Rainy Autumn Day Apple Butter

 It was a cold and raining October day.  I was home alone and found myself with nothing much to do.  The cats were asleep; the turtles are beginning their hibernating for the winter.  Realizing that I had purchased way too many apples, I decided to make something warm, spicy and delicious for us.

Searching for a recipe in several of my cookbooks and online, I came upon apple butter.  Well, I have been following Allrecipes for some time now and they had a couple of recipes, so I dug in and read them all and decided on one, changed a few things and began the process.

Here's the recipe: 

Rainy Autumn Day Apple Butter

1/4 cup  Maple syrup  (Log Cabin) 

 2 lbs. of Macintosh apples peeled, cored and diced 

 1/4 cup  dark brown sugar

                                                1 tsp each of cinnamon and ginger

                                                1/4 tsp of Cloves

Directions:

Combine the diced apples and maple syrup and cinnamon in a heave medium pot.  Cook for an hour on simmer until the apples can be easily mashed.   Mash the apple mixture to the desired consistency, I like it chunky.  Add the brown sugar and remaining spices and cook for another hour or so on simmer until the house smells like fall and the apples are a richer brown color.  

Place the apple butter in a glass jar and refrigerate.   It is amazing on toast, bagels and pancakes!

Commercial Break. It's a good one

Husband and I have been using Thrive for many of our groceries for several months now and am impressed with the healthy selections we get to choose from.

Use this link and try them for yourself, I think you will like it.  It is a subscription service, but if you always have foods/snacks/pantry items/household/personal items that you use, you will be able to find them here as well.

 http://thrv.me/L2EPRy

If you try Thrive, please come back and tell me what you think, I'd love to hear from you!

My best!

E

It's October and I'm married to a GERMAN!

 So, I get bored with the same old sausage and kraut, so I looked around YouTube to see new ideas for sauerkraut. I found a great channel called, Cooking the World, and the video on ways Germans have it in their meals. This video, she talks about 10 German dishes that include sauerkraut, their health benefits and other good information about kraut itself.  Several dishes I will be trying for sure.

Anyway, I didn't have a recipe from her video, so I had to put my meal together just with her description of the dish, so here goes.  Oh and I am cooking for 2, you will need to double or triple it for a family.

Sauerkraut-Auflauf - German sauerkraut casserole

Ingredients

4 small/medium potatoes, peeled and sliced thin

1 Tbsp salt

2 cups sauerkraut, drained

onion

garlic salt

Pepper

Liverwurst, I used Ground Beef

2 cups Cheddar cheese, shredded

Instructions:

In a pot of water, cook the potatoes until tender, then mash them with a tbsp of salted butter till smooth. While your potatoes are cooking, brown your ground beef in onions, salt, garlic, and pepper. Grate up the cheese, 2 cups or more. In my house, there is very too much cheese!

To put it all together, in a small casserole dish, spread a layer of potatoes, then the kraut, the meat and top with cheese. Repeat another time and top the whole thing with the remaining shredded cheese.

Bake in 350 degree oven for 20 minutes, since everything is cooked, it's just to get it all warm and melty.

My German husband thoroughly enjoyed it and it's going to be on the repeat from now on. Let me know if it is for your household.

Until next time!

Blueberries are NON-Stop!!!

 Hello Foodies!

Our blueberries are still going strong here in the coastal side of North Carolina.  I have baked with them, preserved them, made my famous B.O.B. jam with them, my freezer is so full of freezer bags of these little beloved orbs.  We have blackberry bushes too, but they are not netted, so I am in competition with our neighbors in flight.  I did manage to get enough of them to make my B.O.B. and get a few in the freezer but mourned when they were overtaken by ants during some big rainy weeks.

Anyway, how are your blueberries?  Still producing?  Finished?

My Beef Kale Stew

It's been awhile!   No, I haven't stopped cooking on the fly, just got really really lazy.  However, I am going to get back on this blog and show you some more things that I can do.   New equipment is coming soon, I first have to learn how to use them.   

Anyway, here is my recent offering.  The family loved it and it is on the "do it again" list.  I just realized that I forgot to label the first step.  

Start off with 1 lb. of ground beef and a medium onion diced.

  Enjoy!

 

Turkey and Chicken Stock and the Soup

It's the day after Christmas and all through the house there's that waif of the Christmas turkey bones boiling on the stove.  Well, the smell was amazing and the thought of the soup that will be rendered from it later in the evening was comforting.  I always have homemade chicken stock on hand and rarely buy store brands, it is the easiest of processes in  the kitchen, and really.  Here's how I do it.  Turkey has an obviously stronger flavor, so I usually just put peppercorns and carrots with a bit of salt in the water for turkey stock.  You decide how flavorful you want it.

Rotisserie Chicken Stock

1 rotisserie chicken, boned
2 quarts of water
1 medium onion
2 carrots
2 cloves of garlic
12 peppercorns, whole
1 bay leaf, optional
Salt to taste

In a large stock pot, add the carcass, roughly chopped vegetables, peppercorns, and bay leaf.  Pour the water to cover the bones completely.  Bring to a boil then lower the heat to simmer for at the minimum one hour, up to 3. The longer the simmer the more reduced the stock and the richer the flavor.

The Christmas turkey was amazing this year as my husband, through the years, has honed his craft at roasting the family turkey to perfection.  This year he brought home a 16 lb. gobbler and after everyone had their fill, we made turkey soup the next day.  Here is how we did it.

Christmas Turkey soup
1 turkey carcass
 2 quarts of water
12 peppercorns, whole
celery, onions from the roasting, no new adds

Add all together the ingredients and bring to a boil, simmer for at least an hour, up to 2 hours.  Drain the stock and set aside. 

Next:
1 cup of unsalted butter
1 cup of flour, all purpose
1 large onion
3 medium carrots
1/3 of a large cabbage
1 cup of rice
1 Tbsp table salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Melt in large stock pot, the butter, add the flour and whisk for 5 minutes, until the roux is buttery colored, add the roughly chopped vegetables and cook for 10 minutes stiring frequently.   After 10 minutes, add the 2.5 quarts of turkey stock, rice, and salt and pepper and bring to a boil.   Cover and simmer for 20 minutes, or until the rice is fully cooked. 

 The cabbage was so tender and the carrots were so sweet that the soup was just perfectly seasoned.  It was a thick soup, almost a chowder, so the next day we added a bit of water when reheated it for lunch.  It was great!

Enjoy and See you next year!

Kashi Treats, OH MY!

We have been blessed with a sweet little grandson and I have him for a few hours each morning.  After feeding him the same thing everyday, I was getting bored...and so was he!  Now I was raised with rice crispy treats and made them with my own children, but we don't keep rice crispy cereal in our pantry anymore....what shall I do!??    Luckily, the hubster purchased some Kashi cereal last week and I had an idea!

What goes best with chocolate, peanut butter, and Kashi??   You bet, maple syrup!  OK, so you didn't think that was the answer, but you will definitely have to try this one.  Here's the recipe:

Kashi Treats
1 cup Kashi Cereal
1/4 cup uncooked oatmeal, original, not instant
1/3 cup of blister fried peanuts, (regular would do as well)
1/3 cup mini chocolate chips
1 cup of Kashi cereal

Mix these three ingredients together, then
1 cup peanut butter, creamy or chunky
1/4 cup of pure maple syrup
1/4 tsp of cinnamon
1/4 tsp kosher salt

Mix these together and then add to the dry ingredients with a spatula until combined.  Line an 8" baking dish with waxed or parchment paper and press the mixture in.  Refridgerate for at least 30 minutes, if you can wait that long.   Enjoy!