Balogna Rolls and Bathroom Business

My grandmother used to make this recipe.  She may have invented it.  Her mother may have made it before her.  I don't really know.  Very filling, yummy, and easy.  And, it used to be cheap, lol.  Not so much these days.  But it is a family favourite.

Balogna Rolls

Lay out slices of balogna on a clean counter.  Break cheese slices into thirds and place one third in the center of each balogna.  Cover with yellow beans.  Fold ends of balogna over and stab through with toothpick to hold shape.

Combine equal parts cream of celery soup and milk in a glass baking pan.  Place balogna rolls into sauce.

Cover and bake 1 hour @ 350°F.  Uncover, continue baking until edges start to crisp (about half hour).  Serve with sauce over mashed potatoes.  Delish!

I tried out my cream of celery soup.  It's a keeper.  The consistency is a little runny, so I may add a bit of corn starch or flour to the next batch before baking, but it tastes great!

Still canning, and now painting, flooring, cursing lots.

We lost some of the bathroom floor tiles a while back, in front of the bath tub, and I tried patching them back together.  It didn't hold.  The press board underneath was falling apart.  While the floor does get a little wet when the kids bathe, it really didn't seem like enough to be causing so much damage. The folks at home hardware explained to hubby that the toilet is supposed to be raised with some thing-a-ma-jig when you put in a new floor, otherwise the condensation will go under the tiles.  We figured that's what was happening, because the toilet did not appear to be raised.

We decided to pull the tiles out, replace the damaged board and put in linoleum.   Oh, what a mess.  The tiles were put in before the sink cabinet, so Husband had to disconnect the pipes and pull the cabinet out.  Then as they worked toward the toilet, pulling tiles, Husband and the Bigs discovered black mold.  They pulled the toilet out.  Home hardware was right, the toilet had not been raised.  And the gasket was disintegrated.  And the tap at the back was dripping.  And we never noticed because all of that water was pooling in the press board, under the tiles.

The black mold seems to have just been on the press board, which they removed.  The real floor appears to be solid, although wet.  Some of the original linoleum tiles are still in place.

We're going to give it a few days to dry out completely and watch for more mold, before attempting to put in a new floor and reinstall the toilet.  I have no toilet!!  One bathroom in this house.  I'm going to borrow my parents chemical toilet for the time being.

But at least I can shower. (Hot water heater was out last week).

You know, after I remove the cabinet and all of the bathroom stuff from the tub.

High of 14°C, low of 0°C forecast for this week.

Crab Apples

The Ontario government building in the city has about 12 of these beautiful crabapple trees planted around it.  I spotted them last year, but wasn't quite sure what to do with crabapples at the time.  I did some research, and then didn't have any other business in the city that would accommodate crabapple picking. 

I had nearly forgotten about them, until I needed to go to the government building one day.  I asked for permission to pick them, and once granted, we filled two and a half grocery bags.  I figure that's about two bushels.  We barely made a dent in the 'crop', and never used a ladder.  These were all picked off the lower branches.

Back at home, I started rinsing and trimming off the blossom ends and stems.  I found some interesting websites to help with the process.

Crabapple Schnapps

  Enjoy Crabapples All Year Long

•  Extracting Juice

•  Pectin Test for Jelly Making

•  Crabapple Juice Drink

•  Crabapple Syrup

•  Crabapple Jelly

•  Crabapple Sauce

•  Canned Whole Crabapples

   Crabapple (crab apple) recipes

   Spiced Crab Apples

    So far I've made juice, which is a bit too 'thick' for our liking.  Watering it down seemed to make it more bitter, so unfortunately I don't think I'll be canning any to drink.  I think it might make a nice blend with oranges, so if I can get a deal before I run out of crabapples, I might try that.

   I made and canned pectin, following Canning Granny's example, which took no effort whatsoever.  The juice passed the pectin test on the first attempt.

  
  I made crabapple sauce, although the boys preferred the second batch, with a bit more sugar, and some cinnamon.

  
  Today I'll be doing crabapple jelly, which is what I had planned to do initially, but got distracted by all of the possibilities.

  
  The skins, cores and seeds are going out to the turkeys, so hopefully they'll plant a few crabapple trees in their pen.  It would be so nice to have another source of free food so close to home!  I'll save a few seeds to plant on purpose next spring, too.  I might even be tempted to buy a crabapple tree.

   And there's still at least another bushel of crabapples left to go.  Not bad for urban foraging.

My Last Attempt

...at plain, boring cucumber relish, for this year anyway.

I taste tested the sweet cucumber relish.  It was better than the dill pickle relish, but had an almost 'bread and butter pickle' taste.  I'm not a fan.

I taste tested the store bought jar in the fridge.  I can't say as I've ever eaten it straight before.  I can't say I'd ever want to again.  But it was definitely not even close to the desired results.

Back to the internets...  more recipes...  they're all the same, but different.  A little more celery here, a little less vinegar there.  Nothing really stood out to me.

Back to the fridge.  I read the label on my store bought jar over and over and over again.  Cucumbers are the main ingredient, followed by sugar, water, vinegar, salt, cornstarch, red peppers, and then the typical chemical concoction.

Back to the recipes.  I settled on this one, and then made a few adjustments.

I cut and deseeded a bucket of cucumbers, then ran them through my meat grinder.  12 Cups.
I had two green peppers in the fridge, so I ground them up, for just over 1 Cup.  I didn't have any red pepper, so I left it out.

I left out the onions.  There's no onion in the store bought version, and I don't like onions anyway.

I've had a bucket full of celery sitting on the table since the fair auction, so I was generous with it.  It's not on the store bought label either, but it is in every recipe I read online, and I like celery.  4 Cups, ground.

That gave me 17 cups of vegetation, versus 11.5 in the recipe, not quite double.    I'm Canadian- we like salt, and I have low blood pressure.  I doubled the salt,  1/2 cup.  Covered it with water, and left it sit for 4 hours.

 I doubled the sugar- 7 cups.  I left the vinegar as it was, 2 cups.  Doubled the celery seed, left the mustard seed.  That's a lot of sugar in just a little bit of liquid.  It took a while to dissolve, stirring constantly.

I strained and squeezed out the excess liquid from the veggies, then added them to the brine.  Simmered 10 minutes, then packed it into the jars.  Processed for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath.

This morning I taste tested it.  It's not bad.  A little too sweet, I might cut the sugar down to 6 cups next time.  The celery is a bit crunchy.  I think it needs to cook a few minutes longer next time. 

It'll definitely do.  This I can eat.  Plain, boring, cucumber relish.  Now to see if it'll keep.

TOO-BLUE-Raspberry Jam and Strawberry Too!

Dad spotted these berries last year, and thought they might be a type of gooseberry.  I went searching for gooseberry recipes, and everything I found was green.  The berries taste good, and didn't poison us, so we ate them anyway.

Well, as luck would have it, just the other day, Kevin posted about his Saskatoon berry gleaning and I thought to myself, hmm...  those berries look familiar.  I did some internet research, and discovered that Saskatoons are native to Northern Canada- not just the prairies, and should taste similar to blueberries.  Well, folks, I believe we have a match.

And then I went picking.  Not enough to do anything with on their own, but there were raspberries growing alongside most of the plants.  And I had a yogurt container of blueberries sitting in the fridge already.  So it only seems logical, this being a bad berry year (late frost, dry spring), to mix it up.

Here's to my first batch of  TOO-BLUE-RASPBERRY JAM

    8 cups mix Saskatoons, Blueberries, and Raspberries
    6 cups sugar
    3 Tbsp lemon juice

    Rinse stem fruit.  Throw it all in the Magic Bullet juicer.   Add to pot.  Then I poured the seeds and pulp in a strainer to drip over top.  It lets a few seeds in, but you get most of the pulp as well.  Mix well.
    Add sugar and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.
    Add lemon juice; bring to a boil and cook, stirring frequently until thick, about 15 minutes.  Remove from heat.
    Pour into hot sterilized jars, leaving 1/4 inch head space; wipe jar rims thoroughly.
    Seal and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

Not a bad haul for something I hadn't planned to do!

The next day, in the grocery store, I bought 6 pounds of strawberries on sale, 3/$5. US imports of course. I was too cheap to buy the fresh Ontario strawberries at $5/pound. Which made a lovely batch of Strawberry Jam.

My jam shelves have overflowed again, so I'm now working on the third.  Clearly I need to use it for more than just toast.

The beans are still going like gangbusters, so I've been slacking in the foraging department.  I might be able to squeeze in another batch of mixed berry jam this season, but I doubt I'll be doing any blueberry sauce or raspberry sauce.  It's just slim picking this year, and far too time consuming.

Pumpkins

Cooler weather means more time inside, and less work to do.  I finally have time to deal with those 6 pumpkins I bought back in October.  Just in time too, it seems.  The one on the right had a couple of bad spots that I had to cut off.

Cleaned out and cut up into chunks in my roasting pan.  I baked it for about 5 hours at 250°F.

A nice bowl of seeds.  Washed, soaked in salt water, then baked below the pupkin for about 20 minutes.

I mashed the pumpkin as it was cooking.  I didn't skin it.  The skin is edible, so I decided to try it out and see what happens.  I run the mashed pumpkin through the magic bullet before using, so that should grind up any chunks that hand mashing missed.

 

 

 Now what to do with it?  Two large pumpkins yielded 11.5 2 Cup servings, stored in 500mL sour cream containers. 

I've frozen it this way in the past, but freezer space is still at a premium.  I'm afraid to even walk into a grocery store right now.  The only way those remaining roosters and turkeys are getting their heads knocked off any time soon is if they're going directly into the oven.

Of course there are pies to bake, and pumpkin bread, but this is a lot of pumpkin to use up, so I went in search of some new recipes to try.  The ones I thought looked interesting are linked below.

Pumpkin Bread

1/2 Cup butter
1 Cup pumpkin puree
2 eggs
1/2 Cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1 3/4 Cup flour

Mix everything up to the salt.  Stir well.  Then add the baking soda, baking powder, and flour.  Mix well.  Pour into greased loaf pans.  Bake @ 350°F for 50 minutes.  I play with the flour somewhat, since home made pumpkin puree is not always the same consistency.

Recipes To Try:

Pumpkin Pie Squares

 Pumpkin Cookies

Pumpkin Butter

Pumpkin Lasagna

Beef and Pumpkin Stew

Pumpkin Chili

Pumpkin Soup

Pumpkin Fritters

Pumpkin Pancakes

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Pumpkin Brownies

Pumpkin Sheet Cake

Bake Sale

I live under a rock.  I've been reading Another Year Without Groceries (thanks PP), and she talks about missing Sushi when they went restaurant free for a year.  I've been reading and hearing about these wonderful Thai, Indian, and other 'cultural' restaurants and such.  We don't eat any of that stuff either.  I, personally, am delighted to have just figured out biscuits.

It's pretty funny, actually.  Americans talk about them all the time.  Like they're some kind of a staple, served with every meal.  There's a country song we hear all the time, "chicken and Biscuits".  I've read recipes for fruit turnovers and such that started with "mix up your Busquick".  I'm generally not looking for recipes that start with "use a cake mix", "one package of ...", "mix 2 cans of this with three cans of that..."  So I just skipped over them.  I wasn't that interested in finding out what Bisquick was.  I had never had a 'biscuit'.

Not that they haven't creeped over the border.  Tim Horton's sells them.  They just never looked that appetizing to me.  I never tried one.

So one day, I'm searching the net for a recipe for pull apart cinnamon buns, and these biscuit recipes kept coming up in my search.  A lot of them were the 'start with biscuick' type.  I kept closing page after page, and getting annoyed.  Until, I found this make a big batch of dough recipe, and keep it for up to 6 weeks.  I can get on board with that.

So I go reload some of the cinnamon recipes, find a couple that should work.  Then I'm thinking, do I really want to eat that many cinnamon buns?  Even over a 6 week period?  I started searching for other stuff to do with biscuit mix.  Unbelievable!  This stuff can be used for fruit turnovers, sloppy joes, garlic buns,  pigs in a blanket, meat pies...  there are tons of recipes that start with it.  That's pretty cool.

I mixed up a big batch to try it out with the pull apart cinnamon buns.  Something is wrong.  It's just lumpy flour.  You don't seriously eat that, do you?  I went back to check the recipe.  I must have missed something.  Nope.  Everything's there.  And then I notice the line, "Use as you would a baking mix."  Ok.  How would you use a baking mix?

I search some more, find a couple of other 'mix' recipes.  Oh.  Add milk.  That appears to be the key.  It appears to work pretty well with 2.5 cups of the mix to 1 cup of milk.

Cinnamon buns were great.  No pics.  I've made garlic buns with it since then, too.

#2 is doing a bake sale at school today with his geography class, to help pay for a trip to Science North in November.  Yesterday I tried the fruit turnovers.  I'm probably doing it wrong, but this stuff is fun to play with, quick and easy.

Hopefully, they'll be a hit at school.

So that's me, connoisseur of foreign foods.  ROTFLMAO.

If not, there's also pie...

Pie crust recipe, from an old cookbook of my mother's... Red Rose, maybe?
5.5 Cups flour
1 pound of lard
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 Tbsp vinegar
1 egg
Water
Cut the lard into the flour.  Mix everything else in a measuring cup.  Add enough water to bring it up to 1 cup.  Mix with flour.  Makes a couple dozen or so pie crusts, depending on how thick you roll them out.

I roll mine out on waxed paper.  Pick up the paper, turn it over onto a pie shell, and peel the paper off.

I made these for the bake sale.  Two more for us, and one for my parents.

Pumpkin Pie
2 Cups sugar
about 2 Tbsp molasses ( I don't measure it cause it sticks to everything)
1.5 tsp cinnamon
.5 tsp cloves
.5 tsp all spice
.5 tsp nutmeg
.5 tsp ginger
.5 tsp salt
2 eggs
1.5 Cups pumpkin puree
drizzle of milk (my pumpkin tends to be a bit runny.  add more milk if you're using thick pumpkin)

Mix it all up in a bowl.  Pour into unbaked pie shells.  Bake @ 450°F 15 minutes.  Reduce to 350°F 40 minutes.

Hopefully he makes enough money to cover the cost of the trip.

Rose Hips

If you've had a frost or two, it's time to get out and start gathering rose hips!  There's some great info here about rose hips, and their uses.

Last year I picked about 4 or 5 cups of rose hips and made rose hip syrop.   Sweet and tangy!  Great on pancakes!  It's high in vitamin C, full of antioxidants, and has it's own natural anti-inflamatory properties.  And free!  Gotta love free.

Be careful before you raid the neighbour's, or the city garden's rose bushes though.  Who knows what kind of chemicals they may be sprayed with?  Better ask first.

I get my rose hips right here in my own backyard.  Wild roses bloom all summer long in the bush, so I try to make a mental note of where there are big bunches of them.  Then I head out in the fall and pick off the rose hips.

So far this year I've only got a half a jar picked.  But soon I will have enough for another batch of syrop.

 Rose Hip Syrop

4 cups rose hips
2 cups water
1 cup sugar

Wash rose hips. Remove stems. Boil with water for 20 minutes in a covered saucepan. Strain juice into pot. Add sugar. Stir well. Boil five minutes.

More rose hip recipes here!

Pickled Beets

The best beet year we've had so far!  After washing them down with the garden hose,

they get a second wash in the kitchen sink.

Cooked in a pot of water for several hours,

then back into the sink.  The skins slip off easily with some cold water and a little rub.

Into a clean pot, with the bigger ones cut into bite size pieces. 
Add the brine:
2 cups of water
2 cups of vinegar
2 cups of sugar

Let them cook and reach a full roaring boil, about 20 minutes.  Then into hot sterilized jars.

Lids and rings, wait for the pop!

Jam Slam 2011- Strawberry Jam

Since the strawberry jam made with store bought US berries went over so well last year, I decided to make another batch when strawberries were on sale a couple of weeks ago.

Strawberry Jam

2 pounds fresh strawberries, hulled
2 cups white sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice

Crush strawberries in batches until you have 4 cups of mashed berry. (I used the magic bullet for this batch, so it's not quite a puree).  In a heavy bottomed saucepan, mix together the strawberries, sugar, and lemon juice. (Don't leave the kitchen.  It will boil over instantly!!)  Stir over low heat until the sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to high, and bring the mixture to a full rolling boil. Boil, stirring often, until the mixture reaches 220 degrees F (105 degrees C). Transfer to hot sterile jars, leaving 1/4 to 1/2 inch headspace, and seal. Process in a water bath. (I didn't).

4 pints
3 1/2 pints

If I get another batch of strawberries this year, along with some jalapenos, I'd like to try this recipe.

Rubarb

We had a small patch of rhubarb in the raspberry patch when we moved in, and a big patch just behind the house.  The big patch was too close to the weeping tiles, got trampled repeatedly when we moved the horses across the yard, and way too close to where we planned to put the wood shed.

The first summer I split a chunk off and moved it to the garden.  It's still alive, but hasn't done well in the dry sandy soil.  The second year I split some more off and moved it to the front yard - the flower bed.  It did better than the garden patch, but it still seemed too dry.  Last year I took out the rest before #2 built the wood shed.  I moved it into the trees behind the garage - the beginning of the forest garden.  It takes longer for the frost to leave the ground in the woods, so early in the spring when I would normally see the first shoots of rhubarb there was nothing.  I am happy to say that it did survive, and is taking to it's new home beautifully now.

 And maybe it"s our wonky cold/hot/cold/hot weather this year, but the earlier transplants are all starting to kick it into high gear this year as well.  I probably won't cut much off of any of them this year, I want them to be well established.  But next year, oh boy, I will feast indeed!

Rhubarb is a wonderful perennial weed.  It's cold hardy, easy to grow, and prolific.  Buy a little stalk (or ask a neighbour for a chunk of root), dig a little hole, and ignore it.  What could be simpler?  If your new to gardening or self sufficiency, rhubarb has got to be one of the easiest places to start.

When I was a little girl, Granny would serve as fresh, raw rhubarb with a bowl of sugar for dipping.  Probably not one of the healthiest snacks we could have had, but every spring as I bite into that first sour stalk, it brings back fond memories.

My favourite rhubarb recipe is rhubarb bread.  It's a winter staple around here.  A great, nutritious, quick and easy breakfast.  Raspberry rhubarb pie disappears quick, and rhubarb sauce makes a great dessert.


Freezing rhubarb is practically effortless.  Wash, chop, bag, seal, freeze.  It tends to fall apart as it defrosts, which actually makes it easier to work with later.

Rhubarb Sauce

• 1 cup mushy rhubarb (from freezer, or cooked)
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups of flour

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).  Mix butter, eggs and rhubarb in mixing bowl. Add sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt and mix in. Add the flour, mix. Pour mixture into a buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.

 This recipe can easily be tripled, and freezes nicely.

Raspberry Rhubarb Pie

I mix a jar of raspberry sauce with about 2 cups of diced rhubarb into an unbaked pie shell.  Cover with another pie shell, and vent.  Bake at 425°F for 15 minutes.  Reduce to 350°F, continue baking for 40 minutes or until golden brown.  

Rhubarb Sauce

Wash and dice 2 cups of rhubarb.  Cook in a sauce pan with a bit of water, squirt of molasses, and 1/2 cup sugar.

Cookie Day

The cookie jar sits, so lonely, on the counter, empty.

I had started baking cookies for Christmas over a month ago.  I got distracted by pies, fudge, and a party, school, critters, snow, being sick...   and probably a dozen other things.  I try to keep at least a batch in there at all times, start a new batch when it's getting low.  Somehow I missed the emptying of the cookie jar.  Yesterday #3 saw my secret cookie stash- ie the handful I take into my room when I want a chocolate fix at midnight, but only eat one or two, and he confiscated them.

"We need cookies for Santa!"

Hmmm...  How long has the cookie jar been empty?  I can't remember the last time someone asked if they could have a cookie.  Not in the past few days.  Maybe a week?  Has it been that long without complaints?  How odd.

So, we need cookies for Santa.  And definitely for my next chocolate craving.  And maybe even a few for the kids.  Today will be cookie day.

Chewy Oatmeal Cookies

1 cup lard
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla
3 3/4 cup oatmeal
1 1/4 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/4 cup raisins

1.  Preheat oven to 375 F.  Grease baking sheets.
2.  Cream shortening, brown sugar, egg milk, vanilla in large bowl at medium speed.
3.  Combine oats, flour, salt, baking soda and cinnamon.  Add to creamed mixture gradually, beating at low speed.
4.  Stir in raisins.
5.  Drop dough on cookie sheet.  Bake at 375 F 10 to 12 minutes.

Makes 3 to 4 dozen.

(I'll make a second batch of these with my blaizins!)

Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies

3/4 cup lard
1 1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
2 Tbsp milk
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 cup chocolate chips

1.  Preheat oven to 375 F
2.  Cream shortening and brown sugar.
3.  Add egg, milk & vanilla.  Beat 1 minute.
4.  Combine flour, salt, baking soda.  Add to creamed mixture gradually, until blended.
5.  Stir in chocolate chips.
6.  Drop onto ungreased cookie sheet.
7.  Bake 375 F 8 to 10 minutes.  Cookies will still appear moist.

And a second batch of those with 1/4 cup cocoa added for Chocolate Chocolate Chip. And possibly a third, because I think I lost my mind in the grocery store and bought some kind of weird, coloured, candy coated chips.

Today I'll only be making the Basic Sugar Cookies, but here's the whole Basic Cookie Mix recipe (or at least the parts that I've kept and used).

Basic Cookie Mix
                                This basic cookie mix can be used to make 9 different cookies.
 4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
 4 cups white sugar
 1 1/2 cups dry milk powder
 1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
 1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1.   Place all ingredients in a large bowl and mix well with a spoon.
2.  Sift mixture twice.
3.  Store in a tightly covered containter as it keeps well for several weeks at room  temperature.
4.  This mixture can be used to make Basic Sugar Cookies, Basic Chocolate Chip Cookies, Basic Raisin Cookies, Basic Coconut Cookies, Basic Nut Cookies, Basic Peanut Butter Cookies, Basic Brownies, Basic Chocolate Drop Cookies, or Basic Oatmeal Bars.
 Makes 9 cups

Basic Chocolate Chip Cookies
 2 cups basic cookie mix (see recipe)
 1 egg
1/2 cup butter or margarine
 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
                    
 1.  Melt butter or margarine over low heat and add to Basic Cookie Mix.
2.   Lightly beat the egg and add to mixture. Stir in vanilla and mix well.
3.  With lightly floured hands shape into 1 inch balls and arrange about 2 inches apart on a greased cookie sheet.
4.  Bake at 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) for 12 to 15 minutes until golden.
5.  Cool a couple of minutes before removing from cookie sheet to racks to complete cooling.
 Makes 3 dozen

Basic Raisin Cookies
This recipe uses a pre-made mix that will keep for several
 weeks. Add the following ingredients to the mix for Basic Raisin Cookies.
 2 cups basic cookie mix (see recipe)
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).
2.  Melt butter or margarine over low heat and mix into the Basic Cookie Mix. Lightly beat egg and stir into mixture. Add vanilla and raisins and mix well.
3.  With lightly floured hands shape into 1 inch balls and arrange about 2 inches apart on a greased cookie sheet.
4.  Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until golden. Cool a couple of minutes before removing from cookie sheet to racks to complete cooling.
 Makes 3 dozen

Basic Brownies
This recipe uses a pre-made mix that keeps for several  weeks at room temperature. Add the following ingredients to the mix to make Brownies.
 2 cups basic cookie mix
 1 egg
 1/3 cup cold water
 1/3 cup butter or margarine
 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
 1/4 cup sifted cocoa
 1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)
1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 9 x 9 inch pan.
2.  Lightly beat egg and add to Basic Cookie Mix.
3.  Melt butter or margarine over low heat and add to mixture. Stir in water, vanilla, cocoa and nuts. Mix well.
4.  Bake for 25 minutes or until top spings back when touched. Cool and cut into squares.
Makes 16 squares (approx.)

 Basic Sugar Cookies
    * 1/2 cup butter
    * 2 cups Basic Cookie Mix
    * 1 egg
    * 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
   1. Melt butter over low heat and add to 2 cups Basic Cookie Mix.
   2. Lightly beat the egg and add to mixture. Stir in vanilla and mix well.
   3. With lightly floured hands shape into 1 inch balls and arrange about 2 inches apart on a greased cookie sheet.
   4. Bake at 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) for 12 to 15 minutes until golden.
   5. Cool a couple of minutes before removing from cookie sheet to racks to complete cooling.

Basic Oatmeal Bars
    * 1 1/2 cups quick cooking oats
    * 2 cups Basic Cookie Mix
    * 1 egg
    * 3/4 cup butter
    * 1/4 cup cold water
    * 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
    * 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
   1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).
   2. Stir oats into Basic Cookie Mix. Lightly beat egg and add to mixture. Melt butter or margarine over low heat and stir in. Add cold water, vanilla and almond extract. Mix well.
   3. Spoon into a greased 13 x 9 inch pan. Bake for about 30 to 35 minutes until top is golden. Cool and cut into bars.

 I take no credit whatsoever for these recipes.  I've been using them for years, and I don't know where they came from.  All I can say is that they make good cookies!  Hope you like them!

Rabbits in the Freezer

The bunny plan didn't work out quite as good as we had hoped.

I bought a buck, two does, and a box of three rabbits (which all turned out to be male) at the auction in the spring. Both does were bred when we bought them. The first had her litter and was a good mom. She gave us 6 bunnies. The second killed all of her babies. We rebred them both. The first died during delivery of her second litter. The second killed all of her babies. We rebred her again, and she killed all of her babies. We rebred her once more, since she could produce one litter before fall, but we don't have much hope for it.

In the meantime, we've butchered all of the males except the buck, and all of the bunnies.

That put another 8 meals in the freezer, and one in our bellies. It also gave us another 8 starters for doggie stew. And the beginnings of a nice blanket.

These are our rabbit skins being stretched and cured. We sprinkle them with pickling salt and stretch them every day for about a week, until dry. Then we wash them in a bucket with Borax and hang to dry on a windy day.

Roast Rabbit
Put rabbit in a roasting pot with water, onion & garlic, or a leek. Roast until it pulls easily off the bone.

Sweet & Sour Sauce
2 Cups pickled beet juice
3 Tbsp brown sugar
3 tsp corn starch

Heat to boiling, 1 1/2C beet juice in saucepan. Add brown sugar.
Combine 1/2 C cold beet juice & corn starch. Mix well. Stir into boiling beet juice. Stir well until thickened.

Doggie Stew 2

In this post I was explaining that we feed our dogs home made stew. I just thought I'd mention, with the addition of the Wonder mutt, our now 5 month old lab/bouvier cross, we are going through a pot of stew about every 5 days!

Serving doggie stew to four large breed dogs is kind of expensive. Probably still cheaper than crappy commercial dog food, but still, we all need to cut corners where we can. The dogs have been getting a little fussy of late too, not cleaning their bowls.

The starch is the most expensive part of our stew at the moment. It's mostly rice these days, since I don't shop as often through the summer (kid's schedules), and pasta doesn't seem to be on sale when I do. The pasta cupboard is actually looking pretty bare right now for human consumption, and who knows what will happen with the wheat situation this fall. The crops haven't been looking good.

So I thought I'd mention a few other ingredients that I've been using and storing for doggie stew.

Starch
Rice- the usual suspect.

Pasta- cheap when on sale.

Bread crusts, crumbs, and loaves that didn't turn out right in the oven. From time to time when we get busy doing other stuff and the bread gets over risen before we roll it out. We bake it anyway. These loaves are usually flat and hard, but the chickens peck away at their share, and the dogs don't complain once they're softened up in the stew.

Potatoes. It occurred to me after my last visit to the potato man that I've been kind of silly about using potatoes in doggie stew. The potato man is a local farmer who sells small and medium sized potatoes for $7 per 50 lb bag. We eat a lot of potatoes, so even at that price they're kind of an expensive part of our diet. But compared to the price of rice/pasta/commercial dog food, they make some pretty cheap doggie stew. Not to mention adding to the thickness of the broth. I'm now using 3 or 4 medium potatoes for every fresh pot of stew, in addition to the peels and leftovers that they used to get.

Veggies
Dandelions are free and completely edible. They're making up the bulk of the summer veggie portion, as well as going into the freezer for winter stews. I've frozen dandelion greens for us before as well, but it's a lot of work and we tire of them quickly. Laziness, and part of living in a world where if we don't have enough food to survive the winter, there's always the grocery stores... It's easier with the dogs because they don't need to be cleaned. I just pick them in the yard and put them straight into the bag, then straight to the freezer.

Lettuce. Since it's growing so well in the garden this year, I've been freezing what we don't eat fresh for winter stews.

Pea pods. I've been tossing the pea pods into the stew as I shell the peas.

The end of the jar. Since our recycling company has decided to be uber picky about the cleanliness of our recycling, I'm filling all cans and jars with water to soak as we cook. No point in wasting the water or the remnants afterward.

Raspberry/Blueberry pulp. I juice my berries for canning, so the leftover pulp and seeds go into the doggie stew and chicken bowl.

Veggie trimmings. Potato peels, carrot peels, tomato tops, pepper centres, broccoli stems, etc... all get divided between dogs and chickens.

Protein
Butcher bones. As we butcher, I keep the leg bones with some extra meat on them, or in the case of the rabbits we just did, the rib cage and back bone. We currently have about thirty bone bags in the freezer. I also keep the heart & liver.

Eggs. The chickens are now producing enough eggs that 3 or 4 in a fresh pot of stew aren't missed from my family's diet.

Beans & lentils. Cleaning out the cupboard, I found an odd assortment of various beans and lentils that we've tried & didn't like, or are now so old that I don't think they'd soften up very well. I've been adding about a half a cup full to each batch.

Blueberries & Raspberries, Oh My...

Another 9 1/2 pints of raspberry sauce went to the cold room after the Bullet was revitalized. It kept working all day, so all is well in my world. There was a lot of wastage from the berries that I left in the strainer overnight. They were too dry to run through the Bullet. Sucks.


I used one tub (2L) of the blueberries from our playground for an experiment. The less juicy berries. I am trying my hand at sun dried... dehydrated... car dried, actually, blueberries. Blueberry raisins, so to speak. I wanted to try them last year, but the severe lack of sun, aka constant rain, and cooler temperatures made the idea seem less than likely to succeed. Our warm weather this year brought it back to mind. I am anxious to try oatmeal blueberry cookies this winter.

I picked, cleaned, washed the blueberries. Put waxed paper over two cookie sheets, and laid the blueberries out in one layer on the cookie sheets. Took them out to the car, where, hopefully, they will dry out in the heat of the sun. Time will tell.
Update: They took a lot longer than I expected, and I moved them into the house into a greenhouse stand. Several days later I had created a batch of Blaizins... Yup, that's what I'm calling them. Two cookie trays turned into half a mason jar. Haven't made any cookies yet though.

The other three tubs of blueberries I had picked (6L) are now sitting on the stove top waiting to pop. 14 1/2 pints of blueberry sauce. A good days work.

Raspberry (Blueberry) Sauce

Equal parts raspberries & sugar. Clean & wash raspberries. Measure before juicing. Cook juice to rolling boil in large pot. Volume will double. Boil 4 minutes. Add equal amount of sugar while stirring. Return to rolling boil. Remove from heat. Fill sanitized canning jars, cap & seal. Turn jars over to rest until cooled and tops have popped.

Amish Friendship Bread


I keep hearing about these Amish Friendship bread Starters from my online friends. Since I have no friends in real life, I decided to look up a recipe for my own starter. It's pretty easy to put together, but at the end of the cycle I just used all the portions that you're supposed to give away. I have to say, it's a lot of messing around for what basically turns out to be banana bread. I forgot about it on the second time through the cycle, so have quit for now. I'll give it another whirl later in the fall when we aren't so busy outside, and see if it's worth it for lemon cakes. Maybe I should look up a recipe for lemon cakes first? There might be an easier way.

Doggie Stew

I mentioned doggie stew in my post about bear stew. Just to be clear- we don't eat doggies. We cook stew for the dogs. We currently have a female black lab, about 5 years old, Ebony. Her daughter, Cindy, is a yellow lab/collie cross. And Waldo, our 4 month old pup, is another black lab cross.


We've always fed table scraps to our dogs, but this winter I decided to try doggie stew. An online friend told me how she makes hers. 1/3 protein, 1/3 vegetables, and 1/3 starch- rice or noodles.

Our stew isn't measured that well. It probably works out to about 2/3 starch, and 1/3 protein & vegetables. It works for us. Cindy does get a little thin through the winter, she's an outside dog, so she still gets some crappy commercial dog food. Waldo & Ebony are both doing well on straight stew. Before you try our blend though, keep in mind in our northern climate the dogs burn a lot more fat just to keep warm.

It's been 4 months now since I started serving doggie stew. Through the winter I kept the pot on the woodstove. Once the weather started warming up, I moved it to our stove. That was a pain. I was considering buying a large crockpot just for doggie stew, when I found a counter top stove burner on sale for $15. It works great, although I do seem to be constantly lowering the heat. It gets a little too warm. But it allows me to make a huge batch, using a huge stew pot.


I'm making a fresh batch today. I start by taking the old pot off, scooping out the remains into the dog dish, and then letting the dogs preclean the pot. Then I wash and scrub. There's usually a bit burned on the bottom after a week or so of cooking. Then I fill it about half full of water. I chop celery- the trimmings that I save from all the celery we eat. Usually three or four large carrots. Three or four egg shells crumbled into the mix. The calcium does them good. I'm hoping to get enough eggs from the chickens this summer to be able to add the whole egg for extra protein. For now, I check the fridge for leftovers. Any food that I'm sure my family will not be finishing off goes into the stew pot. Usually there's a couple varieties of meat. Today they get the remnants of a pork cottage roll, and a beef & chicken hash. That includes about three potatoes. There was a small dish of leftover beans, so in it went. It still looked a little light on the veggies, so I threw in a handful of frozen turnip.

It's still light on the protein as well. Sometimes I'll buy meat on sale- often chicken livers or pork steaks. I cut them up and freeze them in doggie stew portions. Just to give it a good base of protein to start the week. I also save parts of meat that we butcher ourselves to add into the mix. At the moment though, I'm out of both.

Finally, I'll add either 8 cups of rice, or a bag of rotini noodles, depending on what was on sale most recently & I have plenty of in the pantry. Today is a noodle day. I use rotini, because we eat rotini more than any other noodles ourselves, and also because it seems to get bulkier when cooked than other noodles. I also tend to forget to check how much I have at home when it goes on sale, so I buy another six bags and wonder where I'm going to store them afterward.

Throughout the week, we keep adding water. It dries out as it continues cooking. We add potato peels, veggie trimmings, and bits of leftovers that won't go into another meal or lunch. Crusts of bread that have gone stale. I drain the water off of noodles, rice and veggies into the doggie stew. The starches help to thicken it, and the water is full of nutrients. I add the fats and grease from meats, all the trimmings, bones, skins. All of the scraps that they used to get go into the doggie stew. A potful usually lasts 7-9 days.

They get two servings a day, of about 4 cups each.

Bear Stew

No, I am not kidding. Bear Stew.

Last year we had a bit of trouble with a black bear. It's not normally something we hunt. We do hunt- partridge, rabbit, moose, dear... Not usually bear.

You read the title, right? Little house in the big wood. We live on 120 acres of mostly bush, with a couple hundred thousand acres of crown land and pure Canadian wilderness behind us. Bears live here. There's a big old boar (male) who lives on the back edge of our property. Like most bears, he minds his business, lives his life, and stays as far away from us as possible. There's also a mama bear who makes her den on the side of our land. You know it's really spring when you see mama lead her cubs up the edge of the property and across the road into the woods there. That's where they feed in early spring. She also minds her business, and stays away from us. There are probably others who cross our paths without ever being seen.

And then there was this little guy who was being overly friendly. Dangerously friendly. Four feet away from the house friendly. We tried to scare him off, but he kept coming back. Although he wasn't causing any damage, his mere presence was a threat to our safety and well being. So we bought a license and put him in the freezer.

I'd never eaten bear before, and we'd been warned that it would be tough, greasy, smelly & gross. But I can't waste food. I can't take a life and just throw it away. I figured, worst case scenario, I'd end up making lots of nutritious doggie stew. As it turned out, bear tastes good. Very good. Much more beef like than moose.

Now, since it's 40 below out today... Ok, not really, it's -1°C outside, and 19°C in the house, but it feels cold. A perfect day to run the oven. A perfect day for bear stew.

Bear Stew

1 package (about 2lbs) bear stew meat
1/2 cup flour
good squirt beef gravy mix
1 small onion, peeled & chopped
4 large potatoes, peeled and chopped
3 cups green beans
3 cups of corn
2 large carrots, peeled & chopped
a couple pieces of celery (save the trimmings to cook with whenever you buy celery)
frozen from last year's garden:
handful of tender young turnip
handful of cabbage leaves
handful of brussel sprouts
handful of dandelion buds (very nutritious, and great in any mixed veggie dish)
garlic, salt & pepper to taste
Water to cover all

Bake @ 350°F all day long. The secret to stew is the longer it cooks, the better it tastes. I try to make enough to last three days, although I do sometimes add more veggies on day three. One pot meal, three days without cooking. Yum!