Good eats

 

Yesterday we went out to eat and after Anna-Kate said, "Mama, that food was good, but your food is better." Just when my heart filled with love, it just about burst when all the others agreed.

I spend a lot of my life growing and making food for them, how lovely it is to be appreciated. Best compliment ever!

Homegrown

 She wanted to make muffins for breakfast. So we picked our own blueberries and she collected the eggs.

She so carefully washed, took the stems off and lined them up to dry.

Then we made muffins with my grandmother's recipe, link here.

Garlic Scapes

 I've tried several methods of preserving garlic scapes and garlic butter is by far our fave.  

I snip the whites, throw the rest in the food processor with a couple of sticks of butter for the bundle above. If it's not forming into a lump very well, I throw in a splash of half and half. I flash freeze overnight and the next day I pop them into food saver bags and keep frozen until we need them.  We love a pile of these in mashed potatoes.

Lemon Cake

 I took this pic ages ago and am just realizing that I never posted it.  There were a few lemon cakes recipes going around last summer and they all were ridiculously complex and used 50 bowls.  I just did a little experimenting on my own and this is what I came up with...less bowls and has become a family fave.

Lemon Cake 

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup coconut oil

1 1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 T lemon extract

Zest 1 lemon (reserve juice to add to milk)

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups flour

1 cup of milk soured with juice of the one lemon

Directions: Cream butter and coconut oil with sugar.  Add eggs, vanilla and vanilla extract and beat for a few minutes.  Add the zest and the rest of the dry ingredients with the wet and mix. Bake in 350 degree oven for ~ 30 min. for 8inch round pans.

Once cool, frost. 

Frosting: 
1 stick of room temp butter

4oz room temp cream cheese

1 lemon zested 

Juice of lemon

3-4 cups powdered sugar

Enough milk or cream to get right consistency. 

Whip and spread once cool 

Cookies!

 Allll the raspberries still. Make your own cookies style. Lemon cookies. Lemon buttercream. Topped with as many raspberries as possible. 

How I embarrassed my son

I've figured out how to embarrass my son. Spotting 'garbage' outside an ice cream shop in the city, Audra asking if we can take them, and me (along with friends) toting the whole stack allllll the way back to the car. Adrian hopes to never relive that hour. 

I, on the other hand, am thrilled!!!  I have 21 food grade three gallon bins with snap on lids that are well made and look sharp!  Plus a story to boot! 

Operation organization commenced, promptly after I hosed and scrubbed the pile of buckets.  I still have some more pantry cleaning to do, but there's progress! 

In order to remind Adrian of this delightful time in his childhood when he was 11, I am sharing this story. 

Also, I'm convinced more of us ought to save these food grade ice cream containers from the trash!  So useful!!!

These are PERFECT for storage of the 50 pound dry good bags we get from the bulk market. 

What do you have in all these? I know I'll get that question. Oats, flours, beans, pastas, snacks, coffee, cereal, my mom's vintage cookie cutters, plates/cups/napkins, a bin with all supplies for S'mores, a bin with all supplies for ice cream. Possibilities are numerous and the fun of embarrassing your kid is not to be missed.

Homesteader ways

Although we have access to local grocery stores, I am in the habit of rarely going. I like buying in bulk and using what we have/making from scratch/using our homegrown.  It's been weeks since we've been to a grocery store.  Looming is a field trip and a need to pack a lunch.  I realized that the foods present aren't really quick/on the run meals. 

While I could get up early and make a hot meal that our camp crock would keep warm or go to the grocery store, I opted for plan C. Plan C seems like the most work, but to me, it's way easier to make late night bread and jam than it is to go to the store. (No more transitions/unexpecteds for my hard to transition kid!) It's especially easy when I have a Rolodex of recipes in my brain, so I don't even have to look up or do much measuring. 

So that's what we did. Now we're all ready for a picnic of PBJs.

(Blueberry Rhubarb....rhubarb harvested and chopped by Adrian)

Unfortunately our prospects of having Audra's homemade cookies for a picnic are dim thanks to her dad the cookie monster.

It was 17 years ago I started this homemade/homegrown focus and tonight I'm thankful for the journey and for the opportunity to bring the kids down a similar lane. 

Happy 7th Birthday, Holly!

 Holly is 7 (ish)!  She's our rescue from Arkansas and they guessed her birthday to be the beginning of April. She is so loved and really the best dog ever.

My husband has been itching for something to celebrate with cake. Lemon cake today.

And randomly, other good food from our day. I haven't been to the grocery store in forever...well over a month. I've been trying to use what I canned and froze last summer. Nice to have the variety again! 

Home grown

 

Our (nearly) everyday breakfast: Our eggs. Applesauce from our apples that I canned last fall. Toast from bread I made. Local fresh milk delivered from our milkman everyday Tuesday.  Sometimes new things are good, sometimes the steady wins.  Maine food for my Maine children. 

Cast Iron Makeover

Finally getting around to things I hoped to do ages ago.  Well over a decade this pot has sat here awaiting a makeover and the tea kettle was a Christmas gift from Audra 3 years ago. I wish I got a before/after pic of both of them, but the here's the before of the pot.  The kettle was more orange like rust than the pot on the inside. Both not in usable condition.

After.  And I'm totally sore from working on this, hours and hours of work! Not perfect, but it is now functional! 

And the hard work on the kettle here:

Two non functional pieces now functional! Why am I suddenly motivated to get all my cast iron in working condition?  Because I have a little goal this year.  I cook most things with wood on our wood cookstove (below).  This year I aim to develop my wood cooking skills out of doors. Open fire cooking, here I come! 

The preserver

 This guy is very, very helpful around these parts. One of his (many) hobbies is food preservation.  He picked, chopped and froze dozens of containers of rhubarb. His efforts helped stock our freezer with raspberries. He froze a bunch of green beans and peppers. I have triple the applesauce because of his efforts. He has also helped with dehydrating herbs and putting up the garlic.  He keeps picking more things and hauling them in (his sisters do more picking and eating than bringing in their finds!). He is saying he's going to be bringing in the grapes next.  Age 11 is fabulous...until you want to take a good picture, lol. 

Summer Herb Rice

 My kids love this rice I just whip up as a side during the summer.

Summer rice
1 cup plain cooked rice

1 tbsp olive oil

zest of a lemon

Lemon juice 

1 tbsp of herbs

Salt

Cook the rice, add additions once done, enjoy! 

For the herbs, I just grab whatever, throw in the food processor and store to make it more than once in a week.  Below are chives, garlic scapes, oregano, basil and parsley. 

  

Summer eats

 Berry season is the absolute best.

Cooking class

 My birthday treat to myself was some "Hello Fresh" delivery.  I used it as a cooking class for the big kids, they were in charge of making it.  Something fun to do during this time at home sweet home. 

If you want to give it a whirl, what we've tried has been delicious. Here's a referral code to get you started: code.

McCarthy's Potato Rolls

These rolls are a part of my childhood.  From McCarthy's, a fantastic restaurant that was in business for decades in Northern NY. It's from the Cookbook "McCarthy's Restaurant Recipes" published by the Friends of the Canton Free Library, gifted to me by a friend (Thank you!).  A photo of the original recipe (that makes 4-6 dozen rolls!!) is posted below, but I reduced the recipe and made it more straightforward for the baker who isn't feeding the neighborhood. (Although I can promise you, the neighbors don't complain when fresh bread is dropped off. )

McCarthy's Potato Rolls (reduced and simplified by me...Jackie)

1 packet of dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp) dissolved in 3/4 cup warm water

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup instant mashed potatoes dissolved in 1/2 c. warm water

1/4 cup veg. oil
1 egg 

1/2 tbsp salt

5-6 cups flour

Combine yeast/water mixture with sugar.  Mix. Add instant potato/water mixture. Mix. Add veg. oil, egg, salt. Mix.   Add the flour one cup at a time, kneading it for 5-8 minutes. (Tip: I use the hook on my kitchen aid mixer to mix and knead. I know that I have enough flour and have kneaded long enough when I can lift the hook and all the dough sticks to the hook. Don't be afraid to add more flour, flour needs change with changing humidity.). 

Place dough in a large bowl sprayed with cooking spray.  Put dough in bowl and then turn over (so the top is covered with cooking spray).  Dampen cheese cloth and put over bowl. (Or use plastic wrap).  Let rise in warm place for one hour.  Tap bowl on counter to punch down. 

Flour your hands and lightly flour the dough. Pinch pieces of the dough off, tucking the loose ends under to make rolls.  Place on a greased sheet pan. 

Let rise for another 30 minutes. 

Bake in a 375 degree oven for 20-30 minutes (varies depending on the size of your rolls) until golden brown.  Brush with butter while still warm if so desired (which I desire). 

Yield 1 dozen- 1.5 dozen

Here is the original recipe if you need it: 

Santa's cookies

 My husband told the kids that Santa loves Whoopie pies.  We made some. Don't they look pretty on my mom's platter?  Only now they are gone, my husband ate most of them.  No worries, he has more suggestions for the kids about Santa's favorites...  

Chocolate Pastries: Fudge Filled Foldovers

Thankful for this recipe from JoAnn (thank you!). She made these every Christmas season and gifted me the recipes of her cookie sampler collection (Still the best gift ever!). They are so good. Adapted from Good Housekeeping December 1983. Pics of the girls making them below.

Fudge Filled Foldovers

1 1/4 cup flour

13 oz pkg cream cheese, softened

1/2 c. sugar

1/3 c. cocoa

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg yolk

1/2 c. walnuts chopped finely

1/2 cup + 4T butter, softened

Pastry:
Combine flour, cream cheese and 1/2 c. butter (keep 4T for later) in food processor.  Shape in ball, cover, refrigerate for an hour. 

Filling:
Combine sugar, cocoa, vanilla, salt, egg yolk, 4T butter until blended. Stir in nuts. 

Roll out pastry on lightly floured surface.  Cut into squares. Place a scoop of filling in each square. Fold sides in. 

Bake 350 for 20 min. 

Tomatoes

 This summer, when I was at camp with the littles, my husband was home with the garden.  He said 'What should I do with all the tomatoes?'  I told him to toss them in the freezer.  Which he did, literally.  I have a ton of grocery store bags brimming with whole tomatoes. 

While it would be a million times easier if he would have taken the core out ahead of time, freezing is a very easy way to take the skins off. I'm going to try to cook a bag down to sauce once a week on the woodstove for a bit.  In this picture below was just ONE bag of the several I have.   Nothing like summer tomatoes when there's snow on the ground!  Eggplant parm was today, with our summer tomatoes.  

Cooking

 Last week we were cooking on our woodstove and hunkering down to stay warm. This week we're barefooted and outside in summer clothes. Regardless, my trio keep proving themselves to be very capable in the kitchen, so long as I am patient enough to get out of the way. Perhaps this winter I will get in the habit of relinquishing control of more meals. I certainly enjoy the outcome!

 

   

Homegrown

While I would love to putter in my gardens all the live long day, life, kids, food prep (which feels like a full time job), LAUNDRY, heat, and other commitments get in the way.  My nighttime routine is I read with my littles, tuck them into bed and skedaddle to my lush and glorious green haven to do as much as possible before the swarming mosquitoes overtake my blissful evening.  I can already notice how the days are getting shorter, but try not to dwell on the time I'm losing. 

Frozen raspberries

I've got:
Beach sand between my toes
Garden dirt under my fingernails
Skin that's sunkissed and salty from ocean waters and sweat
Chickens all tucked in and eggs a plenty
A garden with lots there and more coming, including the first zucchini to be picked tomorrow
Gorgeous blooms wherever I look
2 quarts of raspberries, an armload of rhubarb and a precious early tomato to bring in
Counters full with herbs to dry, salad greens to chop and a bowl full of the first green beans
Sink full of dirty dishes
A fridge with yesterday's bounty that I never got around to processing
Fresh bread on the counter
Laundry in need of folding
Vases filled with flowers everywhere
More seeds on order
Books awaiting
A bright sunset promising another day of heat
So many plans for this space
3 littles tucked in and a hard working husband
A heart that's full from living my dream.

White pizza-my dough, garlic, oregano, basil.

Strawberry Rhubarb pound cake-my homegrown strawberry rhubarb compote

Cherry bars-grew these cherries.