Lanita's Life On The Farm

Mayo or Miracle Whip?

2011-12-05T20:14:00.001-05:00

For me it has to be Mayo and Hellmann’s is the best ! Here is a wonderful recipe featuring Hellmann’s!

Parmesan Crusted Chicken

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup Hellmann's® or Best Foods® Real Mayonnaise
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (about 1-1/4 lbs.)
4 tsp. Italian seasoned dry bread crumbs

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 425°.
Combine Hellmann's® or Best Foods® Real Mayonnaise with cheese in medium bowl. Arrange chicken on baking sheet. Evenly top with mayonnaise mixture, then sprinkle with bread crumbs.
Bake 20 minutes or until chicken is thoroughly cooked.

Also terrific with Hellmann's® or Best Foods® Light Mayonnaise or Hellmann's® or Best Foods® Canola Cholesterol Free Mayonnaise.
Cost per recipe*: $7.16 Cost per serving*: $1.79
*Based on average retail prices at national supermarkets
TIP: Omit Parmesan cheese and have Magically Moist Chicken on table in less then 30 minutes.
Calories 370, Calories From Fat 210, Saturated Fat 4g, Trans Fat 0g, Total Fat 23g, Cholesterol 100g, Sodium 390g, Total Carbohydrates 2g, Sugars 1g, Dietary Fiber 0g, Protein35g, Vitamin A 2%, Vitamin C 2%, Calcium 8%, Iron 6%

For me it has got to be Mayo! Hellmann’s is the best!

You can make so many things with it!

Check out this wonderful giveaway at makeit-loveit.com

Sponsored by Hellmann’s ! A $100 gift card to Cooking.com! Who could not use more cooking gadgets? I know I am hoping Santa is going to bring me a set of knives and a French rolling pin!!

Good luck !!

Did you know? ….

2011-02-17T21:38:00.001-05:00

Did you know you can make your own buttermilk?

I am not talking about making sour milk by adding lemon juice or vinegar, I am talking real buttermilk.

Take 1 cup of cultured buttermilk and put it in a quart jar and fill the jar the rest of the way with plain milk (whole or 2% ) put lid on and leave on counter top for 24 hours then refrigerate . Will keep up to 2 weeks . When you are down to your last cup of buttermilk add milk again and repeat. It is bottomless!!

Did you know you can make your own yogurt?

Crockpot Yogurt

You don’t need a yogurt maker, just a Crockpot and 1/2 cup yogurt ,

--8 cups (half-gallon) of whole milk--pasteurized and homogenized is fine, but do NOT use ultra-pasteurized.--1/2 cup store-bought natural, live/active culture plain yogurt (you need to have a starter. Once you have made your own, you can use that as a starter)
--thick bath towel
The Directions.
This takes a while. Make your yogurt on a weekend day when you are home to monitor.
I used a 4 quart crockpot. This is so exciting. Plug in your crockpot and turn to low. Add an entire half gallon of milk. Cover and cook on low for 2 1/2 hours.

Unplug your crockpot. Leave the cover on, and let it sit for 3 hours.
When 3 hours have passed, scoop out 2 cups of the warmish milk and put it in a bowl. Whisk in 1/2 cup of store-bought live/active culture yogurt. Then dump the bowl contents back into the crockpot. Stir to combine.

Put the lid back on your crockpot. Keep it unplugged, and wrap a heavy bath towel all the way around the crock for insulation.
Go to bed, or let it sit for 8 hours.
In the morning, the yogurt will have thickened---it's not as thick as store-bought yogurt, but has the consistency of low-fat plain yogurt.
Chill in a plastic container(s) in the refrigerator. Your fresh yogurt will last 7-10 days. Save 1/2 cup as a starter to make a new batch. If you want greek style yogurt, after it has been refrigerated put some cheese cloth in a strainer and and pour in yogurt set up over a bowl to catch liquid. Put in fridge and let it set for a day ,discard the water that has drained off. The yogurt will be nice and thick. You can now flavor with fruit ,but I find it is better to do that as you are getting ready to serve . Just add chopped fruit and a little bit a of honey ,such a good tasty and healthful treat!

Did you know …. You can make your own Granola?

It is so good! Much better than what you get in a box and the money you save is crazy!!

Homemade Granola
3 1/2- cups uncooked old fashioned or quick oats
1 - stick + 1 tablespoon real butter
1/2 - 2/3 - cup honey (your preference)
1/4 - cup light brown sugar
1/4 - teaspoon salt
1 - teaspoon cinnamon sugar
1/2 - cup wheat germ
2 - tablespoons flax seed
1/2 - 3/4 - cup almond pieces
1/2 - 3/4 - cup pecan pieces
1/4 - cup sunflower seeds
1/2 - 3/4 - cup dried cranberries or other dried fruit
1/2 - cup raisins
First melt the butter in a 3 - quart saucepan over medium heat. Add the honey and salt and briefly heat with the butter until foamy and bubbly. In a separate bowl mix together the oatmeal, wheat germ, nuts, brown sugar and cinnamon sugar if adding dried cranberries and raisins add them as well. Turn off the heat and add the oatmeal mixture. Stir until everything is coated. Pour the mixture onto a lightly greased baking sheet.
Spread the mixture out evenly and pat down. Bake it at 375° for 10 minutes (watch carefully) It will be a golden brown color. Remove from the oven and let cool for about 10 minutes. After 10 minutes using a spatula or flipper slide it under the granola to loosen it a bit so it does not stick. Let cool on the baking sheet about 30 minutes then break into pieces and store in an airtight container.

So easy and the possibilities are endless. I did not have wheat germ and did not put it in,I just increased the oatmeal. You can change the kind of nut you want ,just any combination YOU like.

I love the combination of pork and apples with onions,so good and it is sweet but savory.

I made up a recipe with pork spare ribs and apples and put it it the Crockpot,So yummy! You could also put in a cast enameled pan like this:

My new pan from Paula Deen!!! Did you hear me scream??? Okay back to the recipe!!

4 pork spare ribs

3 or 4 apples (cored and sliced)( I used home canned apples)

1 large onion sliced thin(I used home canned caramelized onions)

2 cloves of garlic minced

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 cup chicken broth

salt /pepper

fresh thyme

If using the enamel pot , use a bit of oil and brown(salt and pepper) the ribs till brown on both sides,remove from pan and and sauté the onions and garlic until they are Carmel colored. Add apples ,thyme and cook until tender. Place the ribs on top and add the broth and put lid on and place in 325* oven for hours and check to see if the meat is fall off the bone tender. If not then cook for about 30 more minutes. I served this with fried potatoes and Greens would have been really good with it.

If using Crockpot ,put apples and onion ,garlic ,thyme in and place ribs(salt and pepper) on top. Add broth and cook for 6 hours on low and 4 on high. Mid way thru submerge the ribs down in the apples. Cook till the ribs are falling off the bone.

So good!

Tonight for dinner I made up this recipe for Queso Chicken soup. It was so creamy and spicy good!! It is a keeper!

Queso Chicken Soup

2 cans rotel tomatoes

2 cans chicken stock

1 onion chopped

1 large garlic clove chopped fine

2 chicken thighs

1 jar of Monterey Jack cheese mexican cheese sauce

1 can black beans(drained and rinsed)

1 1/2 tsp cumin

salt/ pepper

1/2 a brick of cream cheese in cubes

This recipe is for a 4 quart slow cooker.

Put chicken,rotel,onion,garlic, cumin, beans, broth, salt and pepper in crockpot and cook on low for six hours.

take chicken out and let cool to de-bone. While chicken is cooling add cheese sauce and cream cheese. Stir to combine ,taste for seasonings and adjust. Add chicken back in and let it heat back up. Serve with chips ,add hot sauce if desired.

This was really good! Loved it!

Enjoy!

Until next time!

Nana Nita

I Think I Might Be An Italian Or A Mexican!

2011-01-24T19:14:00.001-05:00

I was born in Wisconsin, which is about as far from Mexico or Italy as can get ! I like a lot of your basic all American cuisine, but nine times out of ten I go for Mexican and Italian flavors.

I wanted to make some soup, it is so versatile, the possibilities are endless. I was thinking about Tortilla soup but I was kind of chickened out. I had a pork roast in the freezer that called to me. I love Carnitas and I thought, hey why not take all of those flavors and turn it into soup!

Turns out I had to make up my own recipe because, apparently there is no such thing as Carnita soup! Who knew I was on the cutting edge!

Carnita Soup

1 pork roast (trim some of the fat)

4 cups chicken broth

1 jalapeño chopped (with the seeds)

1/2 bunch cilantro(chopped)

1 onion chopped

2 large garlic cloves chopped

1 Tblsp cumin

1 chipotle chili chopped with a bit of the sauce

1 small can of green chilies

salt/ pepper

1 can of black beans (drained and rinsed)

1 cup frozen corn

shredded montery jack

sour cream

avocado (sliced)

chips or heated tortillas

1 lime sliced

Take pork and rub it with salt, pepper and cumin,

put it in Crockpot and pour the stock to the side of the roast,not on top. Add onion, garlic,chilies,peppers,cilantro(save some for garnish)and cook on low until meat is fall apart tender.

Take meat out and and set aside. At this time you will want to get the fat off the top of your broth. (I did this part the day before and put the pork and the broth in the fridge and then you can lift the fat right off) I only used 1/3 of the pork for the soup, It was enough for us to have about 2 bowls each and some left over. Add the beans,corn and 1/3 of the pork chopped. Let it cook on low for four hours in the Crockpot. Taste for seasoning and adjust, it will be spicy!

Serve with sour cream and and avocados and with chips, squeeze the lime in your bowl right before serving. Sprinkle with cilantro.

Now you have 2/3 of pork roast left over to play with. Divide it in half and put in freezer bags and pop in the freezer,you will then be a leg up on a quick fix later on. I do this frequently because it is just my husband and I, most of the time a whole roast of anything is too much. I will probably take half and make enchiladas and the other half chop and fry and make carnitas. The possibilities are endless, just use your imagination and let me know what you can come up with.

On to Italy, now bear in mind, I am not from Italy, so these are not authentic like your little Italian Grandma made. This is my recipe that I came up with and like.

Italian Meatballs

1 lbs ground beef

bread crumbs (Italian style)

1/4 onion grated

2 large garlic cloves finely chopped

1/4 C fresh shredded parmesan cheese

2 eggs

salt /pepper

1 Tbls Italian seasoning ( I used my home grown, which is stronger than store bought so you may want to adjust to your taste)

2 Tblsp milk

In large bowl, mix meat, eggs, onion,garlic, salt, pepper, cheese . Add bread crumbs (the amount depends on the the feel ) about 1/2 cup or so. Add milk and mix but not to vigorously(it will make them tough) you may have to add a bit more bread crumbs.

In a non-stick skillet make a small little patty and cook it for you to taste. If it needs more salt or herbs you may adjust it now. ( do not skip this step, you will not know if you have seasoned properly if you don’t, and you can not season them after you cook all of them)

I do not like big meat balls, I make them smaller than most. Make all of them up.

At this point you may put them on a cookie sheet and freeze and use them later or :

Brown in skillet. Do this in batches , so you don’t overcrowd the meatballs. with a slotted spoon remove and drain. Now at this point you may freeze them and use later or I put them in the Crockpot and put a quart jar of my homemade marina sauce on top and put on low for 4 hours.

I made Meatball subs.

Really tasty!

Until Next time!

Nana Nita!

Beef Stew, Crab Wantons and Jam….What??!!

2011-01-14T09:21:00.001-05:00

These things do not go together,but It is what I have been up to.

So here it goes….

First things first,It has been cold and snowy and just seemed like a Beef Stew kind of day. I did not have a lot of the normal vegetables I usually use(peas,corn,green beans) so I improvised. I liked the changes, I hope you will too.

Beef Stew

1 lb of stew meat

2 large carrots chopped

1 medium onion chopped

2 stalks celery chopped

2 cloves garlic minced

2 cups sliced mushrooms

1 tomato chopped

4 cups beef broth

salt /pepper

1/2 flour

oil

Chop meat in to small bit sized pieces,

salt and pepper meat. In a lidded container put flour and meat and cover it shake to coat meat with flour. Shake off excess flour,set aside.

In a heavy bottomed dutch oven put oil in to coat bottom of pan. Heat to med high,and put in half of the beef ,brown on all sides.

Remove with slotted spoon and repeat with remaining meat.

Add more oil if needed and sauté vegetables except the tomato, until the onions are tender. Add the beef back to pot and add the tomatoes and the broth. Bring to boil and turn temperature down to simmer and simmer for 4 hours until meat is tender. The broth will thicken as it simmers. Taste for seasoning. We really liked the addition of the mushrooms,so good and beefy.

I love Chinese food! Those little Crab Ragoons are so good,I had to come up with a way to make them at home.

These are baked not fried so in my simple mind they are HEALTHY! Do not judge me. The entire package of cream cheese means nothing, I mean these are small bites….Lets move on.

Creamy Wantons

1 (8 oz. ) package cream cheese ,softened

1/4 cup plain bread crumbs( I used Panko )

1 small clove garlic (minced)

1 tsp sugar

1 pinch of salt

2 cups imitation crabmeat (about 3/4 lb)

30 refrigerated wanton wrappers

Pre-heat oven to 350* coat a baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray

In food processor put crab meat and garlic, bread crumbs,and cream cheese. Pulse till combined..

Place 1 tsp crab mixture in center of each wanton.

brush the edges lightly with water then fold in half (one point to point) and press to seal..

Place on the cookie sheet.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until golden,turning once halfway thru baking.

These are really good! You could use Duck sauce to dip theses in,Ummm. I did not have any but yummy!

If you really wanted to, you could pan fry,I won’t tell!

(Note) I put the filling in a container and keep in fridge,then as a snack ,you can just make up some as needed. I don’t know how they would do to make up ahead and freeze I’ll get back to you on that.

Now on to the Jam…. I love to make jam, the possibilities are endless, Just think of the combinations of fruit,once you learn the method it is easy!

Christmas Jam

Okay, I know Christmas is over ,but sometimes you have big plans and buy all the stuff to do something and then you forget to do it. So….to keep from having all the fruit go bad you make Christmas Jam in January…just let the season continue.

2 cups fresh cranberries

1 medium orange

1/2 cup water

1 (10 oz) frozen strawberries,thawed and crushed

3 cups sugar or more

2 pouches liquid pectin

1 Tbsp butter

Zest orange into cranberries in the food processor,then discard peel and chop the orange and put in processor ,pulse to desired texture. Then throw in the strawberries and give a quick chop,then mix sugar in pan,add water and butter. Cook over low heat for 2 minutes,stirring constantly.(at this point I tasted the jam for sweetness, mine needed more sugar, it is to be sweet/tart but not that tart. So taste and add sugar as needed) Bring to a rolling boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in pectin. Stir for 4 to 5 minute:pour into sterile jars,leaving 1/4'”headspace. Wipe jar rims,adjust lids and rings . Water bath 10 minutes.

See how pretty it is in the jar? Christmas red ..or hey how about Valentines Day red ??Yeah …um ..that’s what I meant …

Valentines Day Jam..See I am ahead of the game!

Enjoy ,until next time!

Nana Nita

Christmas Dinner

2010-12-26T22:25:00.001-05:00

I am not a fan of turkey and Christmas is to close to Thanksgiving to have turkey again. I really like pork roast ( and it was on sale) so that is what I fixed. I like a dry roast rub, I am not a fan of Crockpot pork roast. It is really good done in a cast iron skillet, then it gets nice and brown on the bottom and the juice makes a great pan sauce.

Pork Roast with Greek dry rub

The rub

4 large garlic cloves chopped fine

2 Tblsp fresh rosemary chopped fine

3 Tblsp kosher salt

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 tsp fresh oregano chopped

1 tsp lemon zest

You can use this on pork, chicken or beef.

1 6 lbs pork roast (not loin)

I like to rub the meat down with some olive oil,then with the rub,on a cookie sheet spread some of the rub in the bottom and roll the roast around on it . Put more rub as needed to thoroughly cat all sides of roast. Save the left over rub if any in a jar with a good sealing lid and put it the freezer.

I like to use a deep cast iron skillet

This one also has ridges, so it will keep the meat out of the grease.

Place the pork roast in skillet after you have rubbed it down and place it fat side up.

Set oven to *325 and roast for 20 to 30 minutes per pound or until juices run clear, but don’t over cook.

Take roast out and cover with foil to rest.

I like to serve this with the juice from the pan. When you remove the meat from the pan, place pan on med. heat. Add about 1 to 2 cups water(I use the water that I discarded from potatoes) and simmer,use a whisk to get bits up off the bottom of the pan. If you like you may add abit a thickener (1 Tblsp cornstarch in a little water and add to pan) Taste for seasoning and adjust. I can not convey to you how good this is! As you slice this you will have to restrain yourself to keep from just nibbling it all away!

I served the Pork with cheesy mashed potatoes. This is a recipe I made up and we really like it especially if I am not serving gravy. You can make this with leftover mashed potatoes, but who has leftover mashed potatoes??

Cheesy Mashed Potatoes

4 large potatoes (chopped)you may leave skins on if you like,I have done it both ways.

2 large cloves of garlic (whole and pealed)

1 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1 cup sour cream

1/4 cup fresh parmesan cheese

1/2 to 1 cup cream

1/4 stick of (real butter)

salt to taste

1 tsp fresh cracked pepper

Place potatoes and garlic (whole and pealed) in large pan and enough water to cover the potatoes. Boil until potatoes are fork tender,drain off water (save water for pan sauce ), make sure you don’t discard garlic.

Pre heat oven to *350

Mash the potatoes and garlic, salt and pepper. Add the sour cream and 1/2 cup cheddar and the parmesan cheese. Mix in thoroughly, slowly add the cream until mashed potato consistency, taste for seasoning. In a buttered casserole dish 13x9, put the potato mixture in dish and top with remaining shredded cheese, bake till cheese lightly browns and melts and potatoes are hot thru.

You will notice that this dish is not low fat! You are not going to eat this everyday ! It is a holiday, you can work out twice the next day!

I served Sautéed Garlic Green Beans as another side.

These are so good and easy to fix. I just open a quart of green beans, drain or 2 cans, 1 garlic clove chopped. In non-stick skillet melt a bit of butter over medium heat, add garlic and stir, cook till softened. Add green beans and salt and pepper. I like to cook the beans until they get a bit of color on them.

These are some of my favorite recipes! The pork roast is so easy and leftovers are great!!! How can you go wrong with cheese and potatoes???

I hope you try some of these recipes, you won’t regret it!

Until next time!

Nana Nita

Comfort Food

2010-12-18T12:44:00.001-05:00

It is not yet Winter, but Fall does not know that. It has snowed, iced, the wind has blown, it has been below freezing more often than not! So, we need some warmth,some comfort. What has more comfort that soup? Creamy, warm, filling goodness.

As a child, anytime I was sick Mom would fix me Campbell's Cream of Chicken soup with toast . I did not like the chunks of chicken in it and she would take them out. :) It always made me feel better. I still love Cream of Chicken soup but, I don’t like it from the can, I like a bit more in it now, even chunks of chicken!

This is my version of the soup:

Lanita’s Cream Of Chicken Soup

This is for a smaller Crockpot.

2 chicken thighs

2 cans chicken broth

2 large carrots, chopped

1 small onion chopped

1 stalk of celery,chopped (with some of the leaves)

1 clove garlic, chopped

2 potatoes peeled and chopped

salt and pepper

1 cup cream

2 Tblsp cornstarch

You can add any vegetable you would like, but I like it kind of plain, not a lot of stuff.

Cook on high for 6 hours(if your chicken is frozen) or until chicken is tender.

Take chicken out of Crockpot and let cool. Take a potato masher and slightly mash the potatoes to give creamier texture. I had about a cup and a half of leftover white gravy from last nights fried chicken, I added that to make “cream” part of chicken. If you don’t have any white gravy hanging around, use 1 cup heavy cream, stir in cornstarch into cream to make slurry and pour into soup. Cover and let it cook on high for 30 more minutes. While that cooks debone chicken and tear into small bite sized pieces and add back into soup. Check for seasoning and thickness, if it is not thick enough you can use about 1/4 cup water and 1 Tblsp cornstarch add to soup to thicken,cook abit longer.

This is a satisfying, comforting wonderful bowl of soup. I served this with Cheese biscuits,yum!

I have a confession, I can not make biscuits!! I have tried and I just can’t ! They always turn out like hockey pucks!!!They are not bad tasting ,just crunchy! I think you should cut some slack here, I make homemade bread, pastry, and all kinds of other stuff, I just can’t produce a fluffy biscuit!

So…… I came across the most wonderful thing, Southern Biscuit mix Formula L! All you do is mix it with buttermilk.

You can’t mess these up! Just follow the recipe for cheese biscuits on the back of the bag. You could add Jalapeños or onions, garlic. The possibilities are endless!

The left over soup can be turned into chicken pot pie. Add abit more chicken and thickening, heat through and put in casserole dish and top with raw biscuits and bake till bubbly.

If you don’t have enough soup leftover for a big casserole then aren’t these individual one cute?

Yummy!

Enjoy! Until next time !

Nana Nita

Let The Baking Begin!!

2010-12-11T20:22:00.000-05:00

Usually by now I have just about every kind of cookie imaginable made and in my freezer. I just have not been in the mood to bake this year …I don’t know why. But Thursday morning I got the bug…the baking bug! I saw the recipe for Mexican Wedding Cookies and I thought I have to make theses and that led to the day of baking!

Mexican Wedding Cookies!

You can make these cookies with wild black walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, hickory or butternuts -- all will work fine.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup all-purpose or cake flour
1 1/2 cups walnuts, finely chopped
2-3 Tbsp sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 pound butter (at room temperature)
Pinch of salt
Powdered sugar, to coat (about 1 cup)

METHOD

1 Preheat the oven to 300°F and prepare a large cookie sheet.

2 Mix all the dry ingredients (flour, walnuts, salt, sugar) in a large bowl. Add the vanilla extract. Add the butter in little pieces, and combine everything together with your (clean!) hands until the mixture looks like a coarse meal with nut bits in it. Form the dough into small balls no larger than a walnut and place on the cookie sheet, spaced at least an inch apart from each other.

3 Bake for 35 minutes. When they are still warm, but cool enough to touch, roll the cookies in some powdered sugar.

This recipe doubles or triples very well and you can freeze them after they have been rolled in sugar.

Set aside on a rack to cool completely. When cool, dust again in powdered sugar.

Makes about 20 cookies.

These are crispy and light and yummy!!

If you leave these out for Santa (wink, wink) He will be most happy! But everyone will know if you sneak a cookie, because of the powdered sugar!!! So wipe your mouth! :)

Last year I made Apple Braids and they were a big hit. I thought I would change it up a bit this time. Everyone has left over cranberries sauce from Thanksgiving, right? …Or in my case I forgot to serve it!!! Oh well….Now I can add it to the BRAIDS and change it up a bit.

Cranberry Apple Braid

6 1/2 - 7 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. instant yeast
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup butter or margarine
2 eggs

Apple Filling

2 1/2 cups peeled, finely chopped apple
1 cup Cranberry Relish (See prior post for recipe)
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans (opt.)

In large mixer bowl, combine 2 cups flour, sugar, salt, and dry yeast.
In 4 cup glass measuring cup, microwave milk and butter until milk is warm and butter has begun to melt. (or warm it in a saucepan on the stove)
Add warm milk to mixing bowl and mix on low
Add slightly beaten eggs and continue to mix until well moistened.
Mix for 3 minutes.
Change to dough hook and then add remaining flour to make a stiff dough.
Continue to mix or knead by hand for 5 minutes until dough is smooth and elastic.
Place dough in a greased bowl, turning to grease top.
Cover and let rise in a warm place until light and doubled in size. (I usually do this in the oven which I have warmed to 170 degrees and then turned off.)
Line 2 cookie sheets (with edges) with parchment paper.
Prepare Apple Cranberry: In saucepan, combine all filling ingredients except pecans. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Boil at least 5 minutes, stirring frequently or until it thickens somewhat. Cool
Punch down dough and divide in half. (or into 3 sections) I have also made 6 small braids, they freeze well after baking. Just thaw and warm in oven @250 covered in foil and then put on glaze.
Roll each section into a rectangle and place on cookie sheet.
Spread centre third of each rectangle with Raisin Apple Filling (see picture below).
Using a pizza cutter, cut dough diagonally at 1 inch intervals on both sides of filling.
Fold opposite strips of dough over filling, crossing in centre. (see picture below)
Seal ends of each braid.
Cover and let rise in warm place until light and doubled in size.
Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes or until golden brown.
Remove to racks and cool.
Ice and decorate as desired.
You could fill these with just about any fruit filling. I have put sweetened cream cheese and then topped with different jams. They are great this way! Cheese Danish!

Enjoy with coffee for breakfast or and afternoon delight!

I made sweet rolls next! These are to die for, ooey, gooey, goodness!

Sweet Rolls

This recipe will make 40 to 50 rolls, I halved the recipe and had no problems.

1 quart Whole Milk
1 cup Vegetable Oil
1 cup Sugar
2 packages Active Dry Yeast
8 cups (Plus 1 Cup Extra, Separated) All-purpose Flour
1 teaspoon (heaping) Baking Powder
1 teaspoon (scant) Baking Soda
1 Tablespoon (heaping) Salt
Plenty Of Melted Butter
2 cups Sugar ( you can use brown sugar as well)
Generous Sprinkling Of Cinnamon
(optional: nuts, raisins)
_____
FROSTING:
1 bag Powdered Sugar
2 tsp vanilla
½ cups Milk
¼ cups Melted Butter
⅛ teaspoons Salt

Preparation Instructions

Mix the milk, vegetable oil and sugar in a pan. Scald the mixture (heat until just before the boiling point).

Turn off heat and leave to cool 45 minutes to 1 hour.

When the mixture is lukewarm to warm, but NOT hot, sprinkle in both packages of Active Dry Yeast. Let this sit for a minute. Then add 8 cups of all-purpose flour. Stir mixture together. Cover and let rise for at least an hour.

After rising for at least an hour, add 1 more cup of flour, the baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir mixture together. (At this point, you could cover the dough and put it in the fridge until you need it – overnight or even a day or two, if necessary. Just keep your eye on it and if it starts to overflow out of the pan, just punch it down).

When ready to prepare rolls: Sprinkle rolling surface generously with flour. Take half the dough and form a rough rectangle. Then roll the dough thin, maintaining a general rectangular shape.

Drizzle 1/2 to 1 cup melted butter over the dough. Now sprinkle 1 cup of sugar over the butter followed by a generous sprinkling of cinnamon.

Make sure you get the cinnamon and sugar all the way to the edge,not like I have done here.

Now, starting at the opposite end, begin rolling the dough in a neat line toward you. Keep the roll relatively tight as you go. Next, pinch the seam of the roll to seal it.

Spread 1 tablespoon of melted butter in a seven inch round foil cake or pie pan. Then begin cutting the rolls approximately ¾ to 1 inch thick and laying them in the buttered pans.

Repeat this process with the other half of the dough.

(At this point you can cover with foil and put in freezer. When ready to bake set out in refrigerator the day before to thaw.In the morning set on counter and let rise for 3o minutes, then follow baking instructions. )

Let the rolls rise for 20 to 30 minutes, then bake at 400 degrees (see note below) until light golden brown, about 15 to 18 minutes.

For the frosting, mix together all ingredients listed and stir well until smooth. It should be thick but pourable. Taste and adjust as needed. Generously drizzle over the warm rolls. Go crazy and don’t skimp on the frosting.

(You can let cool and freeze them and set out and heat at @250 till warm.

Note: My rolls don’t work for me at 400 degrees anymore. I now bake them at 375 degrees.

Theses are the best rolls I have ever made!

Maybe I can have another day of baking and I’ll share it with you.

What treat do you like to have for Christmas that you can’t do with out? Leave a comment and let me know!

Enjoy!!

Nana Nita!

Christmas Came Early On The Farm ….

2010-12-06T11:24:00.001-05:00

I love my husband!!!

We decided that since we knew what we got each other for Christmas, we would go ahead and open them and use them! I mean, it is just stupid to wrap and open a gift when you know what is in it!

Here is what He got me:

Paula Deen Cookware in Red!!

This is a wonderful set of pans! Nothing sticks to them!!

I do have to wash them by hand, but I usually do wash my pans by

hand anyway!

I got a set of 4 Country Living salad plates. I love them, they are Red and Roosters, so what could be wrong about them?

This set of Jaclyn Smith dishes! Oh, they are just lovely!! Now imagine if you will one of the Rooster plates setting on the big white ones, just gorgeous!

Now with all these new pans and dishes lets cook something!

Green Chili Enchiladas

4 chicken thighs

1 can chicken broth

1 garlic clove crushed

1 small jar of Salsa Verdi ( I had home canned but you can buy it about 1 cup of it)

salt and pepper

10 to 12 flour tortillas

3 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese or Pepper Jack

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 small onion chopped

1 small can chopped green chilies

Cook chicken in broth and salsa verdi , add enough water come up over the top of chicken. Add garlic, salt & pepper.

Cook until chicken is tender and falling off bone. ( you can do this in a slow cooker)

Take chicken out of broth and let cool until you can handle the chicken to debone. Shred meat.

Reserve broth

White sauce

3 Tblsp butter

2 Tblsp flour

1 tsp cumin

1 cup milk

some of the reserved chicken broth

salt & pepper

1/2 cup shredded cheese

In sauce pan melt butter and add flour and whisk and cook for about a minute to cook off raw flour taste.

Slowly whisk in milk and cook on medium heat until thickened. Add chicken broth until the sauce is the right consistency ( not runny but like gravy) Add cheese, cumin and salt and pepper. Add about 2 Tblsp green chilies. taste for seasoning. Set aside

For chicken filling;

Put chicken in bowl and add sour cream, onion, 1 cup of cheese, remaining green chilies,salt & pepper ( taste to make sure of seasoning and adjust as needed)

To assemble:

Spray dish with non-stick spray

Put some sauce in bottom of 13x9 casserole dish, about 2 spoonfuls

In center of tortilla put about 2 TBLsp filling down and roll, put seam side down in pan with so you can put two rows of 6. . Top with sauce and then remaining cheese, cover with foil and bake @ 350 * for 20 then take foil off from remaining time, about 10 to 15 more minutes ,till bubbly . These are so good!

If you would like more heat you can add chopped jalapeños to the filling.

Here is a bonus !

Tortilla Soup!

I take the left over broth from cooking the chicken and make Tortilla soup . You are already half way there! All of the seasonings are in there. I always have some filling left over, so I add that back to the broth. Now at this point it is up to you what you put in. I don’t like to put corn or alot of other stuff ,but this is YOUR choice. I put in some black beans and thicken it a bit with some cornstarch . Taste for salt, and you might want to add some more garlic and chopped onion,cook until vegetables are tender. I serve with a dollop of sour cream, chopped avocado and shredded cheese and crushed chips.

This is so good! It is different from other tortilla soup because it does not have any tomatoes in it. It is just some creamy spicy goodness!

Until Next Time!

Nana Nita

Thanksgiving and The Good Things That Go With It!

2010-11-19T15:19:00.001-05:00

I do not like the cranberry sauce from the can! I don’t care for just relish,uncooked ground cranberries. I kind of like a combination of the two.

Here is what I did:

2 cups of fresh cranberries

1 orange (I used a tangelo because that is what I had)

1/4 cup crushed pineapple

1/2 red apple chopped small

1/2 tsp Vanilla

1/2 tsp butter (real)

1 cup of sugar

Put washed cranberries in food processor . Prepare orange : Wash the orange, cut orange in half and in quarters, then cut the white part that comes up the center of the orange ,discard. I cut mine into smaller pieces because i used a tangelo and I needed to get seeds out ,but if you use a navel orange you won’t need to do that. cut off the ends of orange. Put small pieces in processor. Add crushed pineapple and chop till ground up until all small and uniform. Put in small sauce pan and add sugar and the chopped apple, and simmer for about 30 minutes. Taste to make sure it is sweet enough. Add vanilla and butter, stir and set off heat to cool. This can be done ahead of time and frozen .

I Also like to have Pumpkin scones made up and in the freezer for breakfast on those busy mornings with company , this is one less thing that you have to do. Just take them from the freezer and let them thaw for about 30 minutes before baking. I made these right after I made the cranberry relish and I did not clean the food processor left the orange and stuff in there and you get some added flavor for your scones.

Pumpkin Cranberry Scones with spiced glaze

2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup plus 3 Tblsp sugar

1 Tblsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp cloves

1/8 tsp ginger

6 Tblsp cold butter cut into cubes

1/4 cup fresh whole cranberries or dried

1/cup canned pumpkin

3 Tblsp half & half

1 egg

If you are going to bake them now preheat oven to *425

Line your baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.

In bowl of food processor put first 7 ingredients and pulse to mix. Add butter and pulse till it resembles course corn meal. Put cranberries in and pulse till they are chopped in small pieces.

In small separate bowl mix pumpkin and cream and egg.

Pour in on dry and pulse until dough forms ,DO NOT OVER WORK DOUGH. If it is dry add a bit of cream.

Dump out on floured surface and flatten out into a square (about1 inch thick) and cut across dough in an X and then cut pieces until you have twelve scones. At this point I put them on cookie sheet and will freeze them until I need them .

To bake : *425 for 14 to 16 minutes until light brown. While the scones are baking mix up glaze .

1 cup plus 3 Tblsps powdered sugar

2 Tblsp cream

1/4 tsp cinnamon

pinch of ginger and cloves

Stir together and when the scones have cooled somewhat drizzle glaze over scones! Yummy

You can add orange zest if you like in the scones and in the glaze. Serve with coffee!!

I like to have several soups made for the family that come early and stays after. I have cooked the Turkey dinner and I really don’t want to be cooking big meals before or after.

Potato & Corn Jalapeño Chowder

Now the joy of this is you can use your leftover mashed potatoes if you have any. If not you can just use fresh potatoes.

3 cups left over mashed potatoes, or 3 to 4 large potatoes cut up,unpeeled

2 to 3 ears of corn cut off the cob and the milk of the corn

1 can chicken broth

1 tsp olive oil

1 onion chopped

1 clove garlic minced

1 jalapeño chopped( if you don’t want as much heat take out seeds and white membrane)

salt and pepper to taste

1 Tblsp corn starch

1 cup cream

6 strips of bacon cooked and crumbled

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Put potatoes, corn, chicken broth in slow cooker. In small skillet sauté onions and garlic and jalapeños until the onions are translucent. Add to Crockpot salt and pepper to taste. Cook until potatoes are soft (6hour low –4 on high) if you would like it smooth, mash with masher or immersion blender for just a bit.

Mix cream and corn starch and and add to soup and let it cook until it is thickened. When serving top with bacon and cheese. It is so good. You can make many additions to this … Chicken, shrimp, crab. It is all yummy and very easy.

I am ready for Thanksgiving to get here!

This year the Menu is as follows:

Turkey

Ham

Sweet potatoes(plain and casserole)

Green bean Casserole

Pine apple crumble

Mashed potatoes /gravy

Cranberry salad

Cranberry relish

Corn on the cob

Rolls

Desert :

Pies: Apple crumb , Pecan, Chocolate, Pumpkin (of course)

I am not sure what other deserts will be brought. Seems like I have left something out ,but my lands what else do we need???

What are some of the things your family HAS to have on the table for Thanksgiving?

I am looking forward to spending time with family !

These are some of the reasons why I cant wait!

Zack ,Ryan and Trevor!

These boys make this Nana smile!!!

I have so much to be thankful for!!

Christmas came early here on the farm!

Wow these things are awesome!

My dishwasher had the gall to die 2 weeks before Thanksgiving!! The nerve! With 21 people coming here, I needed a dishwasher, isn't it purty?

Oh so shiny

inside and out!

We also recently redid our bedroom,

old room:

New room:

I love the new color and the red quilt.

Well I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Next week:

Chili my way and cookies for Christmas and I have found a great recipe for Christmas jam!

See you later!

Lanita

Roast Beef 4 Ways!

2010-09-18T13:08:00.001-04:00

During the summer and canning season I don’t like to heat the kitchen up too much. One thing I like to do, because it is just my husband and I, I like to cook once and be able to serve it several ways.

I browned a shoulder roast and put it in the slow cooker with a can of French onion soup over the top and let cook for 8 hours on low.

Bistro beef shredded sandwiches

To serve shred meat and and put on french rolls and serve with beef broth for dipping. You may add cheese or any toppings you like. Reserve remaining meat and broth.

Beef stew

Put in crock pot about a cup to a cup 1/2 of left over shredded beef and and add your desired vegetables (potatoes, onions,carrots,celery) chopped . Add 2 cans beef broth, 1 cut up tomato . 1 clove of garlic and about 2 Tblsp tomato paste. A couple sprigs of fresh Thyme. Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours. Serve with crusty bread and cheese.

Beef Stroganoff

Take about a cup to cup 1/2 of shredded beef add 1 can cream of mushroom soup to crock pot and let cook on low for about 4 hours. Serve over noodles or rice with your choice of sides.

Beef burritos with cheese sauce

Take remaining shredded beef

2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese

1 tsp cumin powder.

1/2 tsp chili powder.

1/2 sour cream.

Pepper

Mix together with 1 cup of cheese and fill 6 to 8 flour tortillas, put seam side down in dish and pour over a container of the Mexican white cheese sauce. Top with 1 cup of shredded Monterey jack cheese Bake in 325 oven till bubbly . Serve with chips and salsa.

That is 4 ways with one 4 lbs of Roast Beef! Enjoy. The possibilities are really endless, See what you can come up with and share your recipes with me!

See you Later!

Lanita

Let’s Take a Gastronomic Journey!

2010-08-13T22:48:00.001-04:00

We will start in Greece, It is beautiful.

Ah….Greece!

Look at the Acropolis….

Look at the blue water…I mean that is BLUE!

Look at the food, and I don’t even know what these things are, but they look awesome!

So, lets make Spanakopita!!

What is Spanakopita? It is this wonderful spinach and feta deliciousness!

Spanakopita

PREP TIME: 40 minutes
COOK TIME: 30 minutes
YIELD: 12 to 14 Spanakopita

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chopped yellow onion
3 scallions, white and green parts, chopped
2 (10-ounce) packages frozen chopped spinach, defrosted
4 eggs, lightly beaten
3 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan
Plain dry bread crumbs
1 teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoons Kosher salt (less depending on the type of feta)
1 teaspoon ground pepper
2 cups small-diced feta (about 12 ounces) (try goat’s milk feta)
3 tablespoons toasted pine nuts
24 to 28 sheets frozen phyllo dough, defrosted
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Sea salt

HOW YOU DO IT:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

SPINACH-FETA FILLING

2. Cook the pine nuts in a dry, medium sauté pan, over low heat, for about 8 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove the pine nuts, and heat the oil in the pan over medium-low heat. Once the oil is hot, add the onion and cook for 5 minutes. Add the scallions and cook for another 2 minutes, or until the scallions are wilted but still green.

3. Meanwhile, gently squeeze the water out of the spinach and place it in a large bowl. If the spinach is still cold, you can run it under hot water and then strain the water out. When the onion and scallions are done, add them to the spinach. Mix in the eggs, Parmesan, 3 tablespoons of bread crumbs, the nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Gently fold in the feta and pine nuts.

FOLDING PHYLLO

4. Place one sheet of phyllo dough flat on a work surface with the long end in front of you. With a wide brush, lightly butter the dough and sprinkle it with about a teaspoon of bread crumbs. You do not need to brush the entire sheet and you can use your hands to scatter the breadcrumbs. Working quickly, slide another sheet of phyllo dough directly on top of the first. Butter and breadcrumb this second layer, and repeat with two more layers of phyllo dough.

5. Once you have four layers of neatly stacked phyllo dough, cut the sheets in half, vertically. Place 1/3 cup of the spinach-feta filling at the bottom of each sheet and roll the phyllo up diagonally to make a triangle (as if folding a flag). Fold the triangle of phyllo over straight, then diagonally, continuing the pattern until you reach the end of the sheet and the filling is completely enclosed Continue assembling the phyllo layers and folding the filling until there is no more filling.

6. Place the triangles on a baking sheet. Lightly brush the tops with the melted butter, and sprinkle with a pinch of the sea salt. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the phyllo is browned and crisp. Serve hot!!

REHEATING

*Phyllo dough will become soggy in the microwave. On the off-chance you have leftovers, reheat the spanakopita in a 350-degree oven for 10 minutes.

I had to use Puff Pastry because that is all I could find! It worked, but it did have a different texture.

It was heavenly!! I would definitely make this again, but I would make smaller portions. I also added black olives and mushrooms, Yummy

Now fasten your seat belt and let’s move on to …..

China

It is a gorgeous place, filled with history,

and cute bears!! Okay this has nothing to do with the next recipe, but did you see how cute the Panda is????

Alright, lets look at the food!

I love a good Chinese restaurant, because frankly, I can’t cook GOOD Chinese food! I can however make this salad with Nappa cabbage and it is called Chinese Salad! So, here goes…

Chinese Salad with Grilled Chicken

1 head of Napa cabbage ,chopped

3 green onions,chopped

1 package of Ramen noodles, crushed

1/2 cup sliced almonds

1/2 stick of butter, melted

Mix cabbage and green onion in large bowl and set aside.

In non-stick skillet melt butter and put in crushed ramen noodles and almonds, cook over medium heat until light brown drain on paper towels.

Dressing for salad

1/2 cup oil

1/2 cup vinegar

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon fresh grated ginger

1 clove garlic, grated

1/2 cup brown sugar

dash salt

pinch red pepper flake

lime zest and the juice of lime

In small sauce pan heat all ingredients till sugar is melted. Pour up in jar and store in fridge. It is a great dressing on regular salad as well.

You can fix the salad just like this,sprinkle with the noodles and pour on a little dressing and enjoy! Or you can top it with the Grilled chicken. Either way is wonderful!

Grilled chicken

4 boneless chicken breast

Marinade for chicken

Place chicken in gallon sized zip lock bag and add,

1/4 cup soy sauce

zest of one lime

juice of lime

1/2 inch of fresh grated ginger

1 glove of garlic,grated

1 pinch red pepper flakes

1/4 cup olive oil

3 tablespoons brown sugar

Mix all together in bag with chicken and let set for several hours.

Grill till done and slice chicken on the diagonal and place on top of salad, sprinkle with noodles and dressing.

Yummy!

Let’s move on now…I hope you have saved up some frequent flyer miles…..

We are headed to the South!

It is so beautiful….

Gods country!!!!

Where you can sit out on the front porch with glass of sweet tea and something sugary and sweet….

No, not that sweet !

Okay we have to see some deelish southern food,

MMMM…. Hungry yet?

I happened to luck up and got a great deal on 25 lbs. of peaches! I canned 9 quarts and 16 half pints of peach jelly. So, what to do with all those jars of peaches?

How about we make some peach cobbler?

This is the easiest recipe you will ever make! I can say that now…

1 cup sugar

1 cup self rising flour ( or you can add 1 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt to regular flour) Funny story, my Mother-in-law made this shortly after we got married and she told me how to make it….she would say, cup of flour,cup of sugar, cup of milk,1 stick of butter and the 2 cups fruit. I tried and tried to make it but all I ever got was a piece of shoe leather on top of the fruit. What did I do wrong? She never said to use self rising flour. Before you make a comment about my intelligence, she used self rising for everything. I would ask if she used any leavening and she would say no. I finely figured it out. Okay I digress back to the cobbler…

1 cup of milk

1 stick of butter

2 cups of peaches and juice

pre-heat oven to 375*

In 13x9 inch dish melt butter in oven while heating oven.

In mixing bowl, mix sugar, flour, milk .

Put peaches on top of butter in dish,

Pour batter on top of peaches,

Bake for 45 minutes

It is this buttery,peachy goodness that requires coffee! It would have been over the top to serve it with vanilla ice cream, I did not have any,so I made do. Buy the ice cream first!

Ya’ll come on down south and sit on the porch and stay a while!

Okay this is Not my front porch, but you get the idea!

Till next time….Stay cool and cook something wonderful and tell me about it!

Lanita (Nana~Nita)

This And That And Some Bread….

2010-08-08T15:52:00.001-04:00

I have been a canning demon! I found a great deal on tomatoes at a small framers market ,$7.50 for 25 lbs, so I bought 2 boxes.

I have canned chopped tomatoes,Italian herbed tomatoes, Mexican spiced tomatoes,Marinara sauce and salsa, salsa, salsa !

Saturday we went apple picking….can anyone guess what I’ll be doing next week?? You guessed it canning apples! I am going to try my hand at making apple pie filling. I found some clear gel at the same store, it is a thickener that allows you to can it. I have some strawberries and raspberries and some blueberries that I am going to turn into pie filling as well. The blackberries will be made into jam! We also picked 4 bushels of corn this week and it is now in the freezer! Whew!! Put your feet up and relax, I have!

Now lets cook something!!!

Lets have Barbeque riblets , boiled corn and homemade bread! This bread is to die for,well enough chit chat lets get down to the good stuff!

BBQ Riblets

2 lbs of riblets

1 to 2 cloves of garlic, minced

3 Tblsp brown sugar

1/4 cup vinegar (apple cider)

2 tsp liquid smoke

1/4 cup orange juice

a sprinkling of red pepper flakes

salt, pepper

water to cover the ribs

1 bottle of KC Master Piece BBQ sauce,

Place ribs in slow cooker,

mix the orange juice and garlic salt pepper, red flakes, brown sugar, liquid smoke,vinegar and pour over , ribs and pour more water in till it covers the ribs. Cook on low for 6 hours. After 6 hours pour off liquid . At this point you may coat with BBQ sauce and cook them on the grill or you can finish them in the oven. I like to just pour the sauce on them and put the lid back on the slow cooker and keep them warm till time to serve.

SHEEPHERDER'S BREAD

*whole wheat version below
2-1/2 cups water
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, cut up
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
2 packages active dry yeast
7-1/2 to 8 cups all-purpose flour
-In a small saucepan heat water, sugar, butter, and salt just until
warm (105 to 115 degrees) and butter is almost melted, stirring
constantly. Pour mixture into a large mixing bowl. Stir in the yeast.
Cover and let stand in a warm place about 15 minutes or until mixture
is bubbly.
-Using a wooden spoon, stir in 4 cups of the flour, beating to form a
thick batter. Stir in 3 cups more of the flour to make a moderately
soft dough. (To maintain a smooth dough, add the flour in portions
and stir after adding each.)
-Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead in enough
of the remaining flour to make a moderately stiff dough that is
smooth and elastic (6 to 8 minutes total).
-Shape the dough into a ball. Place in a greased bowl; turn dough
over once to grease the top surface. (This helps keep the dough from
drying out.)
-Cover and let rise in a warm place until double (about one hour).
The dough is ready when you can lightly and quickly press two
fingertips 1/2 inch into the dough and the indentation remains.
-Punch dough down; form into a smooth ball. Cover and let rest about
ten minutes. Grease well the bottom and sides of an ovenproof 4-1/2
or 5-quart Dutch oven. Place the dough in prepared Dutch oven. Cover
with a towel and let rise until dough is about 1/2 inch below the top
edge of pan (about one hour).
-Bake bread on the lowest rack of a 325F degree oven for 55 to 60
minutes or until the bread sounds hollow when tapped with your
finger. Cover bread with foil, if necessary, to prevent over
browning. Remove from pan; cool on a wire rack.
*Whole Wheat version: Prepare the bread as directed, EXCEPT
reduce the all-purpose flour to 4 cups. Add the all-purpose four to
the yeast mixture as directed, then stir in 3 cups whole wheat flour.
Knead as directed, using an additional 1/2 to 1 cup whole wheat
flour. Continue as directed.

This makes a HUGE loaf of bread I would recommend dividing the dough into 2 loaves and put it in regular pans,maybe 4 pans it is huge!! I used the whole wheat recipe, it was real nice soft bread. Very good texture,a crisp crust but a soft interior . I did cut back on the sugar and only used half of the amount.

Now, don’t these look good??? The meat just falls off the bone!

Enjoy!

Until next time,put your feet up and stay cool!

Lanita (Nana Nita)

Baby It Is Hot In The Kitchen!!

2010-07-23T22:54:00.001-04:00

Well I don’t about where you all are, but it is HOT and Humid here!

We live in the New River Valley,in South west Virginia. It is not supposed to be 90* here! With all the canning I am doing, I am not cooking big meals! So it is salad time here at the Farm. I thought I would share with you some of my favorite summer salads.

Italian Summer Salad

Chopped romaine lettuce (however much you need for how many your serving,about 1/2 cup per person)

Tomato, chopped

Red onion, chopped

Small pepperoni

Chopped ham

Mozzarella or Provolone,cubed

Black Olives,chopped

chick peas

Croutons

Top with your favorite Italian dressing ( I like Newman's Own olive oil and vinegar)

This is very light and refreshing. The nice thing about it is you can have all of these things already chopped and in containers and ready to make individual servings, for a quick fix!

Mexican Chef Salad

1 lbs. of ground beef

1 onion chopped (divided)

chopped black olives

chopped lettuce

chopped tomato

chopped avocado

shredded cheddar cheese

corn chips

sour cream

salsa

Brown ground beef with 1/2 onion and drain off fat, season to taste with salt and pepper. I like to cut everything up and let everyone put on their salad what they would like. I love this salad ! We eat this quite frequently. There is no right or wrong order, but I put the lettuce in the bottom and then the tomato,onion,olives,hamburger chips(I like mine crushed) cheese,and top with salsa and sour cream. You can add what you like,make it yours!

The orzo salad from a prior post is great to keep made up in the fridge. It is great to grab and go,because it has no mayo in it ,it travels well. Add cooked chicken to it or shrimp and toasted pita bread you would have a complete meal .

Another favorite to keep made up in the fridge is good old cottage

cheese.

add,chopped red onion,

chopped cucumber,

fresh tomato (I don’t mix it in, just chop and add to my bowl,as it will make it runny)

You can add green pepper if you like ,or jalapeños, Mix all together in a bowl and keep in fridge to eat on through out the week. I like to serve it with chopped lettuce in the bottom of the bowl and top with cottage cheese mixture and add tomatoes on the side. It is quick and so refreshing!

Most of the salads you can make up ahead, or all of the components of them and put them together as you need them. Even the hamburger can be cooked ahead and just heat up a portion in the microwave for your salad.

Steve, my DH is performing a wedding this weekend and the young couple is so nice I wanted to do something special for them. I whipped up a batch of Almond Strawberry Biscotti, put some of my jams and a set of pot holders and dish towels in a basket and gave as a gift.

I love Biscotti and it is really easy to make here is my recipe:

Strawberry Almond Biscotti

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp salt
3 eggs
1/2 cup butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 fresh strawberries ,chopped fine
1 cup finely chopped almonds
3 cups confectioners' sugar
Combine the flour, eggs, margarine, sugar, vanilla, and chopped almonds to form a smooth dough. Stir in the chopped strawberries.

Divide dough into 3 equal parts and roll each portion out into a cylindrical log shape. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350ºF (175ºC).
Place refrigerated rolls of dough onto a greased baking sheet and bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Let cool then slice into 1/2 inch thick slices.
Put cookies onto greased baking sheet and bake for another 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown.The cookies are very crisp when done.

These are delish with a cup of coffee!! Enjoy!

Stay cool, until next time!

Lanita

The Canning Adventures Continue!

2010-07-21T13:53:00.001-04:00

Have you ever tried peach salsa?

I think it is really good,It has that sweet hot thing going on! Imagine it on grilled chicken or on pork roast! It was really good just on chips !

It turned out really pretty in the jar.

The are very few ingredients :

6 cups Peaches and 2 Jalapeños chopped

1 Red onion chopped

1 bunch cilantro chopped & 1/2 cup lime juice

2 to 3 Tblsp honey

2 tsp cumin

Salt and pepper. I had some juice from fresh raspberries that I added about 1/4 cup. Combine everything in a medium size pot and bring to boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Then place in prepared pint jars and water bath for 10 minutes. Yum!

I canned apples and they are so convenient to have on hand!

They turned out nice and white in the jar. This year I added fruit fresh and lemon juice! Canned them in a medium syrup. They are ready to use in a pie or with pork for fried apples. I like to use them in a savory way by adding garlic and rosemary red onion ,salt and pepper. It really pairs well with chicken or pork.

One quart will make one apple pie, just make your crust (My favorite is in the prior post) drain apples and put in large bowl add about 1/3 cup flour and some cinnamon if you like and a pinch of salt, 1 tsp vanilla and mix all together and put in pie crust and dot with butter and then top with pie pastry and crimp and put slits in it and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Bake @ 425* for 40 minutes or until you see the fruit bubble.

I wrap the outer crust with foil before baking and then take it off for the last 15 minutes so the crust does not brown too much.

You could make a apple crumble or a cobbler as well. It really cuts the work in half to make a dessert.

I also made some Black and Blue jam! It was really good! I mixed black berries and blue berries and ran them through a sieve,

It was really kind of a messy job but well worth the effort! Look at that color!

Black and Blue jam

9 cups of berries evenly divided(black berries/blueberries)

run through sieve and and have 3 3/4 cup pulp from berries

6 3/4 cups sugar

1/2 tsp butter

1 pouch liquid pectin

In large stock pot mix berry pulp and sugar together and cook on medium heat until sugar is melted . Add butter and melt . Bring to boil, so that when stirred it does not stop bubbling. Add the pectin and cook for 1 minute siring continually. Take off heat and stir occasionally for 5 minutes. Dip into prepared jelly jars and place 2 piece lids and water bath for 10 minutes. Remove and place on counter to cool and seal. Enjoy!

At this point I have canned 28 pints and 21 quarts of green beans!

I am sure well will get at least 2 more pickings off of the bushes.

Keep cool ! Until next time!

Lanita

Had a Long break and I am Back!

2010-07-14T13:32:00.001-04:00

I have taken a break from blogging ,but I am back!

I have been canning Jams,

relishes and green beans.

I canned 15 pints and 7 quarts of green beans and that was just the first picking.

The corn is looking good this year and the tomatoes are almost ripe. That means the salsa making and sauces will be coming up! The cilantro is going crazy I have frozen 30 bunches of it and there is more to be harvested. I am going to try my hand at drying my oregano and basil this year, since my darling daughter and son-in-law got me a dehydrator for my birthday.

We have kept our grandsons for 2 weeks this summer and had a blast! Always have a good time with them.

Our grandson Ryan reached another milestone of turning 3 !!!! He has Lissencephaly,http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/lissencephaly/lissencephaly.htm ,So for him to turn three is quite an accomplishment!

He is such a joy, I love that little boy!

My family jokes that we run a Bed and Breakfast,so this week we have my sister staying at Nana Nita’s B&B. Tonight for dinner I fixed Greek Bistro chicken and Greek orzo salad and for dessert Raspberry cream cheese Crostata ! Yummy I had some pastry in the freezer and some left over raspberries for jam making and I just had this moment of inspiration ! It turned out wonderful.

Greek Bistro Chicken

4 chicken thighs

juice of one lemon

1 tsp chopped fresh oregano

1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary

1 clove of garlic grated

salt & pepper

2 Tblsp olive oil

Put everything in a galloon sized ziplock bag and let the air out then squeeze all ingredients to coat the chicken well. Let marinate for 3 hours.

Now, I put the chicken in my rotisserie basket and cooked it for approximately 1 hour. If you don’t have a rotisserie then you could grill it or bake it in the oven until crispy.

Greek orzo Salad

1/2 cup red onion chopped fine

1 small cucumber chopped fine

1/2 cup black olives chopped fine

1 small clove garlic grated

1/2 cup crumbled Feta cheese

1 Tblsp chopped fresh oregano

1 tsp rosemary chopped

salt & pepper

Juice of lemon and the zest of half of it

olive oil

Cook about 1 1/2 cups of orzo according to directions then drain.

In bowl put in the lemon juice and zest, stir in olive oil to make dressing ,just enough to make an emulsion.

Add remaining ingredients and stir and the taste for salt .

You may add tomatoes if you like but I don’t like to because it will not keep as long . It will get a little soggy.

Raspberry Cream cheese Crostata

Pastry for one pie (recipe for pastry at the end)

1 8 oz cream cheese softened

whipping cream

1 tsp vanilla or almond extract

2 cups raspberries (fresh or frozen) If frozen thaw and drain,If fresh mash and drain

1/2 cup strawberries chopped

1/3 cup almonds sliced

sugar

1 egg white beaten

preheat oven to 425*

Roll crust out in a circle and place on parchment covered cookie sheet

( here is my trick on how to get pastry from counter to pie plate or cookie sheet)

Place rolling pin at the top of rolled pastry,

Then roll pastry up on to rolling pin,

after you get the pastry rolled onto the pin you then can pick up the pin and move it to where you need it.

In stand mixer whip cream cheese and slowly add cream until you get a (not runny) creamy texture , add flavoring of your choice,add sugar until you get it to your desired sweetness.

In small bowl put drained raspberries and strawberries and taste for sweetness add sugar accordingly .

In the center of the pastry spread out the cream cheese mixture and leave a 2 inch ring on the outside edge.

On top of cream cheese spread the fruit and then sprinkle with some of the almonds. Fold crust up an over fruit and cream cheese,you may have to kind of pleat it around to have it be a circle around it. Brush crust with egg white and sprinkle with sugar and remaining almonds. Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes or until bubbly .

This was divine!!!!

You could substitute blueberries or any other berries and it would be just as good!

Pie crust recipe (makes for a two crust pie)

12 Tblsp (1 1/2 ) sticks very cold butter(cubed)

3 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp kosher salt

1 Tblsp sugar

1/3 cup very cold shortening

6 to 8 Tblsp ice water

Put flour,salt sugar in bowl of large food processor and pulse to mix. Add cubed butter and shortening and pulse until it resembles peas. With machine running slowly pour in water in the tube until the dough begins to form a ball. Dump out on floured surface and roll in to a ball and cut in half. Flatten both out to disks and wrap separately in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. You may freeze at this point and use as needed.

Well I Finally Made Them!

2010-02-23T20:16:00.001-05:00

I had been putting it off, I don’t know why. I researched and found a good recipe . I read all of the comments on it and took all of that into consideration, then procrastinated about making them. The task seemed daunting ,I don’t know why. But I finally made the English Muffins Steve had been craving.

They are good, they are tasty, they are time consuming. I’m glad I have had this experience. I might make them again….or not.

English Muffins

Ingredients

1 cup Buttermilk
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
1/4 cup melted shortening
6 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Directions

Warm the milk in a small saucepan until it bubbles, then remove from heat. Mix in 1/2 of the sugar, stirring until dissolved. Let cool until lukewarm. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast,baking soda and the other 1/2 sugar in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
In a large bowl, combine the milk, yeast mixture, shortening and 3 cups flour. Beat until smooth. Add salt and rest of flour, or enough to make a soft dough. Knead. Place in greased bowl, cover, and let rise.
Punch down. Roll out to about 1/2 inch thick.
Cut rounds with biscuit cutter, drinking glass, or empty tuna can . Put some cornmeal on a plate and gently rub muffin on each side in cornmeal. Cover and let rise 1/2 hour.
Heat greased griddle.
Cook muffins on griddle about 10 minutes on each side on medium heat.
Keep baked muffins in a warm oven until all have been cooked. Allow to cool and place in plastic bags for storage. To use, split with a fork and toast. Don’t cut with a knife, it will mess up the nooks and crannies.
Great with orange butter, or cream cheese and jam.
They were really good toasted and buttered! Crispy and crunchy!

My notes on this recipe….

I grilled them on each side until I had them the desired color and then put them in a 350* oven for 8 minutes each side. I read several comment on this and most people said that this worked better than doing them on the griddle the whole time, so that you did not have to monitor them the whole time. They don’t have a lot of nooks and crannies, but they had some. I don’t think I rolled the dough out quite thin enough,so they were a little thick, heavy. If I had rolled them out more I think they would have had a better texture.

Well until next time…. I’m thinking about Pita Bread…..

we’ll see!

I Found It!

2010-02-12T14:13:00.001-05:00

Last year I found a fabulous noodle recipe, and then I lost it! Don’t you just hate that!!! Those noodles were tender, flavorful and easy to make. I found another recipe not long ago and I made some chicken noodle soup with them , well suffice it to say they were not good. They were rubbery,somewhat tuff and they ruined my soup!! So I started out on a quest to find the perfect noodle recipe. I have done the hard work for you, so here it is.

The Perfect Noodle

2 eggs

3 Tbsp butter melted and cooled

1/4 tsp baking powder

1 1/4 cup flour

1 tsp salt

(You could add pepper or herbs)

In bowl, mix eggs,butter,whisking well, add all other ingredients and stir together until soft dough forms.

Dust counter with flour and gently knead until smooth (DO NOT over work dough)

Divide dough ball into 3rds and cover the dough you are not working with a damp towel.

Roll one ball of dough out to 1/8 thickness

Then slice noodles into thin strips,

What is that cool tool? It is a herb cutter, but I do not use it for that. The blades are spaced just perfect for noodles and pasta! Separate the noodles and put them on a cookies sheet and let them set and dry out some . Repeat with remaining dough.

You can make these in advance and dry them or you could freeze them to have on hand.

When ready to use put big pot of water on to boil and put noodles in,stir gently to separate but don’t break them up.

It does not take but maybe 5 minutes for them to cook, check to see if they are tender. Drain in strainer.

So simple so easy! The possibility of these are endless,add a bit of butter and sprinkle with herbs and eat as is or put in soup….You can’t go wrong!

I made chuck steak and cooked in the slow cooker and served over the noodles like stroganoff! Yummy!

Here is the recipe for Steak:

Chuck Steak and Mushroom Gravy

4 pieces of chuck steak

2 cloves garlic (chopped)

1 to 2 cups sliced mushrooms (how much do you like mushrooms?)

1/4 cup flour

2 Tbsp olive oil

salt ,pepper

1 can Beefy mushroom soup

1/2 can of water

1/4 C Sour Cream (optional)

In large skillet put olive oil and heat over medium heat.

Salt and pepper steak on both sides and dredge in flour on both sides. Place steak in skillet and brown on both sides.

Put meat in slow cooker

And sauté mushrooms and garlic in same skillet as you browed the meat adding more oil if needed.

Place mushrooms on top of meat and pour soup over top of meat. Using the soup can,fill about 1/2 full and deglaze pan getting all the bits and pieces and pour over everything. Cover and cook for 4 hours on low. When done with fork break up meat into pieces. If desired at this point you may stir in Sour Cream. I did not, but it would have been heavenly. We are trying to cut back on the fat a bit so I left it out.

I made scones for breakfast this morning,I love scones. Like the noodles, I went on a quest for the The Best scone recipe. I had a raspberry scone at Starbucks one day and thought, man I need to learn how to make these! What I learned was that all scone recipes are not equal! It is hard work but some one had to do it. So after much flour and many trials and ten pounds…. This is the Best scone recipe, I can say that because it is the name of the recipe!

So here my friends is the fruits of my labor… I do it for you!

The Best Scones

2 1/4 C flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp soda

1/4 tsp salt

2 Tbsp sugar (plus extra for sprinkling on top)

1 Tbsp orange peel or lemon

1/2 Real butter cold (cut up small)

1 C fruit ( Blue berries,strawberries,raspberries,raisins,cranberries* see note)

1 C plain yogurt

1 Tbsp milk

In food processor place first 7 ingredients ,(*You will notice in this picture I put my dried cranberries in with the flour ,I did this because I find that the cranberries are a bit big when not chopped up some so ,I let the food processor do the work for me.) Pluse until it has a crumbled texture. Put in yogurt (This morning I used Vanilla yogurt because I accidentally picked it up rather than plain. I added a bit more vanilla to the mix and yum! ) You will want to be very careful at this point not to over work your dough so on pulse ,do it just until dough comes together.

It will be a little sticky .

Flour your surface,

turn out dough,if you want to add fruit do it now . Just kind of pat dough out and put fruit on top and fold over a couple of times to incorporate it in, Then roll out to a disk,

about 1/2 inch thick,cut into triangles And place on parchment lined cookie sheet. Preheat your oven to 425*

Brush with milk ( I have used orange juice ) and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. These are so light and fluffy but delicately crunchy on top. A perfect complement to a cup of coffee or a cup of tea.

I only baked half of the recipe, I flash froze the other 6 and put in Zip lock bag. You can defrost and bake as directed . These are great to have in the freezer for snacks or when you find yourself with unexpected company. I love These combinations,Blueberry and lemon,Orange and Cranberry topped with cinnamon and sugar, Raspberry and lemon. The possibilities are endless! Tell me your favorite combinations!

And finally my Sarah~Noelle Came today! You don’t know what that is? Well check out my friend Joni Horn’s website out to find out! Sarah~Noelle

The best all natural skin care products!

Well until next time…. Maybe Steve will get lucky and I’ll tackle those English Muffins he asked for??

Cinnamon ,Apples and Raisins

2010-02-06T20:40:00.001-05:00

It has snowed again and I have been so bored! So what to do but go in the kitchen and cook!

Boy, have I made some messes in the kitchen! You can see Steve is shocked at the mess,but no worries….

see it cleans up pretty good! Well, lets see what went on to make all that mess!

What is better than fresh homemade bread for breakfast? Well I think it would be fresh Cinnamon Raisin Bread! Oh my it was heavenly, and it was not even breakfast time when I stole ,I mean tasted a piece for quality control.

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

Makes one large loaf, It could be divided into 2 smaller loaves.

3/4 cup very warm water

3/4 cup buttermilk

1 1/2 tsp yeast

1 1/2 tsp salt

2 Tblsp sugar

3 1/2 cup flour (I used 1/2 regular flour and 1/2 bread flour)

Mix the first 4 ingredients in stand mixer bowl and let sit for 5 minutes.

Then with dough hook mix in flour. Mix in the mixer just till dough starts to clean the sides of bowl.

Dust counter with flour and knead dough for about 5 minutes ,until smooth and elastic.

Put in butter large bowl and cover and let rise for 2 hours.

Now for the filling,

1/4 cup sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 Cup raisins (optional)

After dough rises punch down and dust counter with flour and roll dough out into rectangle

Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar,

Add raisins if desired.

Roll up short ways ,and place seam side down in buttered bread pan.

Cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.

Pre heat oven to 350* and bake for 30 minute or until browned on top and hollow sounding when thumped on the bottom.

Ooh, how pretty! It rose so nice. Lets slice into it! WAIT!!

After it cools of course ,Surely you can wait 15 minutes!

As you can see, I did not roll mine short ways, I should have ! You will have more swirls of wonderful cinnamon if you do.

I must say the taste did not suffer though!

I had a leftover piece of pie pastry,what to do? When the children were little I would take the pastry that I cut off from the pie and roll it out and sprinkle it with cinnamon and sugar and bake for about 10 minutes and they would eat it like cookies. But the children have grown up and left home so… lets take the leftover pastry and make a grown-up desert, lets make a Gallette.

Apple & Orange Cranberry Gallette

This is really more of a technique than a recipe. You and substitute any fruit and flavor component. Nuts would be a nice addition I would think.

2 finely chopped apples (peel optional)

1/4 cup dried cranberries

about 1’4 cup orange marmalade

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 to 1/2 cup sugar(taste your apples to see how sweet they are)

1/4 cup flour

1 Tblsp butter

dash salt

1 egg for egg wash

Roll pastry out on flour dusted counter.

Place on parchment covered cookie sheet. On a side note, parchment paper is wonderful! Please get some and use it, it will make your life so much easier. Not necessarily better but it makes clean up a breeze. Cookies don’t stick. If you don’t have a bread baking peel, you can use parchment paper dusted with corn meal , place your bread dough to rise on it and then slide onto baking stone .It will not stick to bottom of your bread. Okay back to the Gallette…

In large bowl mix apples, cranberries ,cinnamon ,salt ,sugar(to taste) and marmalade and flour, Mix well. Spread out on crust.

Then fold crust up around fruit.

Dot with butter,

Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with cinnamon& sugar.

Bake @ 350* for 30 to 35 minutes or until fruit is bubbly.

Let cool and serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I did not have any vanilla ice cream and it was still really, really good. Like I wanted to eat another piece, I didn’t ,but I really wanted too! Enjoy!

Well until we meet again, we are supposed to have more snow on Tuesday into Wednesday and flurries on Thursday. Joy !

I will see what I can think of to whip up for the next batch of weather! Any suggestions? Steve would like to see if I could fix English Muffins…..We’ll see!

Shall We Go To The Bistro ?

2010-01-30T22:14:00.001-05:00

Well It has snowed again !

We have about 12 inches and it is still snowing! For some reason when it snows I want to go into the kitchen and cook! I don’t know why? So today I decided to whip up French dips. My daughter gave me the idea . She makes hamburgers and pours a can of Campbell's French onion soup over them and lets them simmer until the liquid reduces ,tops them with Swiss cheese and serves them on buns. They are really good. It got me thinking the soup would be great on a roast. So here is my recipe.

French Bistro French Dips.

2 to 3 lbs. roast beef

1/4 cup flour

salt & pepper

2 Tbls olive oil

2 to 3 cloves of garlic chopped

2 cans Campbell’s French Onion soup

Provolone cheese, sliced

French rolls

Coat roast with salt and pepper ,then with flour. Making sure to rub in well. Then in a roaster or deep pan heat the olive oil. On medium heat brown meat on all sides.

Place the meat and garlic and two cans of soup

in crock pot and cook on low for 8 hours. Do not try to speed this up by cooking on high it will compromise the meat. It must be cooked low and slow!

After 8 hours take out the meat and shred it with 2 forks.

Put the meat back in the broth, and turn it down on keep warm.

At this point you could just grab a fork and dig in, I wont tell! The meat is so tender and succulent!

I made my own French rolls,

I used the Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a Day bagel recipe. On a side note, make these they are worth the time ! The smell alone is worth it.

Make sure you have a bowl for the dipping sauce. I made fries to go with it.

Put meat on rolls, you may put mayo if you want top with cheese if desired and dip in the broth. The broth will drip down your chin don’t worry about it! No one will notice because they too will be in heaven!

This was by far the best sandwich I have ever had! Enjoy!

Bagels

I have always wanted to make homemade Bagels,so this past week I gave it a shot. I had some dough left over from making some bread and thought why not?

The dough

3 cups warm water

1 1/2 Tblsp fast acting yeast

1 1/2 Tblsp kosher salt

1 1/2 TBlsp sugar

6 1/4 cups bread flour

In stand mixer put yeast, salt, sugar,

and water. Whisk it all together and with bread hook attachment on add flour. Mix for about 2 to 3 minutes. Put dough in large bowl with a lid,

set on the stove and don’t seal the lid just set on it. I always turn on the hood light to my stove so the light will give off a little heat. Let it set for 2 hours then refrigerate over night or for 14 days.

When you are ready to make your Bagels you will need a large pot and 8 cups boiling water. 1 Tbsp baking soda and a 1/4 cup sugar.

I like my Bagels on the small side so take your dough and cut off a piece about the size of a small peach or a little smaller.

Roll and turn dough till smooth on top a tucking dough under, place on a cookie sheet and cover with a towel and let dough rest at room temp for 2o minutes. The whole batch will make 20 Bagels ,you don’t have to make them all at once. 20 minutes before baking Pre-heat your oven to 400* Put an empty pan in oven on lower rack under baking stone.

Bring large pot of water to boil ,reduce to simmer and add sugar and soda. Punch your thumb through the center of bagel to form a hole triple the width of the bagel.

Drop Bagels into simmering water one at a time,

don’t crowd them or they will misshapen.

Let them simmer for 2 minutes and then flip with slotted spoon and simmer for 1 minute more.

With slotted spoon place on a cookie sheet with a flour coated kitchen towel. This will absorb some of the water from the bagels . Do this to all bagels . Then place bagels on a peel coated with whole wheat flour or corn meal.

Brush the bagels with egg white mixed with a bit of water and sprinkle with poppy seeds or sesame seeds. Place on stone and pour 1 cup water in pan and quickly shut door so bagels bake with steam. Bake for 20 minutes until deeply browned and firm.

The results are amazing! No need to let cool as you would other bread. Serve when they are a bit warm,slather with cream cheese then top with orange marmalade or just plain old butter and enjoy!

A Happy Accident!

2010-01-12T21:07:00.001-05:00

I have been craving Craisins!

You know dried cranberries. So off I went to Wal-Mart to do my shopping. I saw ocean Spray Craisins on sale, so I just reached up and grabbed a bag. After I got home I unloaded my gazillion shopping bags,I found my craisins I had been craving for so long…..Only to realize Ocean Spray saw fit to make Cherry FLAVORED craisins.

Why oh why would you do that?? Because they had dried cherries , but I wanted dried cranberries! I don’t really care for cherries. So,what to do, what to do? I was planning on making orange and cranberry scones but I did not think orange and cherry would be that good. So I had to figure out what to do with them now that I had them. Well of course ,cherry and vanilla cookies! So here is the recipe,in case you should find yourself in the same predicament.

Cherry Vanilla Cookies

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 cup un-salted butter (softened)

1 Tblsp vanilla (real)

2 eggs

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

2 1/4 cup flour

1 to 2 cups cherry flavored craisins

Pre-heat oven to 350*

In mixing bowl cream together sugar and butter until light and fluffy.

Add eggs and vanilla and mix well.

Mix dry ingredients together and reserve 1 cup ,add with mixer on low,so you don’t wear the flour. Mix craisins in with the cup of reserved flour, Add to mixture on slow until well blended. On parchment lined cookie sheets,

spoon out Tbls sized balls 12 per pan and bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Should make 3 dozen cookies. These are addictive!

Enjoy!

For the update on the floor….

After much sanding and a LOT of vacuuming and mopping and cleaning and any other mode of cleaning you would like to add that means it was a mess!

Look at how good it looks!!!

It was really messy,but WOW! It was worth it!

It is not perfect , but then again neither is the rest of the house!

It gives it character!

Well, come on back and we’ll sit a spell!

I am going to go have some milk and cookies!

What is the difference between beef stew and vegetable beef soup?

2010-01-07T18:00:00.004-05:00

   Strangely enough I think the difference is tomatoes and the type of meat used.
   My Mom fixed beef stew just about once a week. She fixed it with leftover roast beef and the vegetables and gravy. This to me is beef stew,gravy with the meat and vegetables not a broth.
   My recipe is not really a recipe but an formula.

Classic Beef Stew
2 cups or so left over roast beef chopped up
(you can use stew meat but the secret to this is to chop your meat in small pieces,coat with flour and brown well. This will give the meat a roasted flavor that you get from using left over roast)
1 onion chopped
2 carrots chopped
2 potatoes chopped,1 rib celery chopped

1/2 cup corn
1/2 cup peas

1 can green beans ( I always have some left over from a meal, I put them in a container in the freezer and save them for this occasion , If you have cooked your roast with onions and potatoes and carrots or if you served corn ,peas and they are left over use them and add more as needed.)
Left over gravy
1 can beef stock
Mix all things together in crock pot and cook for 8 hours on low or 4 hours on high. If it is not thick enough you may use some cornstarch to thicken. Check for salt and pepper,add to taste.
It should have gravy and not be brothy.

Lanita’s Vegetable Beef Soup
This is where your leftover vegetables come in to play. I have a gallon size zip lock bag that I keep in my freezer. Anytime I have a spoonful of vegetables leftover I put in the bag. Even chopped tomatoes from salad or anything you would put in soup.When it is full I make soup.
1 lbs hamburger
1 onion chopped
1 clove garlic chopped
2 cans chopped tomatoes
1 can beef broth
salt & pepper to taste
Vegetables of your choice here is a list I have used:
cabbage,corn,beans(any) spinach,carrots ,celery,potatoes,squash,
Just make sure all vegetables are chopped about all the same size so it cooks at the same time.

Brown hamburger with chopped onion and garlic Drain grease and put in crock pot,then add all other ingredients add water if needed to bring liquid level up to cover vegetables.
Cook for about 8 hours on low or 4 hours on high. You may add any spices you like depending on vegetables used. The end result should be very brothy .

Now all that is needed to complete either soup is some nice crusty bread to sop up gravy and or broth. I have chosen European Peasant bread.

European Peasant Bread
1 1/2 cups warm water
2 teaspoons yeast
2 teaspoons salt (kosher)
1/4 cup rye flour
1/4 cup wheat flour
3 cups all purpose flour

In stand mixer mix yeast and water and salt and stir till blended.
With dough hook on add flour until incorporated and smooth.
Turn out dough and put in large bowl.
Cover with towel or plastic wrap and let sit for about 2 hours. You may bake on baking stone or in a bread pan . I am using a pan this time . Butter pan and shape dough so that it is smooth on top,place in pan. Put slashes on top of dough and cover for about 30 minutes while oven heats to 450* .
After oven is heated put a broiler pan in lower rack and fill with water. When oven has heated and dough has risen put bread in and shut oven door quickly to keep steam in. Bake for 35 minutes or until bread springs back when touched.

We Had such a good time with our family this year! Here are just a few pictures to enjoy!

I’ll be crawling soon!

I got to get me some Ryan time! He is very excited about this you can tell!

Zack opening his gifts!
Ryan with all of his!

Jessica she liked hers!
!
Brandon liked His!

Julia liked hers!

Joe!! He like it!

Miranda! She loved it!

Mike! He looked happy about it!

Trevor!!

Zack “Reading how to put it together”

Uncle Mike and Aunt Randa playing with the boys!

The big kids playing,

A good time was had by all!
We ,well really Steve is in the process of refinishing the kitchen floor. We had parquet
down but it had the original hardwood under it and we wanted to have that all throughout the house.

It has a lot of adhesive from the parquet floor we put down but there is a old layer of linoleum under that. So far the best way Steve has found to get the glue off is to pour boiling water on it and then scrape . I’ll post pictures when it is we polyurethane it!
So long for now see you soon!

I had a Great Christmas and New Year!

2010-01-02T21:48:00.001-05:00

This is just a quick post to say more to come later !

I also want to put a link back to a great site For a chance to win a wonderful scarf! It is beautiful. All you have to do to enter in leave a comment on :http://cherishedvintage.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-year-giveaway-creamy-roses.html

All you do is go to the blog and leave comment and you can be entered to win! It is so pretty!

Good luck!

I’ll post pictures soon of our family gathering, and a recipe of the Orange Cream Cheese Braid I made . It was awesome!

What did you get for Christmas?

2009-12-29T23:11:00.001-05:00

I have always loved to to crafts and paint, but I only painted with acrylics. I have secretly wanted to try my hand at oil paints but could not justify spending the money on it. When we were in Kentucky I met a women named Betty Travis. She paints wonderful murals,in oil. I talked with her about painting with oils and she said I should just do it. I told her I would love to get the starter set I saw at Wal-Mart. I was shocked when on Christmas day I opened my gift and it was the starter oil set and some canvases to start on! Steve was standing behind me when I said that I would like the set. I was so excited ! And astonished that he got it!

I was a little bit discouraged after starting on Sunday, but I think I have gotten the hang of it.

I still have a lot of work to do ,but I can tell what it is and I think it has dimension. I have also started painting a Tuscan scene on a plate that I have had for years and have not done anything with.

The paints go on very well on glass! If you don’t like it,wipe it off!

I was going to show you how I made my Panettone bread but, I lost all pictures off my computer and and the pictures I took during the making are lost but I can give you the recipe.

2 pkg. dry yeast
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp. salt
6 to 6 1/2 cups flour
1 cup water
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp. grated lemon zest
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups raisins (mixed golden and regular)
1/3 cup pine nuts ( reserve 1 tbsp. for garnish)
1 cup mixed, chopped candied fruits
Melted butter
Confectioners' sugar

Directions

In a large mixer bowl, combine yeast, sugar, salt and 2 cups of the flour. Heat water with butter and lemon peel over low heat until very warm (120 to 130ºF). Add liquid to dry ingredients; beat for 2 minutes at medium speed. Add 2 cups more of the flour and the eggs; beat 3 minutes. Stir in almost all of the remaining flour. Knead dough on floured board about 8 minutes until smooth and elastic. Place in a buttered bowl, cover and let rise in warm place until doubled in bulk, about 2 hours. Punch down; knead in raisins, nuts and fruit. (Do not try to mix in fruit with the flour, I did and it will not rise as well if you do. So please follow the directions and it should turn out right. I like to try to find these things out for you, so you don’t have to mess up your bread!) I do what I can!
Shape into 2 round loaves and place in 2 greased 9" cake pans; brush lightly with melted butter. Let rise 1 to 1 1/2 hours until doubled in bulk.
With a sharp knife, slash the top of each loaf to make a cross. Bake in a 350ºF oven 45 to 55 minutes.
Turn onto rack. Brush lightly with butter. Garnish with remaining pine nuts. Dust with confectioners' sugar. Serve with Orange Butter.
ORANGE BUTTER: 1/2 cup butter,1 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar ,2 tbsp. orange juice,1 tbsp grated orange zest, dash angostura bitters (optional)
Combine all and beat until fluffy.
This bread is terrific toasted !

You have got to check out the bathroom vanity that Steve fixed ! I liked the way it looked before,

But now it looks awesome!

Doesn’t it look so much better?

I should have gotten Him the table saw much sooner!

Now look at the bins in the kitchen, The idea was to use baskets, but I could not find another one to match.

But now it looks great! Steve turned them into pull out bins! They are so much better now!

We also got some new hardware for the other drawers to match,They are what I wanted to begin with!

Well I’m off for now ! See you back here real soon!

Wow How Time Flies!

2009-12-11T22:12:00.001-05:00

It Just seems like life has gotten in the way of me blogging about my life! I need to prioritize and set a time that I blog. Well, lets not dwell on my lack of life organizational skills and move on shall we… Good.

First of all, I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday! We did ! We traveled to Kentucky to my parents house. It was really nice to spend quality time with them. I did bake an apple pie while I was there. I used a jar of my apples that I canned. It turned out really good. We did miss having everyone at our house , but we look forward to next year!

I am so looking forward to Christmas this year! We are able to do more this year for everyone, we have not been able to do that in a while! I am excited to see everyone open their gifts.

My Christmas, Birthday and Anniversary came early this year! Steve got me a new stove! It is a convection oven ! I love it.

I was really impressed with the convection feature Tuesday morning when I made a batch of scones! Oh how quickly they cooked,they rose so high! Then I read the book and realized I did not even have it turned on to convection!! So imagine how much I loved it when I actually used it!

We give cookies to all the members of our congregation, so I have been baking cookies almost non-stop since I got the stove on Monday! I have made sugar cookies,

The Best Ever Christmas Sugar Cookie

1 cup oil

1 cup powered sugar

1 cup butter (softened) do not use margarine

1 cup white sugar

2 eggs (room temp)

1 tsp vanilla

4 cups plus 4 Tblsp flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup sugar (I used red , for rolling )

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream first 4 ingredients , then add eggs and vanilla and cream again well. Sift dry ingredients together and add slowly to creamed mixture. Chill covered over night . Roll into walnut sized balls and then roll into sugar and flatten with a glass dipped in sugar and bake for 11 minutes. Do not over bake ! This will make about 6 dozen.

I have made chocolate chip (sorry no pictures),I made butterscotch chip cookies,

I made Peppermint Sandies,these are wonderful!

Peppermint Sandies with White Chocolate Glaze

Prep: 25 minutes
Bake: 15 minutes/batch
Stand: 48 minutes
Oven: 325°F

1 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup finely crushed striped round peppermint candies (about 11 candies)
1 tablespoon water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whipping cream
6 ounces white baking chocolate
Crushed striped round peppermint candies

Step 1. Preheat oven to 325°F. In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add powdered sugar and 1/4 cup crushed peppermint candies. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in water, vanilla, and peppermint extract until combined. Beat in as much of the flour as possible with the mixer. Stir in any remaining flour with a wooden spoon.

Step 2. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place 1 inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake about 15 minutes or until bottoms are lightly browned. Transfer cookies to a wire rack; let cool.

Step 3. Meanwhile, for white chocolate glaze, in a medium saucepan bring whipping cream just to simmering. Remove from heat. Add white baking chocolate. Let stand for 3 minutes. Stir until smooth. Let stand for 45 to 60 minutes or until glaze starts to thicken.

Step 4. Spoon glaze on top of each cooled cookie. Sprinkle with additional crushed peppermint candies. Let stand until set. Makes about 48 cookies

Step 5. Smack your husbands hands to keep them out of the cookies or you won’t have any to give away!

Tip: To crush the peppermint candies, place them in a plastic resealable bag. Lay on the counter and use a rolling pin to crush.

To store: Place cookies in layers separated by waxed paper in an airtight container; cover. Store at room temperature up to 3 days. Freeze unglazed cookies up to 3 months. Thaw cookies, then glaze.

These cookies turned out real well,but let me give you some helpful hints.

Two words ,Parchment Paper! If you don’t use it ,your cookies will stick to the pan because the candy in the cookies.

You will also need to flatten the cookies out before baking, they do not flatten out as they say they will.

I also did not pour white chocolate over whole cookie, I just dipped one end in and sprinkled the candy over that. I think they look good that way and not as rich. Other wise I really liked the recipe and would use it again.

I plan on baking some old favorites, peanut butter cookies and oatmeal raisin.

We put up a real Christmas tree this year!

I have lost my voice and I am coughing , my eyes are itching and watering! But wow ! The tree looks great! I thought it looked better the first time we decorated it…..But….It fell and the balls(shatter proof) went everywhere and we got to decorate it again! It is now secured to the window sill! Lessons learned!

I love to decorate the new dinning room for the holidays!

I searched high and low for these pretty red birds! I love how they look!

Even the back porch got a little Christmas cheer!

It snowed here last weekend and it was so pretty! In the end we got about 5 inches. We took a couple pictures,Oh how I love the winter time!

Steve has also been very busy! I like to keep a good honey-do list going just in-case he should get bored or in the un-likely event of him not having anything to do! Not going to happen but … I am prepared for it none the less!

I was really resisting hanging the TV on the wall! I said I would if we could get a new entertainment cabinet that contained all of the electronics. I don’t like them all out on top. So I showed him some pictures of cabinets that I liked and this is what he came up with. He is so talented! How lucky am I?

I really like the dark finish! I like that it has a lot of storage and I still have room on top and in the shelves for knick- knacks and pictures of our sweet grandsons! We still need to put knobs on it , I think I’ll just keep Steve ! He is really very handy! He was always telling me he could build this or that if he had a table saw and a chop saw so…now he has no excuse! He even has a pocket jig!

The Grand-babies have grown so much! I think they are adorable , I know you will too!

Has Trevor stolen your heart?

Well he has stolen mine! Look at that expression on his face,don’t you wonder what he is thinking about?

Zack is so handsome ,he is growing up so fast. He has such a wonderful personality. His parents are doing a fantastic good job.

Ryan,my sweet angel ! Look how he has grown! He is doing so well right now! Ryan is such a blessing. I love to hold him and just look at him! He melts me! I love being Nana, there is nothing like it in this world. All the work that you put into parenting your children, is worth having grandchildren!

Well I am sorry about such a long post! I will try to post more often and stay on top of things! We will see how it goes….. Tune in next time for, “ Our covered back porch.”

Hey Nana What’s for Dinner?

2009-11-07T22:22:00.001-05:00

Hog jaws and chitlins and collard greens!

What?!?

Naw…..

Lets have a big bowl of Jambalaya!

Let start off by saying I am from Wisconsin not Louisiana!

So this may not be an true, authentic version of this recipe.

So with that said, lets move forward ….

Jambalaya !

1 chicken leg and thigh quarter

2 pints of home canned tomatoes (or 2 small cans tomatoes)

1 stalk celery (chopped)

1 onion (chopped)

4 to 5 cloves garlic (minced)

3 tsp paprika

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp basil

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp or to taste red pepper flake

2 pieces of chopped

1 lb. chopped smoked sausage (or of your choosing)

2 cups chicken stock (or water)

1/2 lb shrimp, Cleaned and deveined

2 Tblsp tomato paste

salt and pepper to taste

4 cups cooked rice

Start by chopping up the bacon ,and put in a dutch oven and cook until browed.

Then mince garlic and add to bacon,turn heat down so you don’t brown the garlic.

Chop onion and celery and add to bacon and garlic. Cook until translucent . Then add the tomato paste and cook until it browns to give depth of flavor. ( Yes, I watch the food network! You pick catchy phrases like ,depth of flavor)

Add the tomatoes and broth (I like mine more like a soup so I have more broth)

Add chicken ,sausage and spices,

cover and cook until chicken is done .

Remove chicken,

Then take chicken off the bone and shred or you may chop it what ever you prefer.

Add chicken back in the pan and simmer. I have used frozen shrimp.

I think it would be better to use fresh but it is ok to use what you have on hand. Do not add the shrimp until right before you are ready to serve. It only takes a few minutes to cook the shrimp, if you over cook it it will be rubbery. Traditionally you would cook the rice in with the broth but I don’t like the results of that. Two reasons, if you have any leftovers it does not reheat as well with the rice cooked in it. I like it kind of soupy so I would rather have the rice in the bottom of the bowl and have some broth for the bread you serve with it.

You may serve with Tabasco sauce it you like it hot!

It turned out really well! The taste was excellent! Most recipes said it would take about 1 1/2 hours to prepare, but I think it benefits from the all day simmer. All of the flavors marry and gives much better results. You could go through the steps of sauté the vegetables and then put in slow cooker to cook all day.

We have finished the other half of the Dinning Room! Oh Glory ! I think it looks wonderful! What do you think???

I would like to sit in there even if I am not eating!

Have a look at the neat little fall ceramic gourds I picked at the antique store for $1.99 a piece . Aren’t they sweet!

I put them on my cake stand and put a strand of leaves from the dollar tree. With them on the cake stand you can pick up the cake stand and move the whole center piece if need be,rather than having to move it piece by piece.

Ya’ll come on back and sit a spell!

Just A Few Recipes

2009-11-02T17:29:00.001-05:00

I love to cook! I am never happier than when I am in my kitchen cooking!

So Saturday I whipped up just a few things, I thought I would share the recipes with you.

Lasagna

1 1/2 lbs ground beef

1 quart jar of homemade marinara sauce (or jarred sauce of your choice)

4 cups ricotta cheese

4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

2 eggs slightly beaten

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1/4 cup fresh basil chopped (or 1 Tblsp dry)

1/4 chopped oregano (or 1 Tblsp dry)

1 large clove of garlic,minced

1 box square lasagna noodles (no boil) Or the regular kind)

Olive Oil

In dutch oven brown hamburger,drain off fat. Then add sauce and let it simmer for about 30 min.

Then in large bowl mix together ricotta cheese and parmesan cheese and garlic ,salt ,pepper,herbs,eggs. Mix well set aside.

Then begin layering , I start with a small drizzle of olive oil in the bottom of your 13x9 glass dish. Next put a layer of noodles(I do not cook my noodles ,but it is your choice),then a layer of your ricotta cheese then sauce, noodle then a layer of shredded cheese and repeat ending with layer of shredded cheese.

Cover and and refrigerate over night. It is important to refrigerate over night because the noodles will soften and you will not have to boil them.Then bake for 45 minutes to an hour @ 350 until cheese has browed and bubbly.

Serve with crusty bread and enjoy!

Artisan Bread !

This recipe is amazing! I love this recipe because it does not require any special equipment and it is very versatile.

No Knead, Dutch Oven Bread

1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water
3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting. You may use white, whole wheat or a combination of the two.
1 1/2 tsp salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran for dusting

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in water. Add the flour and salt, stirring until blended. The dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let the dough rest at least 8 hours, preferably 12 to 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.
The dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it. Sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let it rest for about 15 minutes.
Using just enough flour to keep the dough from sticking to the work surface or to your fingers, gently shape it into a ball. Generously coat a clean dish towel with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal. Put the seam side of the dough down on the towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another towel and let rise for about 1 to 2 hours. When it’s ready, the dough will have doubled in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.
At least 20 minutes before the dough is ready, heat oven to 475 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in the oven as it heats. When the dough is ready, carefully remove the pot from the oven and lift off the lid. Slide your hand under the towel and turn the dough over into the pot, seam side up. The dough will lose its shape a bit in the process, but that’s OK. Give the pan a firm shake or two to help distribute the dough evenly, but don’t worry if it’s not perfect; it will straighten out as it bakes.
Cover and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the lid and bake another 15 to 20 minutes, until the loaf is beautifully browned. Remove the bread from the Dutch oven and let it cool on a rack for at least 1 hour before slicing.
The results are fantastic!!!
Try to save some for your family,don’t eat it all warm and dipped in butter. Well…make two!

On to desert!

Pumpkin Pie Cream Cheese cake!

Prep time 35 minutes , Bake 1 hour, Stand 30 minutes

Cool: 45 Minutes Chill 4 hour

1 large can solid pack pumpkin

1 1/2 cup crushed gingersnaps

1/4 cup melted butter

2 Tblsp packed brown sugar

2 8 oz pkgs cream cheese (room temp)

1 1/4 cup brown sugar

2 Tblsp cornstarch

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp cloves

1/8 tsp ginger

5 eggs beaten

Crush cookies, and melt butter and mix with crumbs and 2 Tblsp brown sugar, press in the bottom and an 1inch up sides of 9 inch spring form pan. Place in pre-heated oven 350. for 5 minutes.

Position oven racks,one above the other,bottom in lowest position.On bottom rack place 13x9 pan and pour water to 1 inch

level. heat to 350.

Filling:Beat eggs set aside

Place cream cheese , sugar,in mixer and blend until smooth scraping down sides of bowl often.

add spices,

pumpkin,cornstarch and mix until smooth,

Stir eggs in by hand.

Pour into crust lined pan and smooth top.Place in oven and bake for 1 hour,until filling is set when gently shaken. Turn off oven and let set for 30 minutes. (Top may crack as it cools) Take out of oven and let cool on wire,

rack for 15 minutes. With small sharp knife loosen cheese cake from edge of pan ,remove pan and let cool completely.

Sour Cream Topping

1 cup sour cream

1 tsp cinnamon

2 Tblsp brown sugar

Mix together and spread on top of Cheese Cake.

Cover and chill for 4 hours before serving.

This is delish ! To die for! Don’t let all the step keep you from fixing these recipes, they are worth the effort!

Dinning Room Transformation part 2

2009-10-18T16:06:00.001-04:00

After much work and painting!!!! (arms are still sore) The dinning room is just about done!!Here are the pictures as we worked on it.

No fingers were harmed in this project!

Ta Da!!! The completed room!

Now all it needs is a new rug ,and some Antique chairs to go with the table! I love it!

Some cookies and milk for my carpenter! I defy you to find a carpenter who works for cookies and milk!!

The Dinning Room Transformation & A Recipe!

2009-10-15T22:12:00.001-04:00

The dinning room re-do part one!

First some before pictures…

I saw this idea in the Lowes idea book,and I just thought it would be a great thing to do in our dinning room !http://http://www.lowescreativeideas.com/idea-library/projects/Get_Organized_0709.aspx

We have little or no storage in the house. We have a full basement but ,it is not a good place to put things that you want to get to again.

So here are the the during pictures…

Steve is a great contractor! My wish is his command!! (snicker)

These lovely shelves will hold some of my favorite books, also a good place for plants.

It looks good set up doesn’t it?

If you think they looked good then ,lets see how they look painted!!

See I do help with the projects, this is proof!

It’s hard work but somebody has to do it!

Okay this has nothing to do with the project, but isn’t Sammy cute sleeping in the dirty clothes??? He has a bed ,but doesn't like it! Silly kitty!

These look great don’t they? Think of all the things I can hide away! But….

We aren't done yet! Next , we will add bead board and a plate rack and red paint!!! Stay tuned …. next month for the finished room just in time for Thanksgiving!

Check out our new china hutch!! It was a steal ! And already re-finished! Steve was really glad about that!

Can you guess it’s secret?

Is that not the neatest thing you have ever seen?

Now for a recipe!

This soup was perfect today with the cooler weather!

Hodge podge

1 medium onion chopped

1 rib of celery chopped

1 medium carrot chopped

1 large chopped potato

1 medium clove garlic chopped

1 can chicken broth

1 can garbanzo beans

1 Tblsp tomato paste

1/2 cup frozen spinach

1 cup chopped rotisserie chicken

3 links smoked sausage chopped

1 ham bone

salt & pepper to taste

water to cover the ingredients

Put carrots,celery,onion,garlic in pan and over low heat cook until soft.

Put all ingredients in slow cooker..

Cook for eight hours ! Remove the ham bone.

Serve with crusty bread and sliced cheese.

Yummy!

Things Changing Around the Farm!

2009-09-24T22:55:00.001-04:00

Just working on some things around the farm..

Now there is corn….

Now there is not! Yes,that is me tilling the garden!

Just getting the corn stalks ready for the fall decorations.

On to the inside,

The dinning room is a work in progress….

There are big changes coming soon! I will post updates as they occur! Now the Dinning room table I don’t have a good before picture ,but you can kind of see it in this picture. the finish is very dark.

And now…

It turned out beautifully! I love it! Steve will be refinishing the china cabinet soon! Here is the before….

FYI, We are putting it up for sale after it is refinished. We found one at an antique store for $300.00 that is bigger and in better shape.

The antique cabinet in the living room, needed to be redone. We painted it and it turned out really nice I think!

It was a freebie from our neighbors! I love it! We have to get new knobs for it yet.

We will be working on the 2nd on the guest room upstairs and will be taking pictures and posting more about it soon.

Here we are , Just hanging out on the farm …after a hard days work!

Be back soon!

What’s going on?

2009-09-23T23:03:00.001-04:00

The garden in finished for this year!

We harvested the sunflowers.They were huge! Some of the heads were 12 inches or more in diameter! I could not get this one to fit in the Wal-Mart bag .

I think we had about 25 heads all total. I hope the seeds dry okay and are good.

The canning is finished for this season. I think next year I am going to get a pressure canner! I have joined a Yahoo group about canning and it has really got me thinking about all the things I can do. I am also going to get a dehydrator. They talked about using it to dry out all of the things that are left from canning. Skins of fruit and vegetables and then grinding them up in a food processor and making powders that you can use in soup bases and in cakes to add flavor. Just think of the possibilities!

Here is a recipe I made up and thought I would share……

Orange Chicken

6 chicken tenders(cut up in popcorn size pieces)

2 Cup flour

2 eggs

1 Tblsp salt

1 tsp pepper

oil for frying

Cut chicken up into bite size pieces. In large zip lock bag put flour,salt ,pepper. Mix together.

In another large bag, crack the eggs and massage to mix. In small batches, place chicken in the bag of flour,completely coat on all sides. Then put chicken in the egg bag and coat,then back into flour . Repeat until all of chicken is coated. Then in deep pan,heat oil and deep fry in small batches until chicken floats and is golden brown. Let drain on paper towels.

Orange sauce

2 to 3 Tblsp orange marmalade

2 to 3 Tblsps jalapeño jelly

couple of shots of Soy sauce

1 large clove garlic minced

1 Tblsp minced onion

Tbsp lime juice

1 tsp red pepper flakes

1 slice green onion

In small sauce pan put a small amount of olive oil. Cook garlic and onion until translucent. Add jellies and soy and lime juice,cook until thickened. Taste and adjust accordingly. Put cooked chicken in Tupperware bowl with lid, add sauce. Put the lid on and shake to distribute sauce. Serve with rice or side dish of choice. the sauce should be sweet –hot.

ENJOY!

Jams, Jelly’s and Preserves ,Oh My!

2009-09-10T22:31:00.001-04:00

Lets start with the pears,

I used my Grandma’s recipe for Pear Honey,which strangely enough does not have any honey in it! Go figure.

Granny’s Pear Honey

4 Cups ground pears

2 Cups pineapple (crushed and slightly drained)

1/4 Cup Lemon Juice

Zest of 1 lemon (optional)

2 Cups Angel flaked coconut

6 1/2 Cups sugar

1 pouch liquid Certo

In Large stock pot put pears, pineapple,lemon juice ,zest and coconut and sugar. Cook at full rolling boil for 10 minutes for sauce and 15 to 20 for jam consistency, stirring constantly. Then off of heat add Certo. The dip into processed jars. It should make about 8 to 12 8 oz jars. Then place in water bath for 15 minutes . Take jars out of canner and place on towels to cool and set up.

The finished product, 22 jars!

Now the grapes

Grape Jam

4 Cups grape juice and pulp

7 cups sugar

1 pouch certo liquid pectin

Cook grape juice and pulp and sugar to the boil(it won’t stop when stirred) Slowly add pectin and cook for one minute more stirring constantly. Fill jars and process for 15 minutes in water bath canner.

I made a double batch and had 17 jars!

Trio Marmalade

I won’t put the whole recipe here,because it is somewhat involved. But I got the Recipe from 175 Jams,Jelly’s and Marmalades! If you like citrus, this is one for you to try!

This is a great combination of flavors! And so pretty in the jars!

I have also canned quite a bit of salsa this year. I have just made up my own recipe, I will share it with you now….Shhh ,It is a secret recipe!

Nana’s Salsa

1 large can chopped tomatoes(drained) Or you may use fresh tomatoes your choice.

1 Half a red onion (large)

1 to 2 Jalapeños (Depending on how hot you like it ,leave in seed and veins

The juice of 2 limes

1/2 bunch of fresh cilantro

salt to taste

1/2 tsp pepper

1 teaspoon cumin

Place all ingredients in food processor and pulse until you get your desired consistency. Check for flavor and adjust. You may add a touch of sugar. If you like a thicker consistency you may add teaspoon of tomato paste,just pulse in food processor and adjust salt. You may double recipe and place in jars and process in a water bath canner for 35 minutes for pints.

It is so good!

That’s all for now…. Be back soon!

New Recipe!

2009-08-18T15:45:00.001-04:00

Chicken Cobbler Casserole

Makes 4 servings

Ingredients

6 tablespoons melted butter, divided
4 cups cubed sourdough rolls
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 medium-size sweet onions, sliced
1 (8-ounce) package sliced fresh mushrooms
1 cup chicken broth
1 (10 3/4-ounce) can cream of mushroom soup
2 1/2 cups shredded cooked chicken

Toss 4 tablespoons melted butter with next 3 ingredients; set aside.

Sauté onions in remaining 2 tablespoons butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat 15 minutes or until golden brown. Add mushrooms, and sauté 5 minutes.

Stir in wine and next 3 ingredients; cook, stirring constantly, 5 minutes or until bubbly. Spoon mixture into a lightly greased 9-inch square baking dish; top evenly with bread mixture.

Bake at 400° for 15 minutes or until golden brown

I thought this looked particularly good. I will let you know how it turns out . It would be great severed with fresh corn and and a salad with tomatoes from the garden!

The last of the tomatoes will be picked tomorrow! Maybe I’ll can some more salsa,not sure right now. I have to get out and pick corn tomorrow as well. I’ll be taking some to Julia’s when we go on Thursday to see Zack before he starts Pre-k.

Love to all,

Lanita

And The Canning Continues…..

2009-08-14T21:33:00.001-04:00

Our corn is coming in by the droves! I have put 48 more ears in the freezer. I wish I had tried putting the mineral oil on the tops on the ears before the worms started eating it! I hate worms!

I made up a batch of pesto and froze it in small batches. I am not real pleased with the results. It seems to discolor some when frozen. But it tastes okay!

I canned 2 quarts and 4 pints of marinara sauce. This is the first time I have tired this ,I hope the end result turns out well.

I need to get more jars for the grape jam,as it will be juicing time soon!

We have had the coolest weather this year. Not at all hot and muggy. I think it has been too cool for the tomatoes and possibly to wet.

I am thinking about pickling some jalapeno peppers. I have plenty, but I’m not sure I would like them. I’m going to look into it and see what it entails. I have to do something with them though.!

A Good Week !

2009-08-09T22:49:00.001-04:00

The corn is coming in ! We have put up 85 ears of corn so far!

I do it the easy way! All i do is cut off the ends and then check for worms (ugh) and then put it in gallon freezer bags. So easy and less time consuming.

I wish this is the way our tomato plants looked!

However, ours are a little bedraggled looking! I think i have gotten just about all of the tomatoes,maybe 20 or so left, sad!

I hope to be able to get some at the farmers market to can.

The sunflowers are HUGE ! I have planted the colossal,and some that are russet color and some that are almost black! They bare gorgeous! I hope to be able to use the seeds from the largest ones and use the others for drying and decorating.

This is what our grapes look like now.

This is what I hope they look like in about 3 weeks! Then it is Juice time. Last year I was able to freeze 10 gallon sized bags of juice and pulp for jelly and drinking. It was better than Welch’s !

We have purchased a Massey Ferguson garden tractor with implements! Hopefully this will make Steve’s work easier !

Well that is all for now! Going to go on a trip to our sons for a few days,so the farm is on it’s own for a while.

Latter….

2009-08-04T21:08:00.003-04:00

Corn,Corn ,Corn!

I have now put 30 ears of corn up in the freezer from our garden!

It is really coming along. The jalapenos are taking over the world. I canned 14 pints of jalapeno

jelly,and I have 9 plants full of them.

I hope to be able to buy some canning tomatoes so I can put some up for soups .

The sun flowers are huge! I hope I can use the seeds from them ,not sure how to go about it but I'll figure it out.

Stuff Happening

2009-08-03T22:52:00.003-04:00

Well, let the canning begin!

I have canned 27 quarts of green beans and 9 pints,6 pints of salsa. I have frozen squash,broccoli,jalepeno peppers, cilantro. I am going to be canning jalepeno jelly ! The tomatoes are coming in nicely , but the plants are dying off. The sun flowers are beautiful! I have never grown them.

The grapes are doing very well I expect them to be ready by the end of the month. The corn is coming along,picked 14 ears today. I hope to have the freezer full !

2008-09-16T15:20:00.000-04:00

September 16th,2008

Today I canned my first Green beans ,6 quarts! I used a water bath and put in vinegar to add acid. They all sealed ! I also canned 2 quarts and 3 pints of apples. They look really pretty in the Jar. Just think of all the cobblers and pies and fried apples I can make this winter.
This season we also got 15 jars of jam from our concord grapes. I have also put 7 gallon bags of juice in the freezer.
The corn has already come in and we had about 70 ears put up in the freezer. We definitely need to get a freezer for next year.
I have also canned 8 jars Jalapeno pepper jelly! For my first time out I don't think that's half bad.
We are looking forward to getting chickens this spring!

2008-09-16T15:14:00.000-04:00

This is our little farm inVa. We have lived here for almost 3 years. We have 3 acres and we love it . We are hoping to get chickens this spring and maybe some goats.

My husband is the Minister for the Fort Chiswell church of Christ. We have beeen married for 28 years and have 3 grown children. We are the proud grandparentsof Zack and Ryan. Our daughter and her husband are epecting their 3 child the end of April ! We are so excited!.