Posts filed under 'Holidays'
On a whim, I decided it would be fun to make applesauce with my eight-year-old son. He loves machines and seeing how things work and I have a hand-cranked food strainer for making things like applesauce, tomato sauce, and pumpkin puree.
As I said, applesauce-making seemed like a fun afternoon project for us. I bought several pounds of Gala apples while at the grocery and yesterday afternoon we got out the strainer, cooked up the apples, and cranked away. I did not endeavor to make 5 gallons and can it all, I just wanted to make a good portion for us to eat this week.
First of all, I have to say that Jake did LOVE making the applesauce. He was thrilled that I let him get all of the pieces out of the box and try to put it together himself. In the end, I had to do most of this, but he watched eagerly and learned how the machine went together and how it worked.
The process is extremely simple:
First, buy a bunch of apples. I bought 6 pounds of apples - oops, I think we ate a couple before making the applesauce, so let’s say I started with 5 pounds. I bought Gala apples, after making sure that they are good for baking. Some apples don’t cook up very well — Red Delicious, for instance, do NOT make good applesauce or pies at all. Gala, Jonathan, Yellow Delicious, and Fuji all work nicely.
Next, I quartered the apples and threw them in a large stock pot, stems, seeds, peels and all. The strainer removes all of that stuff. If you don’t have a strainer and still want to make applesauce, go ahead and remove the peels, cores, and stems. I added about 1/2 c. of water to the pot and brought it to a simmer, then lowered the heat and put a lid on it.
It took about 45 minutes of bubbling to get the apples nice and soft. By that time, my kitchen sure smelled great. Mmm… Mmm… Jake and his sister were positively jumping around the room, anxious to begin cranking the strainer.
I turned off the apples and let them cool a bit, then fed them through my strainer. If you don’t have a strainer, at this point you could put them in a blender or food processor. After tasting, we decided that a little sugar and cinnamon would make it just perfect, so we added 1/2 c. sugar and about 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Our 5 pounds of apples were now about 2 quarts of applesauce.
We served it for a snack, then with supper, and we still have some in the fridge, although I’m not expecting it to last much longer.
October 28th, 2008
We vacationed at a little cabin getaway this summer with our extended family. By that I mean MY family - Mom and Dad, my three sisters, two of my brothers-in-law, everyone’s kids plus my nephew’s new wife. When you do the math, (and we did have to do the math here) it came to a grand total of 24 people. We had an age range running from nearly born (my nephew’s wife was pregnant) to the sixties. A regular family reunion! We had a great time, hidden away in the woods, on the edge of a small lake, of the northern part of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan.
Coming from a family of cooks, where we take very seriously phrases like, “homemade”, “comfort foods”, and “from scratch”, we took turns cooking dinner for the entire family. (My dad even made curly fries over a propane burner 2 nights.) For breakfast and lunch, everybody sort of found their own food, usually by taking advantage of a stockpile of lunchmeat and hot dogs in the fridge and pounds of goodies that were prepared beforehand and brought up by my mother and sisters. I had the disadvantage of distance - we had to fly to Michigan so I couldn’t bring pounds of cookies.
The one particular baked good that became our favorite breakfast that week was my sister Sue’s Zucchini Bread. My, OH, My - was it good! She brought - I think- at least 6 loaves of it and I believe we had it all polished off by the end of the week. It became the perfect food to set out and let everyone slice off a serving as they got up and got ready for whatever activity we did that day.
Sue has graciously shared her recipe for Zucchini Bread with me and I, of course, am going to share it with you. A wonderful way to use that zucchini that is so plentiful.
ZUCCHINI BREAD
3 c. flour - I use half white and half whole wheat
1 1/2 t. ground cinnamon
1 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
1/4 t. baking powder
2 c. sugar
1 c. oil - but I use 3/4 c. oil and 3/4 c. ground flax seed
you can substitute 3 T. of flax seed for 1 T. of oil when baking, so you can play with this and use more or less flax seed
1 T. vanilla
3 eggs
2 c. shredded zucchini
1/2 c. chopped nuts (sometimes I use them and sometimes I don’t)
Sift together dry ingredients except sugar, set aside. In a large bowl using mixer at medium speed, beat sugar, oil, vanilla and eggs until well blended. Reduce speed to low, beat in dry ingredients until well blended. Pour into two greased loaf pans.
Bake at 350 for 1 hour or until done. Cool in pans 10 minutes, remove and cool completely on racks.
If taking on vacation, triple the recipe and bring copies.
September 29th, 2008
I accidentally made this new soup in my crockpot yesterday. I love it when kitchen accidents turn into kitchen successes!
The original plan was to make regular-old chili. However, my son wants grilled burgers one day this week and I have only one package of ground beef in the freezer. So…. the original plan for chili turned into plan B — shredded pork chili. (Because I found a baggie of shredded leftover pork roast lurking in the back of the freezer.) I think I’d better add at this point that I was a bit short on grocery money and was trying to make do with what I had on hand for this week.
Well, I started up the pork chili and when I thawed the baggie of pork, I realized that it was actually shredded turkey left from, I believe, Christmas! Of course, I realized this at the exact moment that the pork/turkey was being added to the soup. No turning back. I probably would have put it in anyway, to tell the truth. Commence plan C.
So, there we had it — I won’t even call it chili anymore… Southwest Turkey Soup. We added diced avocados, light sour cream, toasted tortilla pieces, and I heard no complaints.
Southwest Turkey Soup
serves 6
1/2 large sweet onion, diced
1 T. olive oil
1 can red kidney beans or pinto beans
1 can hominy (we prefer white)
1 can petite diced tomatoes
1 can Ro-tel brand mild tomatoes with green chilies
1 T. chili powder
1 t. cumin
1/4 t. garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
1 can chicken broth, optional, depending on how thick you like your soup
1- 2 c. cooked, chopped turkey.
I love crock pot recipes, they are so easy to prepare and you are not locked into a specific dinnertime.
First, chop and saute the onion until soft. At the same time, begin opening cans — kidney beans, tomatoes, Ro-tel, and hominy. Dump everything into the crock pot. Add the onions whenever they are done, then add the seasonings and stir. Finally, add the turkey.
This should be heated through and, as with most chilies, tastes better if you let the flavors blend for at least a couple of hours.
For toppings — cut flour tortillas into small squares, heat some olive oil in a skillet, and fry over medium heat until crispy. Dice an avocado, add a dollop of sour cream and even a splash of lime on top of your bowl of soup.
ENJOY!
March 3rd, 2008
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