Four-legged Furry Staff

Just for the fun of it I thought I would share a picture of my furry ‘staff’ helping out with the writing of posts for this blog.

Meet Mona, she likes to keep the keyboard warm and tries to keep one paw on the touchpad with me. She enjoys watching the screen and started by watching bird videos. She has now graduated to watching just about anything happening on the screen.

Potato Soup

Here is a recipe that I have been making for years that I am not even sure where I ever learned to make it. I just know it is yummy good and can be tinkered with depending on what you have on hand.

Potato Soup

Ingredients:

6 potatoes diced

1 cup chopped onion

2 carrots thin sliced

2 ribs of celery thin sliced

4 cups chicken broth

¼ cup of flour

1 ½ cup of milk

Toss the potatoes, onion, carrots, celery and chicken broth in the crockpot on high. Cook until done, 2-3 hours should be good. Mix the milk and flour together like you would for milk gravy and add to the soup. Let it boil until thick and then turn on low to keep warm and serve.

Once again, no picture because I was not thinking of even posting this one but it is such a comfort food for a chilly fall day.

Creamed Cabbage (Baked)

So, I love creamed cabbage but I also love easy in the kitchen and this recipe seemed to have it all. Sorry there are no pictures for this one, we were really hungry and I guess I had never really intended to put this one on my blog at the time.

Since then I have decided that just because a recipe might seem strange or unusual, does not mean that there are not those out there who might like it and maybe did not even think to look for it. With that said, here it is.

Creamed Cabbage (Baked)

Ingredients:

1 cup milk                  
2 Tablespoons butter             
1 dash black pepper
¼ teaspoon salt

2 Tablespoons flour                    
1 cup of Romano cheese

1 medium head of cabbage

Shred the cabbage and steam it until it is tender. To do this, I used a pasta kettle. Fill the bottom with a few inches of water, not enough to reach the top part. Bring the water to a boil and put the cabbage in the top for about 5 minutes or until it is tender. The time will vary depending on how thin or thick you shredded the cabbage.

In a heavy kettle over medium heat, melt the butter and then mix in the flour, salt and pepper and stir it into a soft dough ball. Add the milk and whisk the milk and the dough ball together and bring back to a boil to thicken the sauce. When sauce is thick and hot, whisk in the Romano cheese. (The original recipe calls for the cheese to be added to the cabbage separately and not added to the sauce.)

Put the cabbage in a baking dish, pour the sauce over the top and bake at 350° for about 30 minutes or until the sauce is hot and bubbly. (The original recipe calls for the cabbage, sauce and cheese to be put into the baking dish in layers.)

www.allrecipes.com/recipe/creamed-cabbage/

Apple Cider Pork Roast

Here in Southern Minnesota fall is apple season. This year we had the time and wherewithal to visit our local apple orchard, Welsh Heritage Farms Apple Orchard and Pie Shop and Harbo Cider. I love, love, love these places. It always smells to good and you get to taste test some of the wares, yummy.

Of course I bought apples and some local honey before moving on to the cider store. Not only do they sell fresh apple cider but they also sell hard cider and specialty cheese here.  It was the fresh apple cider and the pork roast in the freezer that had me hooked on this recipe. Not only did it sound like something different and tasty, it seemed to be just what the doctor ordered for this time of year.

Crockpot Apple Cider Pork Roast

Boneless pork shoulder or sirloin roast (3 ½ - 4 lbs)

2 medium onions sliced

4-6 carrots cut into 1 inch slices

2 cloves of garlic minced

½ teaspoon of salt

1/8 teaspoon of pepper

½ teaspoon of allspice (I used whole)

1 teaspoon of chili powder

1 teaspoon of  dried leaf marjoram or thyme

2 cups of natural apple juice or cider ( I used 1 ½ cups of apple cider and ½ cup of apple cherry juice)

2 Tablespoons of cider vinegar

Layer the onions on the bottom of the crock pot and put the roast on top of them. If there is netting on the roast leave it on.

Next put the carrots in the pot around the roast and put your spices on the top of the roast.

Pour the apple cider/juice over the top, cover and cook on high for 1 hour.

Finally you can either turn pot to low for 6-8 hours or leave it on high for another 3-4 hours.

When the roast is done, the juices can be transferred to a kettle and used for gravy if you like.

Accompany this dish with some sort of starch like mashed potatoes or buttered noodles and enjoy.

www.southernfood.about.com/od/crockpotporkandham/r/r81002c.htm

Here's what mine ended up looking like... yummy!

Disclaimer: This is not the entire roast... we were hungry!

Grandma's Tomato Jam

This is a jam I looked forward to every summer. I remember having it at my grandmother’s house when visiting and when I had my own home and my own garden I also made this yummy jam. Once again, it has been many years since I have made this jam and it still turned out just as yummy as I remember it.

6 cups of fresh tomato sauce (about a dozen medium to large tomatoes)

6 cups of sugar

1 tablespoon of lemon juice

Prepare the jars you plan to put jam in and the you will need to peel the tomatoes. The easiest way I have found to peel tomatoes is to set them in boiling water for a minute or two and then take them out, letting them cool enough to handle and slip the skins right off. Cut out the stem and any undesirable spots and throw the tomatoes right into the Dutch oven (remember the Dutch oven?).

Here’s what I think of as the fun part. By this time the tomatoes should be cool enough to squish them up with your hands. Keep squishing until the tomatoes look like chunky tomato juice. Next I add the lemon juice and bring the tomatoes to a boil before adding the sugar After adding the sugar, I boil the whole hot mess until the sugar is melted into the tomatoes. Simmer what is now jam over medium heat for 1-2 hours or until it is thick enough to coat a spoon.

When the jam is done, pour it into your waiting jars and process them in a canning bath for 25 minutes.

Tomato Jam on the left.

Beet Jelly

Beet Jelly

This year I made Beet Jelly for the first time in many years. I was also extremely frugal. I cooked the beet leaves to get my beet juice for the jelly. Here is the recipe for that jelly along with how I did it. This should make around 4 pints of jelly but I like to have an extra jar or two at the ready just in case. Besides you never know when you will have a partial jar to put in the refrigerator and use right away. If you know you like Beet Jelly, this recipe can be doubled.

What you will need is:

5 cups of beet juice

½ cup of lemon juice

5 cups sugar

1 package of pectin (the no added sugar kind)

The first thing I do is measure everything out, once you get going with making the jelly it will go pretty fast.

Measure the beet juice right into the kettle I am using along with the lemon juice. You will want to use a heavy kettle that is deep enough that your juices only come halfway up the kettle. I like to use a Dutch oven, the heavy kind that you make pot roasts in. Next measure the sugar into containers and you are ready to begin.

Stir the pectin into the beet juice and bring to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly. This is a boil that cannot be stirred down. Add the sugar that you have measured out and bring back to a full rolling boil. Keep this boil going for a full minute stirring constantly.

Remove the kettle of jelly from the heat and let sit for a few minutes to let the foam come to the surface. Skim the foam from the top and pour the jelly into prepared jars. Seal the jars and process in a canning bath for 25 minutes.

Beet Jelly on the left and Tomato Jam on the right.

Making Jams & Jellies

How to Use Pectin in Jams and Jellies

When there is a recipe on the Sure Jel insert, use it. I have tinkered with these recipes and usually have good results. What you don’t want to tinker with is the amount of lemon juice the recipes call for. The lemon juice is what adds acidity to your jam or jelly and keeps the botulism at bay as well as other nasty bacteria that will ruin your jam and make you sick, very, very sick.

This is for when there is not a recipe on the Sure Jel insert. If you need to figure out how much lemon juice to use in your recipe find a similar fruit to see how much if any lemon juice to use.  I have not found any general rule of thumb for this one. A lot of times I will simply stay away from jams and jellies that I feel are not acidic enough to prevent spoilage.

The old school method of making jams and jellies without pectin was simply equal amounts of sugar and fruit, cooked down until they were thick and coated the spoon. This is still the preferred method for ‘butters’ usually made out of apples although I have recently found one made from pumpkin that was pretty good. If you are using this method but want to assure a nice thick jam or jelly, there is always no sugar needed pectin (Sure Jel, No Sugar Needed). This is not a sugar free pectin but a pectin that can be used without adding any sugar OR adding the amount of sugar you want to add. I am thinking I will probably be using this type of pectin exclusively from now on.

Anyway, that is my take on making jams and jellies. Below is a site that talks more thoroughly about making jams and jellies.