chickensense

I’m not too short: both my feet reach the ground.  :) 

Still, I do have trouble reaching top-shelf items in my cabinets. So I was pleased today when I discovered an unexpected benefit of using plastic ice cream tubs to store my flour, sugar, salt, dry milk, and cornmeal. My long spatula can hook the handles and pull the tub right off the top shelf for me. Cool tool!

These tubs are much easier to use than the Rubbermaid tubs I used to use. The tubs can be heavy when full, but the handle keeps them easily manageable. I keep a working supply handy in the tubs, and store the large bags in the chest freezer or pantry. Even things that don’t come in large bags are easier with the handles, such as dry milk and salt.

The tubs are not air-tight however, so keep a small bag of desiccant (silica gel) in with the salt and sugar to prevent lumps.

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I decided to make cupcakes for a snack when Jesse got home from school yesterday. I’ve made this recipe for chocolate cake before— it is interesting because it has coffee in it. I’ve made it with and without coffee and it really is better with the coffee. It makes a large batch. I had enough for 12 medium cupcakes and 6 huge ones.

I don’t drink coffee often so I used 1/2 teaspoon instant coffee and 1 cup of water instead of the fresh coffee. I’m also out of confectioners sugar so I didn’t make any frosting, but the cake is so delicious the cupcakes were great without any.

‘Perfectly Chocolate’ Chocolate Cake and Frosting

This is based on a recipe from the Hershey’s Cocoa box and it’s a great chocolate cake recipe!

-= Ingredients =-
2 cups Sugar
1 3/4 cups All purpose flour
3/4 cup Hershey’s Cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoon Baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon Baking soda
1 teaspoon Salt
2 Eggs
1 cup Milk
1/2 cup Vegetable oil
2 teaspoon Vanilla extract
1 cup Freshly brewed hot coffee
1 stick Butter or margarine
2/3 cup Hershey’s Cocoa
3 cups Powdered sugar
1/3 cup Milk
1 teaspoon Vanilla extract

-= Instructions =-

Cake:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray two 9 inch round baking pans with non stick cooking spray. Combine first 6 dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Stir in the hot coffee and mix well with a spoon (batter will be thin). Pour batter into pans and bake for 30-35 minutes or until wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes and then remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely before frosting.

Frosting:
Melt the butter and stir in the cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating on medium speed to spreading consistency. Add more milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla.

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What a great day! They’ve been predicting snow and sure enough around 1pm it began to really come down. We were outside making sure the goats had plenty of hay, feed, and warm bedding. They high-tailed it into the barn the instant the first flakes began to fall. We spent a little time tucking feed sacks into the larger cracks in the corners, but it soon got too cold so we started a fire in the fire barrel we use to burn paper. It was snowing too hard though and we just couldn’t get it to burn well. The temperature has been dropping all day and I finally gave up and came in, but Jesse stayed out another hour throwing snowballs at ninjas, making snow angels, and trying for a snow man.

While he was outside I started preparing the venison steaks some friends gave to us. The venison roast I tried a few days ago using a recipe from the You Cook It! cookbook was delicious but had waaaayyy to much pepper. I’m trying another recipe from that cookbook today, but I cut back on the quantities of the spices. It is cooking now and smells delicious!

Foil Venison Steak
(From You Cook It! by Kevin Michalowski)

1 venison steak
1 medium potato, sliced (not more than 1/4-inch thick)
1/4 cup carrots, chopped (not more than 1/4-inch thick)
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon margarine
1 tablespoon water

Pull out enough tin foil to wrap all the ingredients into a single unit. Put the steak in the center of the foil with the margarine in the center of the steak. Arrange the potato slices on top of the steak and put the carrots around the edges. Sprinkle on the spices and the garlic. Curl up the edges of the tin foil and add the water. Wrap tightly and bake at 425 degrees for 35 minutes for a medium-steak and tender potatoes. This cooking method helps keep the meat moist, but you can overdo it.
(I just sprinkled a little salt, pepper, paprika, and garlic powder over the steaks, margarine, potatoes, and carrots; then I poured on the water.)

When Jesse came in finally he was freezing of course so I made some hot cocoa for us and topped it with some very stale marshmallows I found in the cupboard. I use the recipe from the Hershey’s Cocoa Powder container, and it is scrumptious! We could never go back to instant cocoa in cans or envelopes.

Hershey’s Hot Cocoa
Top of Stove - 6 servings

1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup Hershey’s Cocoa
Dash salt
1/3 cup hot water
4 cups milk
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix sugar, cocoa and salt in a saucepan; stir in water. Cook and stir over medium heat until the water boils; boil and stir 2 minutes. Stir in milk and heat, but DO NOT BOIL the milk mixture. Remove from heat; add vanilla.

(I just dump it all together in the pan and stir with a wisk until it is as hot as I want.)

I was going to start making some fresh rolls and southern cornbread to go with the venison, but I got distracted watching the snow falling. It is so beautiful I just had to stop and share it with all of you. Now the venison is done but the rolls aren’t even ready to start rising yet! Hrmph. I’ll have to skip the rolls and just go with the cornbread since it can be done in 20 minutes. It’s all right–I just won’t mention the rolls…

By the way, the venison steaks came out fantastic! Even Jesse ate all his! I made sweet and and un-sweet cornbread so everyone was happy. The rolls are still rising so I’ll bake them later and save them for tomorrow.

What a perfect day this has been!

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In the Vicki Tate article, The 7 Major Mistakes in Food Storage, I had learned we need to use our stored foods now, so that we know how to cook them, and our families get used to eating them.

A major hurdle to actually using our stored foods, though, can be all the extra time it takes to prepare them. We just don’t have the time! However, with a little preparation and planning using our stored foods can be as fast and convenient as using store bought. One trick is to use homemade mixes! Standard homemade mixes are an immense time saver, but you can also purchase online inexpensive powdered margarine, vanilla, shortening, cheese, and eggs to use in your very own mixes.

The Mix-a-Meal Cook Book by Deanna Bean shows how to go even further than simple homemade mixes by using dehydrated ingredients to make truly “just add water” convenience! All the benefits of cooking from scratch, but all the convenience of “just add water” mixes.

The thing I like the absolute best is that every recipe includes a “mini” version so you can test it and see how your family likes it before making a 10-ton batch.

My favorite recipe from the Mix-A-Meal Cookbook is the sweet cornbread, followed closely by the hot roll mix. Yum!

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A sweet lady at our church, Mrs. Norma, recently gave us some deer meat. There was a nice venison roast, and some steaks. I found a simple and delicious-sounding recipe for the roast in a book from the library: You Cook It! by Kevin Michalowski. All the recipes sounded so delicious and looked so simple that I ordered the book online. I can’t wait until it arrives.

Tonight I am trying the One Step Venison Roast. I’ll have my home-made rolls and my butter beans along with it too. My husband did not like the idea of having venison that hasn’t been ground into sausage, but he loves beef pot roast so I’m not going to tell him this is the deer meat until after he eats it.

-= Exported from BigOven =-

One Step Venison Roast

Recipe By: You Cook It! Kevin Michalowski
Serving Size: 6
Cuisine: American
Main Ingredient: Venison
Categories: Winter, Bake, Advance, wild game, Main Dish

-= Ingredients =-
1 3-5 lbs Venison Roast
2 teaspoon Black Pepper
1/8 teaspoon Basil
2 tablespoon Cooking Oil
2 teaspoon Garlic Powder
pinch Seasoned Salt
2 1/3 cups Water
1 medium Onion ; chopped
1/2 teaspoon Parsley Flakes

-= Instructions =-
Place the roast in a roasting pan and rub with cooking oil. Sprinkle with spices and add the onion and water to the bottom of the pan. Cover and bake at 250 degrees for about four to five hours. Meat should fall off the bone when done.

** This recipe can be pasted into BigOven without retyping. **
** Easy recipe software. Try it free at: http://www.bigoven.com **

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I found the coolest tip in the world from the Hillbilly Housewife web site! She advises making your bread dough in a dishpan in your lap. When it is time to knead, just add flour and knead right in the dishpan.

I found that a dishpan, with its square corners, was too awkward, but my large silver mixing bowls are perfect for kneading. I mix the ingredients into the bowl, add flour until it is too stiff to stir with a spoon then start kneading right in the bowl. Talk about easy clean-up!

My biggest tip, though, is to use lots of flour. Plenty of flour on your hands and your work surface, and keep adding flour as you knead whenever the dough starts to get the least bit sticky. This keeps the dough easy to handle.

If you do knead on your counter, I found that a flat square of plastic, similar to a credit card, is perfect for scraping the dough off the counter quickly and easily, and makes clean-up a snap.

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Memphis-Area Pick Your Own Farms

• www.pickyourown.org
• Cedar Hill Farm
• Jones Orchards
• Windmere Farms & Apiaries

Harris Organic Blueberries - blueberries

7521 Sledge Rd., Millington, TN, 38053. Phone: 239-872-0696. Open: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday. Pickers may arrive at 7 a.m.

Nesbit Blueberry Plantation - blueberries

690 Bankston Rd, Hernando, MS 38632. Phone: 662-429-3778. Email us at: traicoff5489@aol.com. Directions: south on I 55 from Memphis. take exit 284, Nesbit rd exit. at stop sign turn left (east), proceed under the overpass and go 50 yds beyond the interstate and take a left (north) on sidewinder rd. we are a mile up the road on the left hand side. And for a map to our farm, Click here. Open: open Tuesday through Saturday, 7 till 7. we furnish picking containers and freezer bags to transport the berries home. prices $9/gallon upick and $13/gallon prepicked. call ahead for prepicked berries. blueberries available from June 17 to July 20 We follow organic methods, but are not yet certified. Payment: Cash , Check.

Robert Dowell Vegetable Farm
Robert Dowell
396 Melrose Road
Covington, TN 39019 (TIPTON County)

Phone: (731) 476-9933
Directions

Take Hwy 51 S. from Covington to Old Memphis Rd. then make a left. Go approx. 1.5 miles on Old Memphis Road to Melrose Rd. Make a right on Melrose Rd. Go approx. .50 miles. The farm is on the right.
Available Produce Beans, Cabbage, Corn, Mustard Greens, Okra, Peas, Squash, Tomatoes, Turnip Greens.

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If I can do it, you can too! It doesn’t take long, though it can feel that way if you are out of your comfort zone. I’m talking about making and using home-canned foods; the cost difference between store-bought is astronomical!

It really is easy, and quick! You don’t have to be a stay-at-home mom, who practically lives in the kitchen, to feed your family fast, easy, healthy, inexpensive food without chemicals and additives.

You will need some inexpensive equipment and a pressure canner, but don’t worry: it pays for itself in the few months! You can buy everything with just a few clicks of your mouse from many places online including Walmart.com or Amazon.com:

Back to Basics 5-Piece Canning Kit from Amazon.com: $12    OR
Fagor Home Canning Kit from Amazon.com: $30

Mirro Pressure Canner from Amazon.com: $65

While waiting for the equipment to arrive, pick up a box of pint- and quart-size canning jars, plus an extra package of lids. You can find them in the baking section of Walmart, or your favorite grocery store; often you can also find them at Ace Hardware stores.

There are 2 kinds of jars, wide-mouth and normal. Whichever kind you get, make sure to buy the extra box of lids in the correct size. If you can’t find jars and lids, you can order them on Amazon.com; unlike plastic zipper bags, jars are completely reusable and environment-friendly.

For the recipes listed below you won’t need fruit pectin or canning salt, but if you plan to make pickles or jam you’ll want to buy a box of fruit pectin, and a jar of canning salt.

Got everything ordered and/or bought? Good. That took maybe 5 minutes online, and 15 minutes in the grocery store. I told you it was quick and easy.

Now, here are some really simple and really useful recipes to get you started. Don’t panic–you can do it. I promise it won’t strain your brain after an exhausting week at work; it is fast and easy. Just relax on Saturday afternoon and give it a try!

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Canned Meatballs

Sweet ‘n’ Sour Meatballs w/Rice; Spaghetti & Meatballs; BBQ Meatballs–you name it. When you have them canned, you’re only minutes away from a meal! You don’t need to use my meatball recipe: whatever is your favorite meatball recipe, make a quantity of it, form it into balls, place it in jars, and follow the canning directions I’ve laid out below! They’re delicious and handy!

Many herbs or spices, especially sage, can make the meatballs bitter when served so it’s best to keep it simple and add more seasonings, if desired, when getting ready to serve the meatballs.

Recipe By: www.recipezaar.com
Serving Size: 7 quart jars

-= Ingredients =-
4 lbs ground beef, (85/15% lean mix)
1 (1/4 lb) package saltine crackers, crushed
1 teaspoon garlic powder (more or less, as desired)
1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons salt (more or less, as desired)

-= Instructions =-
Before beginning, wash jars, lids and bands, then run them through dishwasher cycle to sterilize.

1. Mix all ingredients together.
2. Form into golf-ball size balls, or smaller if desired, packing ingredients together tightly.
3. Pre-cook the meatballs by boiling for 5 minutes in water or broth.
4. Place meatballs in quart-sized canning jars. Fill with the boiling water used to pre-cook (Add your own boiled water if more is needed.) Pack only to within 1″ of top of jar.
5. Wipe rim of jar to remove grease or food bits.
6. Place lid on jar. Screw on band.
7. Place filled jars in the jar rack that came with the pressure canner.
8. Add water to canner, to about 2″ deep.
9. Place lid on canner and make sure it is securely fastened.
10. Open canner’s petcock.
11. Turn on medium-high heat.
12. When steam is rapidly escaping through petcock, close petcock. Pressure will start to rise at this point.
13. When pressure reaches 10 lb., start lowering heat, till the needle on the pressure gauge stabilizes at 10 lb.
14. Start timing: 90 minutes for quarts (70 minutes for pints).
15. When time is done, turn off heat, and leave the canner alone till pressure reaches zero.
16. Open petcock to release any remaining steam and remove the lid.
17. Carefully remove the jars, and set in a draft-free place to cool.
18. When cool, remove bands, wipe down jars with a warm, damp cloth.
19. Push down on the center of each jar’s lid. If the lid flexes up and down, it is not sealed properly. Put that jar in the refrigerator and use as soon as possible.
20. Label jars with the contents and date, and store in a cool, dry place.

TO USE: Remove lid and set jar in pan of hot water to melt the grease before removing meatballs, one at a time, with an iced-tea spoon; or place in microwave just long enough to melt the grease, then remove one at a time, using an iced tea spoon.

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Canned Potatoes

Have home-made mashed potatoes in less time than it takes to cook instant! And sooo much better.

Ingredients–
potatoes, peeled and cut in chunks
1 tsp. salt
Hot water

Instructions–
Wash and peel the potatoes, cut them up, then place in clean, washed quart-size jars. Add salt and hot water from faucet to about 1/2 inch from top. Seal and pressure cook for 40 minutes at 10 pounds.

TO MAKE MASHED POTATOES: Pour a quart of your canned potatoes into a bowl, drain off the liquid and discard. Add a bit of warm milk, margarine, and mash with a potato masher. Mix with a hand-mixer if a smoother consistency is desired. Add salt and pepper to taste. Heat in the microwave for a few minutes until warm.

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Don’t stop now; just think how much store-bought Beef Stew costs; but you can make it for soooo much less! Also chili, clam chowder, chicken, beans–you name it. This saves you money and TIME. Cook up one huge pot of your specialty dish to can enough for several meals. You can have home-made entrees ready to eat 15 minutes after you get home from work. Ultimate convenience, the peace of knowing exactly what is in the food, and huge money savings. You can’t afford not to give it a try.

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It is amazing how alien this cooking business is to me! Even after a year, it all is so different–I just don’t seem to think in the right way for it. I have lived and breathed office procedures my whole life, any situation, any problem in an office environment wouldn’t faze me or stump me, but not so in my kitchen!

I just had an epiphany that I am sure all you cooks out there will laugh at. I just realized that I can cook big batches of black-eye peas or butter-beans, and “can” them in jars. Then they’d be ready whenever I need them without having to have planned it 4 hours in advance! And at a fraction of the cost of store-bought cans! Duh!

I have been thinking and thinking how to have cooked veggies, beans, peas, etc. always ready without having to pay supermarket prices for tin cans. It is so obvious, but I never understood; that’s what canning was invented for; it is not just for packing raw veggies from the garden!

Woohoo! I’m going to get my black-eye peas cooking right away. My husband adored the last peas I made; it just takes so long. Will he ever be surprised that he can have them whenever he wants…

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Mmmmmm! I made home made bread, without the bread machine. I have gotten comfortable with kneading roll dough, so I decided to go for the gold. Kneading bread dough isn’t that different from the rolls, except that it is 4 times as much dough. Whew! It was much more tiring pushing around that huge lump of dough; still, the 4 beautiful loaves that resulted were well worth it.

I did find that these loaves were simple to slice thinnly, unlike bread-machine bread which falls apart. This is great, because I’ve been buying bread from the store for sandwiches because of the bread-machine bread; now I won’t have to.

Yesterday I made pizza with home made crust with Hunts canned spaghetti sauce, and topped it with shredded mozzarella. It was good, but I thought the crust was a little heavy, especially near the center. I didn’t let it rise, but perhaps I should have. Jesse absolutely loved it; he raved and raved about it. Pizza is one of my favorite foods, now that I can make my own I’ll be able to have it more often. I haven’t found a recipe I like for pizza sauce yet, but once I do, and once I start making my own mozzarella, then pizza will only cost pennies.

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Mmmm! I made chicken corn chowder tonight to use up the leftovers from the roast chicken we had for Christmas dinner. I also made rolls again. (They came out so good the other day!)

I didn’t have the creamed corn called for in the recipe, so I took the regular corn and made (simplified) creamed corn first, by modifying this Creamed Corn recipe. I also added more salt than the recipe calls for.

The rolls are to die for! It all smells and tastes scrumptious!

Chicken Corn Chowder

2 boned and skinned chicken breasts
2 cups water
1/2 teaspoon salt
pinch freshly ground black pepper
1 stalk celery finely chopped
half small onion finely chopped
1 large potato peeled and cubed
1 can creamed corn 14 oz
1 cup milk

Instructions
1. In a large saucepan, bring chicken, water, salt and pepper to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and cook for about 20 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink. Remove chicken from cooking liquid and, when cool enough to handle, cut into cubes. Set aside.

2. Add celery, onion, potato, and carrot to cooking liquid. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 10 jinutes or until vegetables are tender. Add corn, milk and reserved chicken. Reheat to serving temperature.

Yields: 6 Servings
Source: Better Food for Kids

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Well, since my first experience with kneading–while making biscuits–I have not tried again. You don’t really knead biscuits, you just flip the dough a couple of times and that’s it (or else they get tough). I’ve felt I still had a challenge to make something that really does need kneading, but I kept chickening out.

This evening I finally faced my fear–I decided to make dinner rolls. The recipes for rolls are simple enough; it’s the “knead until smooth and elastic, 5 -10 minutes” part that gets me. I am pleased to say it went very well. I remembered the lesson I had learned to use MORE flour on the counter and my hands. I set up a little timer next to me and sat at the counter, hyperventilating, before I finally dumped the dough onto the floured surface.

I thought 10 minutes of kneading would seem like forever, but amazingly I enjoyed the kneading so much that it zoomed by. It’s kind of relaxing, therapeutic even. I could feel the difference in the dough, and I did see it become “smooth and elastic.” What do you know! It worked.

So the rolls are rising and we are waiting anxiously until it’s time to put them in the oven…

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I’m so glad I got moving early today. It is only 2pm and I already have the meat loaves in the oven for supper and the freezer, corn bread baking, and potatoes peeled and boiling for mashed potatoes.

I’ve been thinking… I’m still way too dependent on the grocery stores. I’ve been reading in the survival blog and Organic Homestead and Gardening Yahoo group about all the things people do for self-sufficiency–it’s amazing. One family doesn’t buy meat at all but hunt their own deer, elk, rabbits, and wild turkeys.

I am almost self-sufficient in eggs and milk. (I trade eggs with my friend for her cow’s milk.) By spring we will have produced enough eggs to pay for all the chicken startup expenses, from there on it’s all gain.

I have actually cut grocery costs down to about $300/month for our family of 3, and I’ve done it even with food prices sky-rocketing! When I was working outside the home, I spent easily twice that much for groceries. The savings are due to not buying convenience, prepared, and processed foods. Instead I buy the most basic ingredients: margarine, flour and corn meal, oatmeal, sugar (brown, white and powdered), honey, vanilla, baking powder, and spices, chocolate chips, coconut flakes, walnuts, dried rice, dried beans, oil, tuna, fresh and frozen veggies and fruit. I do still buy pasta, ketchup, mustard, jelly, and mayonnaise just because I haven’t gotten around to making my own yet, but we do make our own syrup, yogurt, cookies, and ice cream.

It is amazing how much less expensive the basic ingredients are. I can buy cart full of the basics, enough to last months, and only be up to $40, but then I get just one weeks worth of meat and it more than doubles!

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My family loves Shake-n-Bake type chicken and pork chops, but the boxes of crumb coating mix, even the generics, have gotten way too expensive. I tried a few online recipes but none were any good.

The other day, I started to make the chicken and remembered I hadn’t bought any of the crumb coating boxes. But I did have some Vigo Italian-style bread crumbs from Costco that I hadn’t even opened yet, so I thought I’d give them a try.

I moistened the chicken with water, and rolled the pieces in the bread crumbs. I baked them on an oiled cookie sheet just as I always have, and they were so delicious! My family says, “way better!”

With this success under my belt, I tried the same thing with the pork chops and again it was a hit. I am so pleased to have discovered this. The Costco bread crumbs that cost less than $5 will probably coat 10 or more chickens. The boxed crumb mixes are nearly $2 each, and each will barely coat one chicken!

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I found a non-electric yogurt maker on ebay for just $6, and I couldn’t resist. It arrived today, and is basically a huge thermos. You put warm milk (raw or pasteurized) into the center container, and add a little bit of fresh, organic, yogurt. Then you pour boiling water around it and put on the lid. Let it incubate and, voila! yogurt.

I have to say that it wasn’t as easy as it sounded. First you have to warm the milk to at least 180 degrees but don’t let it boil. Sounds simple, but I only had a meat thermometer and it must not have given the correct temperature because the milk boiled. Also, I didn’t know I should have been stirring the whole time so the milk got a brown skin on the bottom. I skimmed out the skin–hope it doesn’t affect the yogurt.

Then you are supposed to cool the milk to 110 degrees. I hope it doesn’t have to be too precise because that darn meat thermometer was useless. I poured the milk into the container through a metal strainer to remove any remaining bits of skin.

The last part did go well, though: add 2 tablespoons of fresh yogurt and stir. (This adds the necessary bacteria to your milk, and is called the starter.) Even I couldn’t mess that up.

Now the milk with starter just needs to incubate for 12 hours so the bacteria can grow and change the milk into wonderful yogurt.

ta da da daaa, ta da da…  <—Jeopardy music playing while we wait.

The yogurt came out perfectly! It tastes so smooth, even without any sweetener or flavorings, or fruit. Not at all like the bitter low-fat yogurt in stores.

I mixed some with a bit of honey and some bananas, which was pretty good. But really it tastes good plain so I’ll just add fruit and leave out the honey. Yummm!

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Why is it that sometimes you just suddenly notice something you’ve never noticed before?

Today, as I was looking for new recipes to make some bread, I found the recipe booklet that came with my el cheepo (Regal Model K6732) bread machine. It has been buried among the cookbooks for years because all the recipes I tried just didn’t seem to work: either the loaf came out only 3 inches tall, or else it rose so high it pushed the top of the bread-maker open.

As I flipped through the booklet this time, I saw that I had penciled in adjustments to the ingredients, trying to get the recipes to work correctly. I saw that I was always cutting down on the amount of yeast. Then I noticed (aha!) that the first several recipes were for the “Super Rapid” mode of the machine. Super Rapid? Sure enough there is a Super Rapid Mode button, that I had never noticed, on the machine!

Honey Wheat Bread (for Regal Breadmaker Model K6732) 2 Pound Loaf

(Ingredients should be at room temperature. Water should be 100-110 degrees f)

Warm water: 11 - 12 ounces
Salt: 1 teaspoon
Vegetable oil: 2 tablespoons
Honey: 2 tablespoons
Whole wheat flour: 1 cup
Bread flour: 3 cups
Bread machine yeast: 4 teaspoons

Press SELECT until desired setting (Super Rapid) appears on the display. Press START. When unit signals and display reads END, press STOP and remove bread.

I’m sure you’ve guessed the outcome by now: I made the recipe, this time using the magic “Super Rapid” button. The bread came out so beautiful! And, as an added perk, instead of the usual 3 hours, it only took one hour to finish.

Now, as I sit here munching on warm bread and butter, I have this “half full / half empty” thing going on in my head. I am irritated at all the wasted years that I could have been making perfect bread, yet I am happy that from now on I’ll be able to make perfect bread all the time…

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At last, I received powdered margarine and powdered shortening that I had ordered from Mix A Meal. The Mix A Meal cookbook gives recipes to make homemade mixes using powdered margarine, shortening, eggs, and vanilla to give truly “just add water” convenience without the chemicals, additives, and cost of store-bought.

The margarine and shortening powder were very inexpensive, but the powdered eggs were a bit out of my budget so I make the mixes without powdered eggs, and, instead, just add an egg to the water in the measuring cup at cooking time.

Our first recipe test was the pancake mix. They were delicious! Our homemade syrup was heavenly with them. Now we can make pancakes easily–1 cup mix, 1 cup water.

Since that was such a success I tried the cornbread mix. It was very, very good too! My son said it’s the best he’s ever had; but I thought it was a bit too sweet, so when I mixed up the large batch I added 1/2 cup less sugar and the results were fantastic! Delicious!

I am so pleased with the Mix-A-Meal cookbook. Everything is far better than I expected. It is so nice to have the convenience of just-add-water mixes far more inexpensively than store-bought.

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I tried making syrup today for Jesse’s pancakes. (We can’t get sugar sap from Maple trees down this far south, so I had to steal the recipes from Mrs Butterworth and Aunt Jemima instead; but don’t tell on me!)

I found Mapeleine, which is imitation maple flavoring, at the grocery store right next to the vanilla extract in the baking aisle. I started with a syrup recipe I found online that couldn’t have been simpler: mix 2 cups water with 2 cups sugar and heat till it boils. It didn’t look very much like syrup though and I didn’t know how much maple flavoring to add. Then I found syrup recipes right on the back of the Mapeleine box:

Instant Syrup
Pour 1 cup boiling water over 2 cups of sugar.
Add 1/2 teaspoon Mapeleine and stir.
Makes 2 1/4 cups.

I already had the 2 cups water and 2 cups sugar cooking so I added 2 more cups of sugar. I was getting worried because it still just looked like water, but when I added the teaspoon of Mapeliene it suddenly looked and smelled just like the syrup we were used to. I let it boil for a minute then poured it into the empty syrup jug to cool.

It was a huge success! My son said it was so good it was “double thumbs up!” He asked why it was so much better than our “regular” syrup. I don’t know what is in the cheap syrup, but probably not real sugar. So maybe that’s what made it better. I thought mine was a bit watery, but Jesse loved that because it “soaks in better.”

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So you’ll never guess what I’ve been doing this afternoon (I had to start early so they’d be done by supper time): I cooked black-eyed peas with ham hocks. I had a heckuva time finding ham hocks the other day! No one knew what they were. I finally asked the meat dept lady and she knew. They are pigs ankles! Bony and weird looking, too.

Southern Style Blackeye Peas

-= Ingredients =-
2 cups Blackeye peas ; (16 oz package)
1 cup Uncooked rice
1/2 teaspoon Pepper
1 small Ham hock
8 cups Cold water
Salt to taste

-= Instructions =-
Place ham hock in water; bring to boil; reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Add peas to ham, continue simmering 1 1/2 hours, add rice and simmer 45 minutes or until rice and peas are done and liquid is almost absorbed. Remove meat from bone/ Serve peas and rice on hot platter, place ham on top.

I also made southern cornbread which is made with no sugar or honey. David hates cornbread that has any kind of sweetener. Jesse and I like it with a bit of sugar though, so I make both kinds. Now I’m going to make biscuits. This will only be the 2nd time I’ve made biscuits. I’ve always avoided anything that had to be kneaded, but now that I’ve done it once I’ve found it’s not so bad at all. Plus I made bread in the bread machine, and we had pancakes for brunch.

Aunt Jemima Southern Cornbread

-= Ingredients =-
1 cup Cornmeal
1 cup All purpose flour
2 tablespoon Sugar ; (2 to 4 tablespoons)
4 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 cup Milk
1 Egg
1/4 cup Vegetable oil

-= Instructions =-
Preheat oven to 425.
In a large bowl, combine corn meal, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt
Add milk, egg, and oil. Beat until fairly smooth, about 1 minute.
Bake in a greased or sprayed 8-inch square baking pan for 20 to 23 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean.

We’ve been raising 2 chicks, Rhode Island Reds. One died last week because it got hold of some old, moldy feed in an old cage outside. We just finished setting up a pen outside for the other. This will be her first night outside. She looks very happy eating bugs in the grass. Now that the weather is finally getting warm we’re ordering 25 chicks from a hatchery. I’m going to go into egg production big time. Eventually I hope to learn to butcher chickens, or get someone to do it for us. I am getting afraid to eat chicken from the store.

The weather is gorgeous here. I just got in from the garden. All four of my rose bushes are blooming like crazy. 2 of them are soooo fragrant! I have a 3 year old peach tree but we had a really late frost and lost the peaches. Too bad, this year would we probably would have gotten our first peaches to eat. I have a nice strawberry patch that is a few years old but the berries aren’t ready yet. These are ever-bearing so they really get going in June. Plus I have 2 blueberry bushes that are 4 years old. We should have a nice crop this year. I have to cover them with netting so that the birds don’t get all the berries.

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I did it! I made biscuits — with flour and shortening and stuff! I kneaded them and I patted them out and I cut them with a glass and baked them. They are the most beautiful things I have ever seen!

I have feared and avoided kneading for over 30 years, but I finally, finally, finally just DID it! It was E A S Y! Why did I think it would be so hard, and messy, and did I say, “hard?” Well, I know why — because the few times I’ve made rolled cookies they just stuck to the counter, the spatula, the rolling pin, my hands… just everything. But some of the hints I’ve read online and the country magazines finally got me to thinking I wasn’t using enough flour. So tonight I bit the bullet and tried it. It works like magic when there’s enough flour on the counter! lololol!

I’ve hardly been prouder of anything in my life. Such beautiful biscuits. My son tasted the first one and said, “Mom! These taste just like real biscuits.” lolol! out of the mouths of babes…

Frank’s Famous Baking Powder Biscuits

-= Ingredients =-
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup Shortening
2/3 cup milk

-= Instructions =-
Preheat the oven to 425°F.

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl.

With a pastry blender, or two knives cut the shortening into the dry mixture until it has the consistency of coarse cornmeal. (I’ve seen this done with two butter knives, but personally, I’d be lost without a pastry blender!) Add the milk while gently stirring with a fork. The dough that forms should be soft, but not sticky. You may have to add a little more or less depending on the temperature and humidity of your kitchen. You’ll have to experiment until you learn the “feel” of the dough. Knead the dough on a floured board until smooth. DO NOT OVERWORK! Overworked biscuits will be tough! A friend of mine once said “Just flip it over and smack it twice . . . .don’t work it no more!” Roll out the dough, or pat it flat. Cut with a biscuit cutter or a glass tumbler and place on a lightly greased baking sheet about 1 inch apart. This recipe makes about a dozen biscuits about 3 inches across and a half inch tall (unbaked). You can make them thicker, of course, but remember that they
will rise up as they bake. Bake 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown.

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