Eat your Heart out Olive Garden!

Are those not heavenly looking garlic breadsticks?  I certainly think so.  And since I snuck a "taste-test" breadstick from the other pan of them, I know that they not only look fabulous but taste fabulous as well.  If only my arm was long enough to pat myself on the back I would.....cause after baking these I deserve it.  :)

So I started with the recipe here.  But as much as I love (and I do mean LOVE) foodie with family and all her recipes (I've made several), I didn't follow it exactly.  For one, I don't keep semolina flour or kosher salt in the house.  And for another....I am just not good at following recipes.  I have done the braids and they are adorable but I wanted smaller sized breadsticks and more quantity and not braiding gave me that.  The braids were adorable though and I would make them again that way if I weren't trying to increase the quantity.  

So you can see her recipe there and following are my (minor) changes.  Make them however you want....but make them you must.  :)

I followed her recipe in my kitchenaide mixer.  I substituted 6 cups all purpose flour instead of the 2 different kinds of flour.  And I use 2 t regular salt.  Her directions also say to put everything in your mixer except the olive oil, garlic and seasonings.....but the 4 T of oil does go into the bread.  To make the sticks and not braids just follow her directions up to the braiding point and stop.  Instead of using olive oil to brush on mine I melted a stick of butter in a jar with a lid (lid OFF in the micro) added pressed garlic (3 cloves not 1) and the seasonings.  Then put the lid on it and shook it up....then I brushed it on.  and baked it!  My house smelled so so so so good!!!  :)
 

Corn Coming out of my Ears!

My hunter men harvested 3 deer this weekend and this afternoon we are processing them all for use all year long.  We will have ground venison, venison burgers, roasts, and loins.  This makes me very happy.  It also meant that I had to clean up the freezer so that I know what is in there and I know where things are.  Since the freezer is essentially empty this was the day to do that.  So the kids and I skipped church (the King was preaching) and I cleaned out the freezer.  While it was empty I even defrosted.  I HATE that job!  Now it is all organized and virtually empty.  But what do we have in there.....CORN---LOTS AND LOTS OF CORN! 

Apparently, I went a little crazy freezing corn the last 2 years.  I have a TON of it.  Now I have to find ways to use all this corn.  I like plain corn  (cooked in milk and water with pepper) as much as the next guy, we have corn chowder, I often serve corn with tacos.  But to get through all this corn, I am going to have to get creative.  So I've been searching allrecipes.com and found some jumping off kinda recipes there (I rarely, if ever, follow a recipe to a tee-it is just not in my nature).  And I've been looking through cookbooks and found some good ones to try.  There are several that include bacon and I am 100% pro bacon.  :)  We are also big fans of veggie soup and something we call "carcass soup" (which is much much better than it sounds) so I'll be adding corn to those.  And I'm going to start experimenting with different chilis. 

So this winter, expect some corn recipes.  And if you have any to share...I'd love to hear them. 

Hearty Oatmeal Pancakes

We eat the same things for breakfast all the time.  And it gets old.  But so often we need something quick, easy and FILLING.  Cereal just doesn't cut it around here.  The three boys will demolish a box of shredded wheat in one sitting...so I find myself baking for breakfast a lot.  Still many coffee cakes and muffins are really just cake and cupcakes in hiding so I am forever trying to find something that is good for us, fast, and will prevent the need for snacks for at least an hour. :)  This one fits all those requirements.  

recipe from Simply in Season cookbook

Stack of hot pancakes ready to head for the table.  YUM!

2 cups rolled oats
2 cups buttermilk or plain yogurt (I used buttermilk)
Stir together, cover,  and let soak in refrigerator overnight. 

2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup oil
In the morning , stir into oat mixture.

1/2 cup flour
2 Tbls sugar
1 teas baking powder
1 teas baking soda
1/2 teas ground cinnamon
1/4 teas salt
Mix all together in a small bowl.  then add to oat batter and mix briefly.  Fry in a hot, greased frypan. 


You can also stir in shredded apples or blueberries.

I found this batter to be very sticky and wet.  Almost like it needed more flour.  But I cooked it as written and MAN was it good and filling.  I could only eat 2 smallish ones.  I'm not sure about adding apples or blueberries since the batter is already so wet...but I bet I try it someday.  :) 

With butter and real maple syrup...ready to eat.  YUM!!!

my summer weakness

So I have already established that fall is my favorite season...except when it is spring and then I like Spring best.  I tolerate the heat and humidity of summer and the frigid, snow and ice in winter.  But even my least favorite seasons (currently being summer since it just ended) hold at least one thing that I just love!  Winter's is soup and sledding and ice skating on our pond.  (Ok so that is technically three, sue me.) 

In summer, I enjoy lazy days at the pond and cooking over a campfire.  My favorite campfire food is .....roasted marshmallows.  Marshmallows are just little bite size bits of pure pleasure, when they are roasted correctly.  There is nothing quite like a marshmallow roasted to perfection.  Now I realize there is contention on the perfect way to roast a marshmallow.  The King insists on charring them black.  Now, I can appreciate the value in totally blackening a hot dog on a campfire but NEVER ever doing that to a marshmallow.  I am a fan of the s'more (come on, really, who isn't).  But for roasted marshmallow perfection, you have to cook it slowly, so that it turns goopy all the way through the marshmallow.  There should be nothing solid in there.  I should be able to mush it with my tongue (and singe off every tastebud in one swift move).  And it should be golden...not too dark but a nice caramel color.  YUM!  Now this can only be achieved with patience over the perfect marshmallow fire.  And my dad can build the perfect marshmallow fire.

However, it is fall.  And campfires are coming to a close for the season so I am making due with my cheap alternative to the perfect roasted marshmallow.  And I am "roasting" them like this....

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

It a  pale shadow to what a roasted marshmallow should be but it will suffice until I am able to stick some marshmallows in hot cocoa after coming in from an afternoon sledding with my kids.  :)

Peanut Butter Surprise Muffins

So, I am apparently obsessed with sandwiches recently.  Last week, it was BLT pasta.  This week it is a sandwich inspired muffin.  Now I LOVE LOVE LOVE BLT sandwiches and I wait for and look forward to them all year long...but will only eat them when tomatoes are in season.  (But if you read my post with the recipe you knew that already).  This muffin was inspired by a sandwich that doesn't even make my top 3.  If I sat down and wrote it out, it might make my top 10...peanut butter and jelly.  And I just spoiled the surprise.  That's ok you don't have to tell your kids and you will earn an "awesome mom" badge, as long as your kids aren't allergic to peanut butter...in which case you can probably skip this and come back tomorrow.

This is a recipe I tweaked (not by much) from a recipe for peanut butter bread in a Gooseberry patch cookbook.*  The bread is great on its own and makes beeyoutiful toast.  But I often am making something like this in the morning and don't have 50 minutes for bread to bake.  My children are HUNGRY in the morning.  So I do this instead.

*Gooseberry Patch cookbooks are some of my favorite cookbooks.  I have 3 of them.  I use the Country Baking one weekly, at least.  This bread recipe can be found in that one. I got all 3 of mine as wedding gifts 10 years ago and think they were a very good choice.  :)  So thank you to whoever bought them.  I don't remember.

Ok, enough rambling....here we go.

Peanut Butter Surprise Muffins

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 t vanilla extract
1 3/4 cup milk
2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
4 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
your favorite jelly or jam

In a large bowl, blend together sugar, peanut butter and vanilla.  Gradually, pour in milk; mix well.*  Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt; add to peanut butter mixture.

Option 1:  Bread ( recipe as written in Gooseberry Patch)
Now at this point if you want to make the bread you just spread it in a greased 9X 5 loaf pan and bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes.

Option 2:  Surprise muffins
grease your muffin tin and fill muffin cups about 1/4 full.  Put a small scoop of your favorite jam, about 1/2 to 1 teaspoon, on batter in muffin cup.  Cover with muffin batter.  Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes.  When I did this I got 18 muffins.

Option 3.  Plain muffins
Scoop batter into greased muffin tins and bake at 350 for about 15 minutes.

All three options are excellent!!

* When you stir in the milk gradually, it gets REALLY watery.  It is not a mistake.  It will slosh around like soup.  But when you add the flour mixture (which I never sift-I just stir it together in a separate bowl) it will all come together nicely...promise!

If you eat them hot from the oven like we did, have your kids break them open and steam...that jelly gets HOT in there!  :)

BLT Pasta

So, we've finally got some tomatoes.  Someday maybe I'll get to can some but for now we are just eating them.  One of my very, very favorite things to eat is a BLT on fresh homemade bread.  But I will ONLY eat them with a tomato fresh from the garden.  Actually, I won't even buy tomatoes out of season....they may be shaped like a tomato and be red like a tomato but they taste NOTHING like a tomato.  Anyway, I digress.  The point is I am trying to eat all the tomatoes I can while they are fresh and good and worth eating.  And my favorite way is in a sandwich form with bacon and a little lettuce and mayo.  YUM!  So I love BLT's...that's been established.  I also love pasta, in pretty much any form.  So I decided to combine the two and the result was supper tonight.  And it was YUMMY!  Unfortunately, I am terrible at measuring so if you are a cook who requires an exact measurement I am sorry and just do the best you can...it is worth it.  I will give approximate measurements.

Ingredients:
bacon (I used about 1/2 a pkg from the store) chopped into small bits
cherry tomatoes (a cup or 2- the more the merrier really)
1/2 medium onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic (I really like garlic), chopped, or pressed
1 teas italian seasoning
2/3 cup parmesan cheese this is a really rough estimate)
1 lb spaghetti or angel hair pasta, cooked to al dente
reserve about a cup of the pasta cooking water

Brown the bacon in a hot skillet with tight fitting lid.  When crisp, remove bacon to a plate with a paper towel on it for draining.  Brown onion in bacon grease,  When slightly browned add garlic and brown.  Then add italian seasoning.  stir it all up a bit and add tomatoes and turn heat to medium low.  Cover immediately and allow to cook till tomatoes burst and release their juices.  It is a good idea to shake your skillet every now and again to keep things moving around in there.  When tomatoes have burst, add your bacon back in and stir to mix.  Add pasta and sprinkle parmesan cheese over all.  Stir and stir and stir and stir...I like to use tongs for this.  As you are stirring slowly add bits of the pasta cooking water.  It loosens things up and helps them combine...the starch also helps everything stick together.   Serve hot with more parmesan cheese.

** I do realize that my pasta has no "L" in it.  to solve this problem you could serve it with a salad.  I just reconciled myself to no "L" and 2 servings of B, T, and pasta.    I'll have some "L" tomorrow...maybe on a sandwich with extra bacon and tomato.  :)

PIckles, Pickles and MORE pickles!!

So my mom has a killer great garden.  I tried but mine just isn't doing as well as hers is.  Thankfully, she likes to share.  And since she is unable to tend her garden this weekend she asked if i wanted to check her cucumbers.  HOLY SMOKES!  I got 2 Walmart bags full of nice cucumbers.  Now, I like fresh cucumber as much as the next lady but, seriously, that is A LOT of cukes.  So I decided to make pickles.  I made relish last week with much success so why not, I asked myself.

I made 2 different varieties of pickle.  Now, since pickles have to "cure" in their brine for a while I have NO idea if either of these pickles will be good.  But, since they are dill (and not bread n butter-blech!) I have hope that they will be stellar.  I would take some good pictures and share but the King has to finish cleaning the virus I got on our other computer before I can do that.  Anyway,  I'll post pictures later. :)  On to the recipes..

The first recipe is for "Claussen" style pickle spears.  I have great hopes for these cause I love Claussen pickles.  YUM!  Instead of typing out the whole recipe, I am just going to link you to where I got it.  She is very clear and anyway, you need to see her blog....she has great recipes.  So just go visit foodie with family


The other pickles are standard canned dill pickles.  I altered a recipe found in More With Less (which is my go-to cookbook).  Here is my recipe (which I haven't tasted yet)  I used 8 pint jars.

Fill each of the pint jars with
small cukes, or cucumber spears, or slices (I did slices)
1 sprig fresh dill
1/4 of a small onion (or cut a larger onion into 8ths)
1/2 clove garlic (opt)
1/8 teas red pepper flakes (opt)

Heat hot water bath canner half full of water.
In other saucepan combine
6 cups water
3 cups vinegar
1/2 cup canning salt
Bring to boil and pour brine into filled jars.  cap jars with rings and bands. Process jars for 5 minutes in boiling water bath.  Ready to eat in 2 weeks.

** I put onion, garlic, dill in the bottom of all the jars first.  I put red pepper flakes in half of them.  We'll see how we like them. :)

Breakfast Banana Split!

I am kinda stuck on breakfast these days.  Last week it was oatmeal...this week Banana Splits.  YUM!  This is a fast, YUMMY, and good for you breakfast, despite the name.  Actually, I really like these cause I feel like I am being "bad" when I eat them even though I'm not.  So this is how it goes.  This is for one serving...

You need:
banana (split length-wise as in a banana split)
peanut butter
yogurt (we use Dannon lowfat Vanilla)
grapenuts (opt)
other fresh fruit (opt)

So put your split banana in a bowl (I have to break them in half so they fit).  Smear each banana slice with peanut butter.*  Put your serving of yogurt on top of banana (we use vanilla but you could use any kind you like).  The kids like grape nuts on top for "crunchies" and sometimes we dump on fresh blueberries or sliced strawberries.  That's it.  Hardly a recipe really.  But it doesn't make it any less good. 

*Instead of smearing peanut butter on the banana which is, admittedly, a pain in the neck, you can stick the peanut butter in the microwave for a few seconds (watch it closely) and drizzle the melted peanut butter over the whole thing.  YUM!!!  If you are working on your momma of the year award, add some choc chips to the peanut butter before you melt it...I don't often do that.  At least not in the kids bowls.  :)

Oatmeal for Breakfast -AGAIN!

Breakfast can be rough around here.  We eat it EVERY day (as "they" say you should)...but I'm seriously not trying to suck up to "them"...we are just hungry in the morning.  I like breakfast foods...things like cinnamon rolls, eggs & bacon, pancakes, Belgian waffles (that I only get at a hotel), coffee cake, Pioneer Woman's cinnamon toast (she changed my life with that recipe).  I very very rarely serve boxed cold cereal.  The kids eat a whole box of it in one sitting and are asking for snacks an hour later.  When I do serve it, it is frosted shredded wheat or raisin bran (and they think it is a huge treat- mwahahahaha!)  Occasionally, the King gets Cinnamon Toast Crunch for the 4 of them. yuck

So often I am baking for breakfast...but some mornings that just doesn't work.  Like this morning when we all slept in.  And I can't eat my favorite breakfast foods every day if I don't want to be as wide as I am tall.  So this is where oatmeal comes in.

The kids LOVE oatmeal...I do not.  But since they will eat it for breakfast I make it often.  At least once a week but sometimes twice.  Oatmeal is healthy, easy and fills them up till lunch...when I make enough.  I do not buy those little flavored packets of oatmeal...they are expensive and full of junk they don't need and the Prince would eat three of them for breakfast (and he isn't even a teen yet).  But the kids won't eat plain ole bland oatmeal either.  So this is what we do.  I make regular quick oats (that I buy in bulk for around $.60/pound) with milk in the microwave.  Then we add stuff.  I have tried cooking rolled oats on the stove and doing the same thing.  It really isn't that much more work but for whatever reason the kids don't eat it as well...I still throw them that curve every once in a while.  It is good for them.  :)

This is my list of some of the goodies we add - we switch it up:

brown sugar
jelly/jam...voila fruit flavored oatmeal. 
brown sugar and real maple syrup.
butter, cinnamon & sugar (aka cinnamon roll)
raisins or craisins
bananas
pumpkin (or squash) puree and pumpkin pie spice and some brown sugar (pumpkin pie)
applesauce, cinnamon & sugar & a pinch of nutmeg plus brown sugar (apple pie)
honey
honey w a smidge of peanut butter

These are just some quick combos that we use that come to mind this morning.  The possibilities are ENDLESS!  You could add nuts or seeds for more protein (I just don't often have them in the house).  The end product is oatmeal that is yummy, and you know EXACTLY what is in it.  Plus you can save money and space in your cabinet and have less waste.  It is a win-win-win situation.

Of course, if you are like me...when the kids eat oatmeal you will have to sneak something else to eat (Cinnamon Toast ala Pioneer Woman) or live on your coffee till lunch time.  :)