can do to make meat safer to eat is probably wise.

It’s definitely the easiest way to prepare turkey.

Besides, don’t you think the Pilgrims smoked theirs?

Smoking food is not hard but you will need a smoker.

I saw one that a friend had built of brick and it made wonderful smoked chicken. If you have natural stone you could probably build a small smoker with almost no cost. I’ve heard of hanging meat down a chimney, but I know nothing factual about that and I am a terrible climber. A stainless steel smoker with electric start costs in the hundreds, too fancy for me. The most reasonably priced smoker at our local discount store is less expensive than a stand mixer, and comes with good instructions and recipes. When I consider how often we smoke something, it is worth it to me.

Do make or buy the type that can have a water pan and a temperature gauge. Our gauge says “ideal”, instead of 170 to 210 degrees, which is the ideal temperature range for hot smoking meat. (Cool smoking can take weeks.)

In a smoker like ours, which is a cylinder about three feet tall and eighteen inches in diameter, use about five pounds of charcoal. Light it (do not use petroleum type lighters) and wait for it to turn white, just as you would if grilling food.

At this point you may add a couple handfuls of green hardwood chips, such as hickory or apple, for extra flavor, or you can buy dry chips and soak them in water for this use. DO NOT ADD PINE OR OTHER SOFTWOODS. They give a chemical taste.

Place a wide enamel pan holding about a gallon or two of hot water over (not on) the charcoal. Set a wire shelf or grill on the pan and the turkey on this shelf. Close the smoker and wait 10 to 12 hours. The turkey is done. It is that easy.

If you bought a fresh turkey (or if you raised it yourself) you can serve this luscious food guilt-free and hassle-free. It even should have fewer calories than conventional recipes because it doesn’t stew in its own drippings; they drip off.

Apart from these quality improvements, the one great benefit of smoking a turkey is that it can make the celebration of God’s  bountiful blessings much more fun. Giving thanks is supposed to be joyful and all are supposed to participate. Smoking the meat gives you more free oven space and more free time for other wonderful things like letting your children help.

I suggest you practice smoking meat a few times before trying any big important meal. You’ll need practice to learn to trust the temperature gauge and leave the smoker closed. Any loss of precious smoke and heat just slows you down. Do not open it, especially for bigger cuts of meat, unless the temperature shows that all is not well. Then you must open it and fix the fire. This rarely happens.

A smoked turkey will look raw, if you judge by color, for the meat will be pink, like ham. So the test should be for tenderness and meat temperature. Juices should run clear. Joints should be loose or separating.

It is better to plan to have your turkey done somewhat earlier than “on time”, about an hour or two. The extra time is for deboning. People want to get at the meat, not inspect a dead bird. Once deboned, it can be warmed in a pan with a few dribbles of water and a lid or foil over it, set into the oven at 350 degrees. A thorough heating should remove all doubts of safety for the cautious.

It smells and tastes good enough to eat!

Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared, for this day is holy unto the Lord . . . Nehemiah 8:10.

______________________________

Image by BBQ Junkie via Flickr

Posted in Blessings of Habit, Health, Homemaking, Photos, Recipes, Scripture

Favorite Thanksgiving Recipes

Posted on by Katharine

fruit-salad-737096_640

Fruit Salad

6 c. diced mixed fruits
1 c. chopped celery
1 c. nuts
1 c. coconut
1 Tbs. cinnamon
1/4 c. frozen orange juice concentrate

Mix well and enjoy. Serves about ten.

Overnight Dinner Rolls

2 pkg. dry yeast
2 c. warm water
1/2 c. sugar
6-7 c. flour, divided
2 t. salt
1 egg, beaten
1/4 c. oil

Mix yeast, water, and sugar together. Let rest 5 minutes. Mix 3 c. flour and salt and add yeast mixture to it. Add beaten egg and oil. Add 3 – 4 c. flour to make a stiff dough. Knead. Let rise. Punch down. Shape into 24 rolls and place into well-greased 9×13 pan. Refrigerate, covered, overnight. Allow to warm about 20 minutes before baking at 350 degrees until brown. Yield: about 2 dozen large rolls.

World’s Best Pie Crust

3 c. flour
1 1/4 c. butter, softened
1 egg, well beaten
5 T. water
1 T. vinegar

Cut butter into flour. Combine egg, water, and vinegar. Pour liquids into flour mix, all at once. Stir with spoon or fork until doughy and mixed. Easy to roll and re-roll. Enough for 2, two-crust pies, or 4, one-crust pies.

Winter Squash Pie

1 crust
2 c. cooked, mashed winter squash
2/3 c. brown sugar
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. ginger
1/2 t. nutmeg
1/2 t. salt
1/8 t. clove
2 eggs, beaten
1 c. cream

Mix all together, adding cream last. Pour into crust. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 to 60 minutes. Serves 8.

Whipped Sweet Potatoes

2- 3 large sweet potatoes
1 t. salt
1/2 to 1 c. milk
1/4 c. butter

Wash, peel, cut up potatoes. Cover with water in deep pan. Add salt. Boil until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain. Place in large bowl. Mash or beat with mixer. Add milk and butter. Whip until fluffy. Serve with butter and cinnamon/sugar or honey. Serves 6 – 8.

Go you way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared, for this day is holy unto our lord . . . Nehemiah 8:10

_________________________

Image via Wikipedia