a gypsy caravan

brussel sprouts with bacon

On Superbowl Sunday, I was craving brussel sprouts.  I know, that's kind of a strange thing to crave as it's not really football game fare.  When I ran to the store to pick up the food for the game, I bought some nice brussel sprouts and a package of bacon.  I had read a recipe for brussel sprouts, bacon and juniper berries a few days earlier.  Now, I'm showing my culinary ignorance when I tell you that I don't know what a juniper berry is, nor do I know where to locate one in a grocery store. So, I eliminated them from the recipe. Juniper berries sound like something I might have picked off a bush as a child and my mother would have warned me countlessly not to ingest. 

While the rest of the family was munching on chips and salsa, refried bean dip and other treats, I cooked and ate my bowl of brussel sprouts.  I have to tell you, they were delicious! (I also had some bean dip.) :)

The recipe can be found in Tender: A Cook and His Vegetable Patch by Nigel Slater. 

an everlasting meal and a giveaway

I've been enjoying a wonderful cooking book called An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace by Tamar Adler. 

From the dust jacket description:

"Reviving the inspiring message of M. F. K. Fisher’s How to Cook a Wolf— written in 1942 during wartime shortages—An Everlasting Meal shows that cooking is the path to better eating.

Through the insightful essays in An Everlasting Meal, Tamar Adler issues a rallying cry to home cooks.

In chapters about boiling water, cooking eggs and beans, and summoning respectable meals from empty cupboards, Tamar weaves philosophy and instruction into approachable lessons on instinctive cooking. Tamar shows how to make the most of everything you buy, demonstrating what the world’s great chefs know: that great meals rely on the bones and peels and ends of meals before them.

She explains how to smarten up simple food and gives advice for fixing dishes gone awry. She recommends turning to neglected onions, celery, and potatoes for inexpensive meals that taste full of fresh vegetables, and cooking meat and fish resourcefully.

By wresting cooking from doctrine and doldrums, Tamar encourages readers to begin from wherever they are, with whatever they have. An Everlasting Meal is elegant testimony to the value of cooking and an empowering, indispensable tool for eaters today."

(That'd be my smudgy, olive oil covered fingerprint on the cover. :)

What I love most about this book is, that while it is most definitely a cookbook full of recipes, it is written as a series of comfortable, narrative essays. Hearing Adler's voice through her writing is similar to being taught to cook by one's mother or grandmother in a gentle, conversational, no-nonsense way.  

In the author's words, "This book contains what I know of boiling and cooking eggs.  It contains my strategies for cooking vegetables and meat, which rely on the fortuitous truth that both are best bought whole and cooked ahead, and the ways I have of making each earn its keep.  It doesn't contain "perfect" or "professional" ways to do anything, because we don't need to be professionals to cook well, any more than we need to be doctors to treat bruises and scrapes: we don't need to shop like chefs or cook like chefs; we need to shop and cook like people learning to cook, like what we are--people who are hungry."

An Everlasting Meal reminds us that much can be done with little, that many meals can be squeaked out of the stems, roots and leaves of vegetables.  For more flavor, we can add some meat and a little bit of bread. While the book teaches frugality and economy in using what is available, it does not scrimp on taste. The recipes are simple yet delicious and earthy. I made a most simple pot of boiled broccoli last night as a sidedish and it tasted so much more delicious than usual, following Tamar's suggestions. 

Because I've enjoyed this book ever so much, I'd like to give away a copy.   :)

Leave a message in the comment section to be included in the drawing.  Also, if you'd like, tell us about your favorite comfort food from your childhood (or adulthood for that matter). 

I will pull a name from the comments on Friday evening.    Thanks for visiting!

yum

Yesterday, I made Pioneer Woman's Lasagna. And it really is The Best Ever...very meaty and cheesy and deliciously hearty!  There is one caveat...it is far too salty if you use the amount she recommends. And even when I cut the salt in half, it was pretty darn salty. So if you make it, don't add the salt to the cheese mixture, just to the meat mixture and even that you might want to cut down.  Unless you are in love with salt. 

And, because Sundays are a "little easter", I made Mary Ellen's Gingerbread Cake, which I have raved about in the past.  Every time I make it, I thank God both for Mary Ellen and for whomever invented gingerbread. :) Scrumptuous!

The only problem is that there is a piece left and it keeps staring at me when I walk through my kitchen...today, on this very-clearly-a-fasting-day-of-Lent-and-no-longer-a-Sunday-in-Lent.   

 

more maple syrup and sugar

Today the kids and I decided to take the baby out for a stroll.  She has never been in a stroller and we thought she might think it a fun time to take a ride in one and get some fresh air.  So we drove up to the village square where there are sidewalks on which to push the stroller.  The square is only a couple of minutes from our house by car and there is much activity there this time of year.  Every Sunday in March, many town locations offer all you can eat pancake breakfasts, served with maple syrup that was made from the sap of the village's maple trees.  In fact, the village gets pretty excited about it all.

In the center of the village square is a log cabin that has stood there for many, many years.  It is both a working sugar house where the sap is boiled into syrup and also a store that sells maple products. 

Buckets hang on all of the trees in the village and sap is brought to the square to be boiled down at the log cabin. The men who work there are very efficient and boil down the sap at a much faster rate than normal because they put the collected sap through a reverse osmosis filter which removes much of the water, making a more concentrated sugar level.  They have been making approximately seven gallons per hour, working ten hour days.  Seventy gallons of syrup a day is quite a lot of boiling since it takes approximately 40-50 gallons of sap to make a single gallon of syrup.  

Below is a photo of the boiler.  The hose you see in the left side of the photo is bringing sap from a holding tank to the boiler.  The boiler is heated with wood and the sap boils down, creating much steam in the room as the water burns off. 

Most grocery store brands of syrup do not contain any real maple syrup anymore.  Brands like Log Cabin or Aunt Jemima are mostly corn syrup and coloring.  Real maple syrup is quite expensive, obviously because of the time consuming process to make it. Sorry for the blurry photo but people often ask how much a gallon of syrup costs...

The store sells large amounts of maple syrup and maple sugar candy.  Maple sugar candy is made by bringing the finished syrup to a temperature of 210 degrees in a large double boiler.  The liquid is then whipped with a hand mixer which adds air while it cools. Then the liquid is poured into molds and cooled completely.  An eleven gallon jug of maple syrup makes 8 lbs. of maple sugar candy.  

We have been known to come into the village a couple of times a week to buy a tiny piece.  Small maple leaves like you see above are $0.75 and there are larger pieces of candy that cost up to $3.00.  Maple sugar candy melts in your mouth and is really quite addictive.  Someday, I'd like to try a hand at making it ourselves.

Maple sugar candy makes small children (and mommies) very happy. :)

Our little Teresa had quite a busy afternoon and enjoyed her walk out of doors.  This time next year she can enjoy sugaring time by having a little piece of maple sugar candy all to herself. :)

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Speaking of maple sugar, those of you who have young boys might enjoy the book The Biggest Bear by Lynd Ward.   The story centers around a boy who befriends a bear cub by feeding it maple sugar.  And many adventures follow. :)

Have a wonderful day today and thanks for stopping by! 

~Rebecca 

sugaring days

We are blessed to live on a property with trees as far as the eye can see.  Our friend Jim, who owns the property, taps his maple sugar trees each year for sap.  The sap is then boiled down into maple syrup.  It takes 40 gallons of sap to make one quart of syrup so quite a few buckets must be hung in order to get a fair amount of syrup.

 We were so excited to be able to help tap the trees this year.  The process of making maple syrup is really interesting.  Some facts if you'd like to read more.   

Here is Ben waiting to get started tapping after loading the buckets into the trailer.

Finding sugar maple trees in the winter when they have no leaves is tricky.  They must be identified by bark and tree shape alone. 

Isis the bulldog spent the day running behind the tractor, barking at the kids. :)

Here is sweet Annie who brightens even the coldest occasions with her warm smile.

 First, the tree is drilled to make a hole for the tap.

Next, the tap is hammered into the drilled hole.  A large tree can take two taps.

Some trees drip sap within seconds of being tapped. 

Next, a bucket is hung from the tap to collect the sap.  You can see in the above photo the notch on which the bucket hangs.  Some people use bags to collect instead of buckets. I like the buckets better. 

Mary was a good sport and a hard worker.

 

Lastly, a lid is fastened on the bucket to keep out the elements, branches, etc. that might fall into the bucket.

The weather dictates how often the bucket will need to be emptied.  During a warm spell, the sap runs faster and the bucket could need to be emptied daily. 

 

 

After we tapped the trees, everyone collected wood so that there will be a big stack to keep the fire burning when it comes time to boil the sap. 

Some people were helping...

...more than others. :)

 

So, now there is a decent sized stack of wood when it comes time to boil the sap.  Right after the trees were tapped, we got hit with a huge ice storm and a cold spell so the sap may not run as quickly as it was running last week.  The next step is to collect the sap and boil it down into syrup.  If I am able to post more photos of the process, I will.  Stay warm and safe everyone and thanks for visiting. :)

white fruitcake recipe

Someone recently wrote to ask me to post or relink the white fruit cake recipe.  Here it is on my old kitchen blog.   You can use any variety of dried fruits and nuts to your liking.  Enjoy!

blueberry days

A friend of mine's mother has a blueberry orchard.  She called the other day to ask if we'd like to come and pick.  We were so excited! Each year we pick raspberries and apples, sometimes strawberries.  We missed strawberry season this year since I could not bend down to pick them. :) Anyhow, we haven't picked blueberries in many years.  She handed us our baskets and said the magical words, "Eat as many as you'd like while you pick." They are so sweet and full of sunshine that even those children who claimed not to like blueberries, went home with full tummies as well as full baskets.

 

 

 

 

 

We made blueberry pancakes for dinner that evening and have had plenty to munch on. We plan to put up some jam this weekend if our little baby hasn't arrived yet.  Still waiting for our little bundle to make her debut.  I'll keep you posted. :)

we're having a heat wave

It's a balmy 8 degrees here in Northeast Ohio.  Balmy compared to yesterday's -11 degrees!  We are used to Cleveland winters but it is pretty amazing when it gets so cold that your breath freezes in your nose after being outside for a few minutes.  There has been a lot of tea brewing this weekend as I recently received my shipment from Adagio.  Adagio has so many delicious teas but my favorites are the peppermint, spearmint, chamomile, Masala Chai, Jasmine #12 and Foxtrot.   All of them smell heavenly while brewing and they taste so good on these chilly days. Today, I am drinking the chai with a splash of maple syrup.

If you like Jasmine tea, the #12 is the best I have ever had, hands down. I love to watch the little buds unfurl in the hot water.   Two or three of them make a delicious cup.  No need for an entire teaspoonful, in my opinion.

Because I had a chance to sit a spell late last night, I picked up my knitting again.  Not working on the Tasha Tudor shawl as I should be.  Instead,  I started a pair of Toasties for two of  my sister in laws who have February birthdays.  Leslie has a very lovely, simple pattern posted on her blog "a Friend to knit with".   I am using Debbie Bliss' Donegal Luxury Tweed which is 85% wool and 15% angora.  It is just enough angora to make the wool ever so soft.   I am fond of angora though I don't like the mess it leaves behind.  This is just a touch of angora so it doesn't have the fuzzy effect.

This afternoon,  I have floors to sweep and laundry to do but, this evening, we will be here knitting, sipping and playing games by the fire.  I hope all of you are warm and well. 

Fall Biscuits

We make homemade biscuits on Fridays for lunch. We have been doing this since Benjamin was a little fellow.  Last week,  they made some into maple leaves using autumn cookie cutters.  It is a little touch that seems to bring a smile to their faces and warmth to their bellies. :)

Popovers

At least once a week, (more often in the cooler months), we make popovers for breakfast.  Our favorite recipe is from Susan Branch's  Heart of the Home Cookbook.  Add some honey butter or jam and watch them disappear! :)

Crockpot Pork Chalupa

at Heart of the Kitchen.  Yum Yum!

Vegetable Soup and Bread-A Tasty Winter Dinner

Christine and Jenn asked for our sandwich bread and vegetable soup recipes, respectively.  I am always happy to share. :)

                                                     ****
Sandwich Bread

Makes 4 loaves

5 C. warm water
1 1/2 Tbsp. salt
1 C. honey or 3/4 C. sugar
3 Tbsp. yeast
11 1/2 C. all-purpose flour plus more to knead in.

Use a mixer or knead by hand. 

Combine water, salt,  honey (or sugar).  Add yeast.  Let sit for a couple minutes until yeast bubbles a bit.. Stir in flour and make a soft dough. You may need a bit more than noted.  Knead for 8 - 10 min. either in mixer or with floured hands on floured countertop.  Place in large bowl.  Cover with a kitchen towel.  Let rise for an hour or so somewhere that is not drafty.  When it has doubled in size, punch it down.

Divide into 4 parts. Shape each part into a loaf and place into greased (I use butter) bread pans. Cover and allow to rise for the second time until dough is 1 in. above pan. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake 30 min.  After taking from the oven, brush the tops with melted butter.  Allow to cool for a while then remove from pans to a cooling rack.  This bread freezes nicely if double wrapped. 

Another bread recipe we make often can be found here.

                                          ****

Vegetable Soup

5 quarts of water, give or take some.   
4-5 cups of rich stock (vegetable, beef or chicken or use bouillon in a pinch)
1 large can of tomatoes and the juice, whole or chopped doesn't matter. You can even used stewed.
All the vegetables in your refrigerator :) Really it doesn't matter what combination but here's what I usually use:

1/4 cup olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
Several cloves of garlic, chopped
1-2 cups chopped celery
2 cups chopped carrots
1 green pepper,chopped
1/2  red pepper, chopped
1-2 cups of frozen lima beans
2 cups or so of frozen green beans and or wax beans
Any random can of beans plus liquid that you have too much of in your cupboards (black, kidney, pinto, whatever)
5 small potatoes, peeled and chopped
2 c. frozen peas
2-3 cups frozen corn (I like corn)
Any other vegetables you want to use up

The following dried herbs:  parsley, basil, 1 bay leaf, thyme, marjoram, pepper.  Use them to taste.  I use about 1 tsp. of each, I guess, except pepper.  Just a couple cranks on the pepper mill.  Maybe more basil.  Handful of salt (maybe two tablespoons?)

Here's how I make it:

In large soup pot, heat olive oil.  Add onion and garlic.  Saute until soft.  Add water and stock/bullion and seasonings.  Add heartier vegetables that take longer to cook such as potatoes, lima beans (they take forever), celery, carrots, and raw peppers.  Bring to a boil, then simmer, covered,  for an hour or so, maybe more.  Add the rest of the vegetables and simmer until everything is soft but not mushy.  Adjust seasoning. Remove bay leaf. Add some of your favorite bread and you have a delicious meal.  Makes quite a bit plus some for the neighbors.  Tastes best the next day.

Enjoy!

The Grass Family

This week we followed Shanleya to Grass Island where we learned about yet another group of monocots.   Monocots have leaves with parallel veins as opposed to dicots whose leaves are net-veined. There are over ten thousand species of grass.  Plants in this family include most edible grains such as wheat, rye, millet, timothy, oats, corn, rice, sorghum and barley.  Also included are bamboo, reeds and sugarcane as well as many plants for turf and fodder. 

Wheat

Oats

Rye

The edible part of the grass plant is the seed.  Grasses are wind pollinated and do not need insects to assist in their pollination, therefore they do not have colorful flowers to attract insects.  Grasses have three stamens and a pistil and are contained in modified leaves called bracts.

Ben's illustration of the characteristics of the Grass Family:

The Guardian of Grass Island by Chris:

Supplemental learning activities:

• Bake bread using different types of flour.  Which do you like best?  Which is healthiest for you? Which state in America produces the largest amount of each type of grain?

• Taste different forms of sugar (sucanat, brown sugar, powdered sugar, granulated sugar, raw sugar).  Which do you like best?  Which is the purest form of sugar?  Where is sugarcane grown in the world?

• Where does bamboo grow?  Purchase a tabletop bamboo plant and watch it grow.

• Learn the differences between different types of sod grasses.  Which grass grows best in your region of the country?

• Visit a sod farm if you live in a warm area of the country.

• Visit a grist mill.

• Visit a bakery  (Ok, that one might be stretching it a bit. :)

In keeping with the grains and grasses theme, our family had a baking day this week.  First, we searched the recipe archives of mothers who have many children.  I figured that their recipes would certainly be tried and tested to perfection.  I was right.  We made Danielle Bean's Banana Bread and  Michelle Duggar's Homemade Rolls in addition to four loaves of sandwich bread. Both recipes produced such delicious results that I was forced to freeze the extras in fear that we would eat them all in the first 24 hours!

Here is Christopher mixing the banana bread:

The Duggar's rolls, golden and delicious from the oven:

Little Annie's chubby hands kneading the bread dough:

I can't resist posting this one as well.

The finished loaves (One did not rise so well.):

Needless to say, our freezer is stocked and our tummies are full!

If you have read this far, I thank you. :)

Have a wonderful evening!

Christmas Cookies

We spent yesterday baking Christmas cookies.  Above are Margaret's Soft Sugar Cookies,  Chewy Ginger Snaps and Mom B.'s  Peppermint Pinwheels.  I make a half dozen different kinds each year and usually package them in little gift bag or tins.  This year we tried our hand at Violet's origami paper boxes to use as cookie containers.  We lined ours with tissue to make a pretty, handmade way to package treats for the neighbors.

Fresh Baked Bread

My home smells delicious this evening as the kids and I spent the day baking bread.  Here is the recipe if you'd like to give it a try.  Just the very scent of it adds five pounds to my hips! :)

Heart of the Kitchen

Last spring when I decided not to blog anymore, I backed up all of my sites at a free Wordpress site before deleting the Typead blogs just in case.  Last week, I reimported my recipe blog back to Typepad.  I have linked it here: Heart of the Kitchen  and in the right hand sidebar.  I apologize that I am missing many photos and images.  They were deleted in the switch to Wordpress.  Hopefully, I will get them back up and visible soon.  Though there are no new posts at Heart of the Kitchen as of yet, I hope to add some yummy recipes in the near future. 

P.S. Karen, you will find the white fruitcake recipe there! 

Enjoy!

Kitchen News

I will be posting some meatless Lenten recipes on my cooking  blog,  Heart of the Kitchen.  I have "ebbed and flowed" with posting on that site but really do appreciate having it as a place to archive family recipes and liturgical year menus.   I have a list of kitchen blogs in my left hand sidebar after the blogroll.  If any of you have one to add (or remove), please let me know and I will update the list.

Right now my kitchen could use some tidying (on my to do list for today) but if you stop over at Suzanne and Kristen's new cooking blog , The Virtual Kitchen you will find it is spotless and shiny!  And wait'll you see that focaccia!   This girl who has not had an ounce of wheat or sugar for the past two weeks is sitting here drooling on the keyboard while perusing their recipes.  Check it out...

Our Menu for the Upcoming Week(s)

My friend Meredith, whose blog name describes her to a tee :) has a great idea to link different people's menus for the upcoming week.  This has saved me a lot of time over the years.  I post my menus under my spice/baking rack in our kitchen on a white board where the kids can see them.  I put them in a plastic page protector and change the dinner one each week.

We have been doing this for years and it works well for our family.  The children can see what will be served that day and it helps me to know what to shop for for the next week.  Actually, Mike happily took over that weekly task for me since Annie was born over a year ago.   I am really spoiled in that respect.  All I have to do is plan the meals, make the list and put the groceries away.  God Bless him!

The visible menu posting also helps me, because I am so easily distracted, to remember what I am supposed to be doing in the kitchen! 

I'd love to tell you that I am making some fancy schmancy gourmet meals that require hours of slaving over the stove but the fact is, I keep it pretty simple for the sake of my own sanity. :)  Here is what we have planned for the upcoming week(s).

Our breakfasts and lunches are the same every week so I will post them here once and then won't bore you with them again.  ;)

Breakfasts:

Monday     Fruit and Yogurt

Tuesday     Fruit and Cereal

Wednesday  Fruit, Toast and Eggs

Thursday     Fruit and Oatmeal

Friday  Fruit and Eggs

Saturday   Fruit and Cereal

Sunday     Fruit, Pancakes, Eggs and Sausage

I also boil up a dozen of hard boiled eggs each week which the kids can also eat with their breakfasts if they so desire.  The girls and I love them, the boys always pass on the eggs.

Lunches: 

Monday     Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, raw vegetables and dip, pickles

Tuesday     Peanut Butter and Jelly, raw vegetables and dip, mozarella cheese stick

Wednesday   Macaroni and Cheese, raw vegetables with dip

Thursday Peanut Butter and Jelly, raw vegetables and dip, mozarella cheese stick

Friday     Homemade Biscuits with honey, Tuna Salad and/or Cheese, raw veggies with dip

Our dinner menu is seasonal and on a three week rotation.  We eat heavier foods in the colder months and switch to more fresh produce in the spring and summer.  Also, if there is a special feast day that might seem a good time to make something different, I don't hesitate to change the menu when necessary.

Here is the upcoming weeks menu:

Sunday:  Potato Pancakes, Applesauce, Veggies and Sausage

Monday:  Baked Fish Fillets, Raw Veggies, Rolls

Tuesday: Spaghetti with Meat Sauce, Salad, Garlic Bread

Wednesday: Pork Chops, Applesauce and Scalloped Potatoes

Thursday: Chicken Tenders, Oven Baked Round Fries, Peas

Friday: Pizza Night, Raw Veggies/Salad

Saturday: Chicken Enchiladas with Green Sauce, Bean Burritos for kids, Rice and Beans

Many thanks to Meredith who came up with this fun way to keep our meals organized!

Here I Sit, Sipping and Stalling

I am having a delicious cup of tea, sent to me by a dear friend (you know who you are!) as a Christmas gift.  I am, normally, a teabag kind of girl but this tea came in the loose form, which strikes me as much more elegant, old fashioned and romantic.  It is also so fun for me to finally get a glimpse of the elusive tea leaf itself.  I have never really paid much attention to what was inside those little bags but now the entire tea making process has come to life and I am thoroughly enjoying it.

I am not certain how much to use for each cup or pot.  A teaspoon?  A tablespoon?  Several?  I have experimented here and there and every cup turns out delightfully different and equally delicious in its own way.  Anyone with suggestions on how much loose tea to brew can help me out in the comment section.   

Tonight, I went to Target and bought myself a new tea kettle as well as one of those modern glass tea "pots" with the glass infuser inside.  It really looks more like a little glass pitcher.  I needed a new kettle to heat the water and I have grown tired of my father's hand-me-down Corningware 1970's tea kettle which is far too old to google and far too ugly to link even if I were able to locate a photo. I bought this one with a Christmas gift card that a thoughtful relative gave to me.

Anyhow, I am supposed to be taking down my Christmas tree this evening.  I have about three quarters of the ornaments off but all of lights are still twinkling.  The needles are poking me and falling all over the floor as I take down the ornaments.  Tomorrow is trash day so I am up against that deadline.  I know, I know, it is not Epiphany yet.  I really should leave the tree up until then.  But this year, I am taking it down early because I would like to start back to lessons on Monday and I still have my closets to finish.  Yes, you read that right, closet"s". The singular closet has turned into plural. 

Have you ever started a project only to find that it is contingent upon another project and another and yet another?  That is where I am at right now-- in the middle of the gnarled up ball of yarn that is my household closet system.  We are purging and we are organizing and we are installing lower bars for the kiddos.  We are adding bins and shelves and making a grand old mess all in the name of organization. We are stepping over wooden blocks and books and Lincoln Logs that are all in the hallway now that the clothes are in the closets.  Somewhere, down the road a few days, it will all fall into place but right now it feels like the "storm before the calm".  Everything must get messy in order to get tidy.  Maybe you know that feeling. 

But rather than clean up my closets and take down my balding tree, I am thinking of how blessed I am to have real, honest to goodness friends.  I am sitting.  And sipping.  And savoring.  And stalling...and smiling.

Our Lady of Guadalupe Tea

The ever-creative Alice at Cottage Blessings has put together a lovely tea for Our Lady of Guadalupe's feast day.  Do stop and take a look at her delicious ideas!