Month: November 2009

Today was dessert day. I try to make all of my desserts the day before Thanksgiving, so I can have a kitchen bake a thon and not get in the way of all the savory cooking of the main meal. On the menu for T-day 09, is:

Cheesecake
2 Pumpkin pies
1 Chocolate pudding pie
1 Apple pie

Yes, I take requests and there are a lot of people requesting. So first off, I wanted to share the pie crust that I use. I am not a baker by nature. I don’t really like sweets and find them uninteresting. I do, however, have a family FULL of sweet lovers, and have had to figure out how to make crust without a mother figure to help me. Here is the recipe I have been using for about 6 or 8 years, it works every time and makes an amazing crust. I leave out the little bit of sweetener for my quiches, freeze these in individual crusts and they even thaw perfectly. Really, you can’t go wrong.

Pie Crust 101
Makes 5 single crusts

4 Cups flour
1 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt
1 3/4 lard(use shortning if that is what you have)
1 egg
1 Tbsp vinegar
1/2 Cup milk

Combine flour, sugar(if using), salt in a deep bowl.
Add lard or shortening and work it in with your fingers, a fork or a pastry cutter, until it is well incorporated. You can tell this step is finished, when the lard is no longer distinguishable from the flour mixture and has become grainy looking. Don’t worry that some of the bits may be almost pea sized. This is still fine.
In a small bowl, beat the egg and add the vinegar and milk. Mix until combined.
Add the wet mixture to the flour mixture and stir until workable(meaning there are no pockets of egg throughout). The dough will be moist and lovely at this point. It still needs to be worked a bit before using though.
Dump the entire contents onto a lightly floured surface(I use my trusty Tupperware pastry mat). Fold dough onto itself a few times, until it all comes together evenly. You are not kneading, just working the moisture throughout, so there are no dry pockets. This should take 20 seconds-it doesn’t need much work.

~Do not worry about over kneading. This recipe will NOT get tough with excess  handling~

Shape into a log and divide into 5 even pieces. These are your pie crusts and can be frozen or used right away. That is all there is to it!

On to other news. Josiah (7) and Sebastian (2), both helped me with pies. As you can see from the photo, they chose the long handled tea spoons to scrape out the pumpkin with. I was using all of my willpower to allow them to take f*o*r*e*v*e*r* to scrape out every last bit. The reward was satisfied cooks and a really fun time. Phew..that was hard though. Here is the photo of them helping:

Finally, after all the baking and licking was done, Sebastian was not quite sure why we couldn’t dig right in? He was also almost 2 hours past naptime and emotionally fragile(that is code for a ball of whine).

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I hope you have a wonderful time and a full belly at the end of the day.

Thanksgiving is a really fun time for our family. I get to cook with wild abandon, and the family gets so much food that they can’t even eat it all. What is a more fun way to kick off the holiday season than having a feast?
Planning, however, is not as fun. I do enjoy figuring out what to cook. We all have our favorites and the traditional meal is somewhat the same from year to year. The problem is fitting it into the budget, along with the regular groceries is really tricky.

This year, I had to buy a turkey even! That was a sad affair, as I know how much better our own raised turkeys taste and how much better they are raised at our place. Sometimes you just have to buck up and feed the kids though, you know? I got a 20 lb bird, because the choice was between 20 and 13. We can eat a 13 lb bird in one meal, with may be a sandwich lunch extra. That doesn’t seem worth the effort.

The plan is to start thawing it on Monday night in our fridge. My MIL keeps it so unbelievably cold in there, that it is difficult to thaw anything that way. I will monitor the progress and by Wednesday, know if I have to switch to a cold water bath for the day to finish the job. Last year, I had to do an emergency thaw overnight, after my husband gave our fresh, pastured turkey away. I certainly hope that person enjoyed it. No more waiting on dh to provide the bird. It is safely in the freezer right now.

I have been brining the turkey for many years. It started out with a specific recipe from the Food Network, back when it was just a cooking channel. I have always been a fan, although it is getting a little too *glamorous* for my tastes. Now, I use this recipe that seems to work exceptionally well and no matter if you deep fry or roast the bird, it comes out unbelievably moist and flavorful.

Brined Turkey
1 cup salt
1 cup Brown sugar
1 sliced lemon
1 sliced orange
2 cinnamon sticks
small handful of cloves(1/8 cup)

Add all ingredients to 2 quarts of water to dissolve the sugar and salt. Then add to a large kettle, add the bird and add remaining water, until it is completely covered. 

I use a huge kettle. The turkey has to be placed inside, with the seasonings and enough water to cover the bird. Do this the night before and keep in a cool place-really cool, like your fridge if you have one that is empty enough, out in an unheated garage if it is freezing cold outside(this is my normal technique). In the morning, lift your bird out of the brine and dry it off, then cook as you normally do.

This makes the bird so delicious that you wont have to add any flavoring before roasting. Really, simple but effective. In case you are swooning at the potential for all sorts of dangerous disease and illness, I also stuff my bird before baking! The horror!! LOL..

Enjoy! 🙂

Illness and cold, rainy days mean cooking. I made another chicken soup today. The kids enjoy sipping mugs of broth with just chicken in it. It might not help them medically, but they feel like it is a cup of love and what is better than that when you are sick?

I also made a chocolate cake for Cal as a surprise. These past 5 days he hasn’t laid eyes on any of us for more than 10 minutes. The two youngest were just too sick to mingle with him and frankly, the baby was so clingy and fussy that it was pointless to try and have a conversation. I really don’t want Cal to get sick. He seems to hang on to chest colds for what seems like months.

This chocolate cake is straight off of the Hershey’s cocoa tin. I have found no better recipe, ever.

Hershey’s chocolate cake

2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup cocoa powder

2 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1 cup milk

1 cup boiling water

Weird, I know, but trust me.

Combine dry ingredients
Add all wet ingredients EXCEPT boiling water
Mix for 2 minutes
Add boiling water and stir till combined
Pour into greased cake pans(I like using 2 round ones, but a 13X9 works equally well)
Bake 350, for 35 minutes, or until knife comes out clean when inserted in center of cake.

Cool and frost.

Hopefully, he won’t read this blog before he gets home and ruin the surprise!  Enjoy. 🙂

I can’t believe it has been so long since I posted. Real life has just exploded, as it sometimes does. We are moving right along on the greenhouse, both ends of the house are finished, the fans are installed and now Cal has to make doors and then we cover it. Yea! So exciting.

At the same time, the new house is coming along. It looks strange not to have the old farm house sitting there. I wish I could have fixed it up, but who can pay twice the price of a NEW home, just to keep the sentimental value of an old one? I did get Cal to remove the two leaded windows for me to keep. I am not sure how to use them, but at least I have them safely tucked away.

Everyone here is fighting cold after cold. I can’t say that I agree with our local public school. If there were upwards of 50 kids out of such a tiny school, I would think closing for two weeks would far outweigh any financial gain that staying open would offer. Our town is loaded with H1N1, and some other run of the mill flu. Everyone has it. My boys are slowly trading around something, not like a flu though. I wish the littlest would not bring on super high temps when he gets sick, but at least I know what to expect with him. I dose them all with elderberry tincture and other herbal remedies. They may be sick, but I know their immune systems are working hard at getting rid of whatever it is they have. I can’t imagine how sick they would be if they were rubbing elbows with all the public school kids.

On that note, here is a flu tonic that tastes like heck, but really does rev up your immune system. Use it as a spicy base for a salad dressing or be brave and take a shot every couple of hours from the first sign of a cold symptom. Cheers!

Flu Tonic

1 quart jar with lid
Cider vinegar
1/4 cup chopped ginger root
1/2 cup fresh chopped onion
1/4 cup fresh shredded horseradish root(the real deal)
3 cayenne peppers or 1/8 cup red pepper flakes
6 fresh garlic cloves, peeled

Roughly chop all ingredients and fill the quart jar about 3/4 full.
Pour cider vinegar over all to cover
Add a plastic layer to top before adding lid. This prevent corrosion of the metal seal-yep, it is that strong. 
Seal tightly
Shake every day for at least 2 weeks
After 2 weeks, strain and measure vinegar
Add equal part natural sweetener, such as honey , Agave syrup or maple syrup. I have added molassas but my children do not like it as well. Try it!