a gypsy caravan

thirty minute dinner rolls

 

I've been making these rolls for years. We make them a couple of times a week to eat with our supper. They truly are ready in thirty minutes from start to finish because of the large amount of yeast. I cannot link the original recipe because the page is no longer in existence. So I will just post it here with our family's modifications. Of course, the recipe can be halved if you have a smaller family. 

(Makes 2 dozen)
2 1/4 c. warm water
2/3 cup vegetable oil
4 TB active dry yeast
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
7 cups flour

Preheat oven to 400F. Mix water, oil, yeast, and sugar together. Let rest for 10 minutes. Add the salt and egg, mix thoroughly. Gradually add the flour. (I'm sure you can use a mixer but I just do it all with a wooden spoon. I then knead it three or four times on a floured countertop.) Divide into 24 equal pieces, and shape into round balls. Place each dozen onto a greased baking sheet and let rise for 10 minutes. Don't worry whether they get very large because they will rise more in the oven. Bake 10 minutes or until golden brown.

sausage making

We've been able to do some pretty fun things lately. My dear friend Nicole invited us to join her husband's extended family to make Slovenian sausage. Every year before Christmas, they gather early in the morning, drink Bloody Marys and, by days end, have made several hundred pounds of fresh and smoked sausage.

(I'm a little late in recording the day because Christmas got in the way and then New Year's and then Anne's first penance and then attempting to get a shower every day and...well, you get it.) 

All I can say about sausage making day is that it was a blast.  There were plenty of jobs for the adults--cutting pork off the bone, grinding meat, washing and stuffing casings, weighing and packaging the finished product. Tons. Of. Fun! The kids helped here and there, working a bit and then running off to play in the woods with their friends. The latter half of the day is a little hazy because I switched from Bloody Marys to some fabulous homemade wine. :) Somehow it all worked out because we came home with thirty pounds of Slovenian sausage, most of which, at the time of this post, has been eaten (with the saurkraut we made last summer).  But the best part of the day wasn't the sausage. It was spending time with friends...an incredible family--good, fun, unabashedly Catholic, salt of the earth type of folks that I am very blessed to know.  

almond poppy seed quick bread

 

When I was a student in college, I had a married friend named Marla. She used to have several college aged girls over at a time on the weekends to hang out. She loved to bake and cook for all of us.  Because I survived primarily on beef jerky and applesauce during college, I was happy to eat whatever she placed before me. She made the most delicious bakery. The following is her recipe for almond poppy seed bread which, whenever I make it, is quickly devoured by everyone in my family. 

3 c. flour

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 1/2 TBLS poppy seed

1 1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 1/2 c. sugar

3 eggs

1 1/2 c. milk

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 1/2 tsp. almond extract

1 1/2 tsp. butter extract

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Beat 2 minutes with mixer. Spray two loaf pans with Pam or grease. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Done when golden brown, cracked and knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Sometimes takes an additional 10-15 minutes depending on the oven. 

love is a verb

Last week, I hit some rough spots. Despite my efforts to shield my children from my sadness, they picked up on it with their ever sensitive radar. While I was out running errands on afternoon, they took it upon themselves to try to make me smile. When I returned home, the dining room was set up with board games. My kitchen had been turned into a makeshift bowling alley complete with lanes, pins and balls. The room was set up for musical chairs. 

They had baked a cake... 

and made a card...

I was really choked up by their love and the effort they took to just to make me smile.  It meant so much to me and I wanted to make sure to record it here so I don't ever forget. 

The chocolate cake recipe is my great grandmother Annabelle's. 

Never Fail Cake 

Mix:

2/3 cup shortening

2 cups white sugar

2 well beaten eggs

Add:

1 cup sour milk or buttermilk

1 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup cocoa

1 tsp salt

1 cup hot water with 2 level tsp soda added

 

Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes. 

 

"All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt." -Charles Schultz

 

our carrots

I was a bit late in harvesting the carrots from our garden this year.  The nice thing about carrots is that they just sit there waiting patiently until you can get around to pulling them up. Our family went on vacation for part of October and, when we returned, I found the carrots were more than ready to be dug. After much scrubbing, peeling and slicing, and with our bellies full of raw carrots, we have plenty frozen for this winter's suppers, soups and casseroles.  

A couple of cookbooks that have some nice recipes for carrots:

Tender by Nigel Slater

The Practical Produce Cookbook by Ray Hoover

I have to say the latter is one of my favorite cookbooks because it is divided alphabetically by vegetable type. For example, the carrot section comes between cabbage and cauliflower. It contains 21 recipes that utilize carrots. Very handy and, well, practical. :)

Some more carrot reading:

The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss

Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens

Carrots Don't Talk by Kathryn Lewis

What Will I Do With All Those Root Vegetables? by Elaine Borish

Carrot Soup by John Segal

The Giant Carrot by Jan Peck

sauerkraut 2

We ended up with 64 pints. Will have to make it every year! Delicious!

applesauce/applebutter

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I don't remember when I haven't put up food for the winter.  Usually,  I get the produce for free or little cost. Applesauce this year was made from free apples in the orchard behind our home which belongs to the county historical society.  We picked three wheelbarrows full. I also picked at my aunt's home. She doesn't use her apples and was happy to let us have them. 

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If you are interested in canning applesauce/apple butter but don't know where to obtain free apples, know that many people who have trees on their property are often happy to have you remove the apples for them. Just drive down the road in the country and you will often see trees laden with apples. The elderly or just plain busy are sometimes overwhelmed with the prospect of cleaning up windfall apples from their grass but don't know to whom to turn to do the job. Windfall apples attract yellow jackets and canadian geese so people are happy to have them picked before the fruit falls. The historical society where we picked this year has one maintenance man who has plenty to do without having to pick up apples before he mows the grass. He was happy to have us pick the trees before everything fell to the ground. After the applesauce was made, I shared several quarts with him in thanksgiving.  

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The apples are first washed, quartered and cooked until soft.  Then, they are put through a Squeezo machine. The Squeezo is a most helpful investment if you plan to can regularly. It can be purchased for less on eBay or at a garage sale if you are lucky enough to find one. The Squeezo separates the peels, seeds and stems from the apple pulp, which comes out a different chute. Easy peasy! When I first started making applesauce, I used to peel, core and chop the apples which was horribly time consuming. 

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Applebutter is simply applesauce which has been cooked down to remove excess water with spices added for flavor. We love it on toast or bagels. 

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All in all, we made 99 quarts of applesauce and 25 pints of applebutter, all from free apples.

sauerkraut

I have a feeling that some of you might be tired of hearing about canning food. It's what we do in the summer though I'm sure it might get boring to read about. We made saurkraut today. Seventy pounds of sauerkraut, to be exact. :)

First, the cabbage is grated using a mandolin, which is, essentially, a wooden shredding board with two serrated blades.  It is made specifically for shredding cabbage.

The cabbage is shredded into a large stone crock. 

This seven year old angel singlehandedly shredded twenty pounds of cabbage. 

(Yes, we made saurkraut in my friend Nicole's basement.) You see, the crock alone weighs 50 lbs. Once you add the cabbage, there's no moving it for six to eight weeks.  So it's important to put it somewhere out of the way while the cabbage ferments. (Unless you want a huge crock of fermenting cabbage in your living room.) 

The cabbage is then layered with salt. The salt draws the water and juices from the cabbage and forms the brine. 

Then it is tamped down. 

Once all of the cabbage is shredded, salted and tamped, it will be weighed down with a plate or other heavy object and allowed to ferment for several weeks.

I'll post more photos when it's done. 

peaches

My friend Nicole and I canned 150 quarts of peaches last week.  My basement pantry shelves are filling up quickly. I'm enjoying the canning break this week before tackling tomatoes and, then, applesauce. I hope all of you are enjoying your summer. 

 

pickles and hungarian peppers

Pickle recipe here. 

Hot packed Hungarian wax/banana pepper rings:

Add the following to each pint jar-

1 tsp salt

1 TBLS olive oil

3 cloves garlic

1 tsp oregano

Cut tops off peppers and seed. Slice into rings. Pack jars with pepper rings. Add the above to each jar. Boil an equal ratio of vinegar and water. Fill jars with boiling vinegar mixture. Place lid and ring on jar. No need to do a hot water bath because jars will seal within minutes. 

Delicious on sandwiches or pizzas. 

a longwinded post about canning or "dear kim"

It seems so many of my posts these past few months have been recipes or garden notes. I'm sorry to those of you who aren't into gardening or canning. One thing that is important while keeping a garden is to record one's thoughts so as to better plan for next year. It's easy to forget which things were a great idea to plant and which were a bust.

 I have found canning to be an enjoyable way to spend time and an easy way to put food away for the cooler months.  This summer I canned pickles using cucumbers from our garden. I'd like to plant the same number of cucumber plants next year.  Nine plants gave us plenty of cukes over a long season. We had plenty for pickles and enough to enjoy sliced.

We also canned hot hungarian wax peppers as well as banana peppers.  I'm not sure what I was thinking when I (over) bought pepper seedlings this year.  I think I bought twenty plants too many. I have canne many dozens of pints of pepper rings and I still have about a hundred peppers still growing in mid September.  Today, I canned a dozen more pints and I decided that's it.  No more pepper rings! While they are delicious on barbeque pork sandwiches or with a burger, one can only can so many peppers over the course of a year. I even made and froze some split down the middle, filled with cream cheese and wrapped in bacon.  Those can be broiled like poppers and served as an appetizer. The rest that are growing outside are being put in a basket on a table in the front yard and someone else can deal with them. :) 

Did I show you my new cupboard? I know I showed it to Kim, (who is likely the only person reading this, I think :). I needed some extra cupboard space in the kitchen so I thought this freestanding shabby chic piece would do the trick.  It was originally painted red and then repainted white and distressed.  There is red toile fabric in the open shelving and I just love it. Right now I have some of my recently canned foods inside as well as drawers full of table linens.  It is from my favorite store (quite possibly ever) called Off Center. You can find them on Facebook. (Though I am no longer on Facebook. I found it to be such a downer that sucked the life out of me.) 

Now that I see the picture so large, I remember the tomatoes.  Next year I am only planting cherry tomatoes. They seem to be the only kind that my family will eat raw. I ended up canning a full bushel of roma tomatoes so I can make spaghetti and pizza sauce as well as soups and chili throughout the winter. I think I have about 30 quart jars. 

Do you see those few jars of brightly colored peaches? My friend Nicole cans 50-60 quarts of peaches each year so she has one quart for each week.  I had never canned peaches until this summer and now I wish I had made as many as she did. I bought one crate of peaches for $12 and got 13 quarts of canned peaches from it. Cut in halves, each jar contains about 8 whole peaches. So economical and completely delicious at less than a dollar a jar!  Next summer, I'd like to do several crates. It was fun to do them with my friend and made the process go much more quickly. 

Last week the kids and I made concord grape jam.  That is a very time consuming process but I'm glad we did it.  Not sure if we'll do it every year but it was fun for a change.  We picked the grapes at a local orchard. 

The dusty color of concord grapes is unmistakable.

The kids spent quite some time squeezing the skins from the grapes. 

The kids have eaten two jars already so I doubt the jam will last all winter! 

I am looking for an upright freezer on Craigslist. We have enough produce that a freezer would be a good investment.  I have frozen many quarts of green beans, several bags of chopped peppers and onions and many bags of shredded zucchini. Looking forward to zucchini bread in the cool months ahead. 

Thanks to those of you who've read all the way to the end of this post.  Should be one of the last canning posts unless I can find on some apples for sauce. All of our local orchards lost 90% of their crops this year to late frost. So apple prices are sky high and there are very few orchards nearby that have any apples for "pick your own". Still, hoping I will get my hands on a few.  

In the meantime, have a lovely second half of the week and thanks for visiting! 

quick and easy peach cobbler

Seven peaches, peeled and sliced

1 cup flour

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 cup milk

1/3 stick of butter

Melt butter in a 2 quart casserole or something slightly larger than a pie dish. Combine sugar, flour, baking powder and milk. Spoon batter over melted butter, covering the bottom of the casserole. Spoon peaches over batter and bake at 375 for 30-40 minutes. Should be golden on top and slightly crisp around the edges. Yum!

garlic dill pickles

We recently made twenty quarts of garlic dill pickles. "Recently" meaning at least a month ago. I am behind on my blogging. But I guess it is good to be behind on blogging because your life is too full to record it in real time. 

::KosherGarlic Dills::

20-25 cucumbers

Combine:

1 quart (5% acidity) vinegar

1 cup salt

3 quarts water

Add to each sterilized quart canning jar:

2 cloves garlic 

2 heads dill 

one grape leaf

1 hot red pepper

 

Wash cucumbers and let stand in cold water for a couple of hours

Pack in sterilized jars. 

To each quart add garlic, dill and red pepper.  Combine vinegar, salt and water. Bring to a boil.  Fill jars and place grape leaf in each jar and seal. Makes 6 to 8 quarts. 

cucumber salad

I was missing my mom a lot today. So I made her cucumber salad to accompany dinner tonight. She always had cucumber salad in the summertime.  It's been hot and we've been harvesting plenty of cucumbers each morning. 

::Mom's Cucumber Salad::

3 medium cucumbers (or several small ones)

1 small sweet onion, sliced thin and separated into rings

1 cup white vinegar

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup sugar

Dissolve sugar in water and vinegar. Pour over cucumbers and onion slices.  Refrigerate for a couple of hours until it tastes yummy. 

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Now go call your mom and tell her you love her. (Or say a prayer for her if you can't call her.) Happy Summertime! 

 

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!