Sunday on a Long Weekend

We have insulation! 

  

This is the rebuilt back porch.

I imagine having morning tea here in the winter. 

The kitchen sink will be centred under the large window on the left of the photo.

A view of the kitchen from the living area. That's the sink window on the right.

The rooms in the background will be a sewing room and a laundry room. The back porch is there behind the little square window.

We found a second hand claw foot tub that will go under this window. The commode will not be in the middle of the room :-) . 

Our bedroom. It's really large ( smile ).

The second bedroom. It's really large too. I don't have grandchildren yet but I'll be ready when I do.

Tomorrow is a holiday and since I don't have to work I putzed around in the kitchen.  It's a luxurious way to spend an afternoon. 

 I made steel cut oatmeal in the crockpot last week  - genius, let me know if you're interested in the recipe. - and had eaten it all week and there was still some left so I used it to make oatmeal bread. It turned out beautifully.  I used the bread machine to make the dough then did the baking in the oven.  

Oatmeal Bread 

1 cup cooked, cooled steal cut oats and barley

1 egg, stirred

3?4 cup water  

1 tbsp molasses 

1 tbs sugar

1 tsp salt

3 cups flour

2 tsp dried yeast

Just put all the ingredients in the bread machine in the order listed. Set to the dough setting and let it go. Drop it out onto a floured board and punch it down. Shape into a log or divide into 2greased loaf pans. Bake at 350 for about half hour or until it sounds hollow when you tap it. 

It was so good even Adam had 2 slices and he won't eat home baked bread because he only likes white bread and he doesn't trust me to  just make white bread.

And then chocolate chip cookies from Martha Stewart. If I wasn't sure Adam will make these disappear lickity split, I be concerned about the temptation. ( I'm getting healthy come he!! or high water! ).

And then some good for you breakfast muffins.

Carrot Oat Bran Muffins 

In a bowl grate 2 large carrots  ( about 2 cups ) and 2 apples - don't drain. Add 1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts.

In another bowl: 

1 cup oat bran

1 1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

In another bowl:

3/4 cup milk

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 tbsp vegetable oil

Stir the wet ingredients into the dry as quickly and gently as you can. Stir in the carrots, apples and nuts.

Spoon into a greased or lined muffin tin. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre of one muffin comes out clean.

Enjoy. Adam definitely won't eat these... but they really are moist and delish! 

Hope our weekend has been yummy :-) 

January

The Holidays are over and all the kids have gone home. It's quiet now. 

I've scrubbed the house clean, emptied my closet and dresser, purged and organized.  It happens to me every January. Some people make resolutions, try to get healthy, reflect on the past year. Me - I clean up and get organized with a vengeance.  After weeks ( months, maybe ) of build up -  shopping, baking, decorating, going to parties and entertaining at home; after all the expectation of having the kids home again and all together, having the kids home and in and out at all hours, I'm so intoxicated by anticipation and excitement that by New Years Eve I'm near ready to burst. I'm scrambled. It's true - there's nothing else to do but enjoy all the fabulous mayhem because I know I'll miss this when it's over,  but I have used up all my patience not worrying about the mess so by New Years Day I just HAVE to clean up.  

It's also a nice distraction from all the quiet :-) 

 So today I baked.

Sweetly spiced scones with cinnamon and cardamom from this recipe.  I left out the blueberry jam and the drizzle but they would be delicious with both.  

When we were in England, scones were served with clotted cream. Sounds questionable ( clotted ???) - but it really was a treat.  

And then I found this recipe for Oatmeal Muffins. I added one chopped apple. 

Best Apple Oat Muffins ever. 

You should try them.

Have a great week! 

A Break in the Heat

Finally, the temperature outside is reasonable. lovely. fresh. 

I'm feeling like nesting...

I came across this wonderful old seed packet and was so inspired - just had to "homemake".

Had to put something by, stock up. 

So what to do when all your canning jars are packed away, stored deep in a garden shed along with all the canning equipment ( and almost everything else that one could live without while living in a temporary location ). 

I have discovered Ice box pickles. 

And a reason to bring home some pretty jars when I couldn't logically go out and intentionally add to an already ridiculous collection of canning jars. 

I've heard more than once "Oh, Karen, you can; would you like some jars? I'm ( also my mother or my Grandma is ) not canning like I  ( she ) used to..." ) How could I not accept such a gift?

This is how it happens. One day you're begging folks to return the jar when they finish the jelly, then your asking your friends to help move 36 boxes of jars. 

Ice Box Cucumber Pickles

Bring to a boil:

4 cups Cider Vinegar

10 cups water

1/4 cup pickling salt

1/4 cup sugar

Let cool to room temperature then pour over  

4 quarts of quartered 4 inch cucumbers 

2-4 tbsp pickling spice ( the more you use the more mustardy they will taste )

10 cloves garlic

1 jalepeno pepper ( optional ) 

a bunch of fresh dill 

I used 2 really sweet 4 quart jars 

It'll be tough, but wait a week to eat them. They are super crunchy, and super yummy!  And you can keep adding cucumbers to the jar - the lighter the pickle, the newer the pickle. 

And what do do with a couple of beets and a few turnips?

Ice box Turnip Pickles ( Kabees )

Pack into jars: 

6 turnips peeled and cut into 1/4 inch matchsticks - raw

2 large beets - peeled and cut into 1/4 inch matchsticks - raw

1 or two cloves garlic

1/2 jalepeno pepper seeded and sliced 

Mix and pour over: 

1 part white vinegar to 2 parts water

2 tbsp salt per quart jar

2 tsp mustard seeds

The beets turn the turnips a beautiful shade of pink.  These are terrific in salads and sandwiches...mmm especially cold roast beef  -  or straight out of the jar! 

What to add to some fresh spinach? 

Pink Pickled Eggs! 

Just put peeled hard boiled eggs in leftover pickled beet juice ( from when you've already eaten all the beets )  and wait a week or two.

To your spinach, add your eggs, some crumbled bacon, sliced red onions, a little crumbled feta - voila!  Lunch is ready! 

Ice box Pickles - give it a try and let me know what you think!

<3 karen="karen" nbsp="nbsp" p="p">

I think I may have saved everything I've ever owned. And now I have to pack it. 

When I moved here nearly nine years ago, I took a lot of ribbing for insisting on bringing a wheelbarrow full of rocks. 

I can't bring all the rocks this time - they line the flower beds - but none the less, I'm pretty worn out from boxing up 27 years of collecting.

The perfect treat after a long day?

Homemade Chai Latte. 

Chai Latte

Bring 4 cups of water to a simmer

Add:

1 tablespoon cardamom pods

1 tablespoon peppercorns

1 3inch piece of ginger 

3 3inch sticks of cinnamon 

1 tablespoon cloves

6 teabags (orange pekoe is fine but darjeeling is really special )

Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes

Strain through a fine sieve or cheesecloth

Stir in 1/4 cup sugar ( honey or any sweetener can be substituted )

Refrigerate till ready to use.

To serve combine equal parts tea and milk and heat through.

Enjoy!

An Update and a Recipe

Did Anybody have visions of me heading to the drug store this week? 

"No, warming KY is not what I need. Just the regular stuff. Oh, it's not for me - it's for Gladys - er - my chicken...no really... she's egg bound... her egg is stuck...really...

That's almost as scary as having to perform the first aid. Oiy! 

Happy to report no issues this week. No trips to Shoppers required. Yay! 

I thought I'd let you all in on a little secret. Making yogurt is easy. And you can save money. And there's no preservative or gelatine or fancy equipment required. 

I like it with a little vanilla and honey.

Sometimes I eat it with some homemade granola sprinkled on top. Sometimes with fruit. Blueberries and freshly grated nutmeg with a drizzle of honey is a yummy combination. 

Greek style is my favourite. Its low in fat and high in protein. It's so thick and rich and creamy.

I usually do this on the weekend because although it's easy and doesn't require any attention at all, it does take a while. I start about an hour before I before I go to bed. 

Don't be scared - try it, you'll like it.

Greek Yogurt 

Makes at least 2 cups at about 1/3 the cost. 

Use a candy thermometer to gently heat 1 bag of milk ( just less that 4 1/4 cups ) in a heavy bottom pan to 180 degrees F. 

It will be steaming and foamy but don't let it boil. 

Let it cool, off the heat but in the pan, to 110 degrees F.

Stir in 1/4 cup all natural greek yogurt. I save some from my last batch each week. 

I wrap it in a tea towel and leave it in the oven with the light on overnight - between 6 and 8 hours.

It will look like slightly separated, watery jello.

Line a sieve or colander with a couple of layers of cheesecloth, set it over a bowl and pour in the yogurt.  

Put it back in the oven with the light on to drain the whey off. 

I like it thick so I leave it there for about 2 hours. If you don't like it thick don't drain off as much liquid.

If you're not making greek style, you don't have to drain it, just stir, add fruit and sweetener and enjoy.

This is what the whey looks like- I get about 3 1/2 cups!

I don't know what else its good for but the chickens like it...

OK - so in a nutshell -

heat the milk

cool the milk

add a little leftover yogurt

wait

strain

wait again

enjoy!

<3 Karen

Blustery Winter Days

Blustery days and and a bowl of hot, hearty soup go together. 

Busy days and soup go together. 

I've been packing. And packing. And packing.

So far, seventeen boxes of china. 

Yep - that's right - I said seventeen. Boxes of china. 

And then cleaned out the basement. There I found three truckloads of miscellany fit to go to St. Vincent's.  And three giant bags of garbage  fit to go to the road.  

At the end of the day I was so relieved to have put a pot of bean soup on to simmer.  

Try it on your next busy day. It would probably work in a crock pot too, if you're not going to be home. 

Bean Soup

In a large stock pot or dutch oven place:

1 smoked pork hock or meaty ham bone.

3 cups dried white beans or black eyed peas

2 large potatoes, halved

2 medium carrots, in large chunks 

2 yellow onions, chopped

2 bay leaves

rosemary or thyme ( whichever or neither ) 

freshly ground pepper 

Cover generously with water  ( start with 8 cups and add more if necessary ) 

Simmer until beans are tender and vegetables are soft. 

Remove pork hock or ham bone and pick off and chop the meat,

Use a potato masher to chop up the potatoes and carrot in the pot.

OK - now the secret ingredient - pour in about 1/4 cup or so of molasses. 

It improves the colour and makes it super yummy.

Enjoy!

( it's even better the next day )

<3 Karen 

Brioche and Bread Pudding

I love love love bread. Especially in autumn. I normally use the dough setting on my bread maker to do the needing and the first rise, but I don't bake in it because I prefer a thinner crust than the machine delivers. It saves so much on time and clean-up. 

My youngest son doesn't trust me to not sneak in some healthy ingredients. He considers everything that's not white to be whole wheat and he'd rather go without - forever - than eat whole wheat!  He prefers store bought, white sandwich bread. I think any sandwich tastes better with home baked peasant style bread. I walk by the bakery at the grocery store and swoon over all the artisan bread you can find now, but I'm too cheap  frugal to buy it when it's so simple to bake your own. So when I stumbled across the  Artisan Bread in Five minutes a Day website I was pretty thrilled. They use a technique that doesn't involve kneading. When I saw the book at Chapters, I couldn't not buy it even though I swore I could find any recipe I needed online, and that I would never buy another cookbook. 

This week I made Brioche. 

You can find the recipe and the technique here.   

You can see that I didn't use a brioche pan and I didn't add the little "tete" on top either.

It didn't matter.

Yum, yum, yum. 

We ate it smeared with butter along with a bowl of turkey soup, toasted with home made grape jelly, toasted and dripping with honey and I used it to make the most amazing bread pudding. 

You should try it.

Apple Cinnamon Bread Pudding with Maple Sauce.

In an 8" square pan, lay out evenly :

4 cups cubed Brioche 

2 smallish apples, chopped ( I used empire ) 

Combine and sprinkle over the bread and apples:

1/3 cup sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

Wisk together and pour over the bread:

3 large eggs

1 cup milk

1 cup cream 

( or you could substitute 2 cups milk ) 

2 tsp vanilla

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until set.

Serve warm drizzled with Maple Sauce.

Maple Sauce

Combine in a small saucepan and simmer until the sugar melts:

1/3 cup maple sugar

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup butter 

Sprinkling the sugar and cinnamon on top rather than mixing with the eggs and milk makes the bread and apples all crispy on the top. 

mmm - that's just it. 

<3 Karen 

A Surprise and a Recipe

I found this little perfume bottle in a jar of buttons that I bought at an auction. I love it. It's tiny; about 2 inches, that's it. I love the string wrapped around the stopper. And the lable is wonderful. Red and turquoise lettering.  I'ts just plain and simple. It's so tiny I had trouble reading it even with my glasses on.

Perfume. Richard Hudnut. New York. Paris. 1/4 fl oz.  

I'm the girl that chooses a book by its cover. I'm a sucker for a great lable every time. I'd have bought this bottle had it not been a such a lovely bonus.   

Well, its the second week of March and it's still winter here.

I baked some rice pudding and I thought I'd share the recipe. It's my Mom's recipe and it's unlike any rice pudding I've had elswhere. It's baked and is custardy more than pudding-like. One of my brothers requested this instead of birthday cake each year.

Rice Pudding

Mix together in a 9x13 baking dish

2 cups cooked rice

a handul or two of raisins or dried currants

freshly grated nutmeg

Whisk together in a seperate bowl

4 cups of milk

4 eggs

1 cup sugar

1tsp vanilla

Pour over rice mixture

Bake at 325 for 50 minutes or until set in the center.

This is best served warm with a little cream or milk.

Yumm. 

Enjoy!

<3

It isn't Spring yet...

It poured rain here most of the day yesterday. It was a grey, damp and chilly day. The snow blanketing the backyard turned to a lake. I don't mind, I thought, it's a sure sign of spring, after all.  

Then the temperature dipped, the rain disapeared and by the time the sun came up again this morning - another 4 inches of snow. 

 Well, it's spring in the kitchen. Light, airy, fruity and fresh.

If you haven't made this cake you gotta try it. It's ridiculously easy.

 

Just stir together a box of Angel Food Cake mix and a whole can of crushed pineapple.

Pour it into a 9x13 pan and bake it at 350 for 35 minutes.  

That's it.

I made 24 cupcakes and topped them with whipped cream.

Easy Peasy!

Here's to a sunny day - in spite of the weather :-)

<3

Happy Valentine's ( and Wash ) Day!

I hope you all have a happy day, filled with love and kisses!

I made my own laudry soap today... and it really works!

I love doing laundry. Everything from sorting to hanging to ironing. Isn't it the best thing in the world to bring sheets in off the line and put them directly back on the bed?

So clean and fresh. That's what I'm missing about spring today.

 

I'm storing it in an emamel pail that I found thrifting last summer.

It smells so sunny and citrus. Spring in a pail. I love that it's pink, too.

When was the last time you bought pink laundry soap?

You can find recipes here for both liquid and powder. I used # 9:

12 cups Borax

8 cups Baking Soda

8 cups Washing Soda

8 cups Bar soap - I used pink ZOTE - (grated)

Mix all ingredients well and store in a sealed tub.

Use 1/8 cup of powder per full load.( that's two tablespoons! )

Comfort in a Cup

You may find it hard to believe, but I've never made or eaten vanilla pudding before.  I can't say why, I just always made chocolate or caramel. It seems that a year ( well, maybe it's a lifetime ) supply of vanilla has inspired me to try something new. 

Now that I've made it and ate it - oh, and I I had to wrestle my Mike for the last cup - I ask myself  " How is it possible? "

& "How did I manage to survive with out this ?" Vanilla pudding is under rated. It delicious. It definitely rivals creme brulee.

 

I used a combo of a few different recipes and lucky for me, it turned out creamy and sweet and light.

This is it:

Creamy Vanilla Pudding

In a suacepan over medium heat stir together:

3/4 cup white sugar

1/4 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup corm starch

Whisk in:

2 cups milk

1 cup light cream

Stir constantly till hot and steamy but don't let it boil - about 2 or 3 minutes.

Remove from heat and add 1 cup of the hot milk mixture to

2 large eggs, lightly stirred with a fork

Back on the heat, stir egg mixtue back into the milk mixture,

stirring constanly thill thick, about 5 minutes or so.

Remove from heat and add

1 tbsp vanilla

Pour into cups and chill. Garnish with fresh fruit if you like.

A skin forms on the top if you don't cover closely with plastic wrap.

Try it - you'll like it! Honest.

<3

What's your favorite under rated comfort food?



chocolate loves peanut butter

My Mike says " I wish cookies were good for you"

That would make him feel better about eating about 24 of them in 3 days. Bless his heart.

The Way to a Man's Heart:

cream together:

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

1 cup butter

1 cup peanut butter ( my Mike likes chunky )

add

2 eggs

sift together

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

add dry ingredients to creamed mixture, then stir in

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup chocolate chips 

 I never measure chocolate and don't tell anybody but I really used a bunny left over from last easter. What? chocolate doesn't go bad...

drop by spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet and bake at 350 for about 9 or 10 minutes

P.S. what do you call your boyfriend that lives with you when you're 46 years old?