Sounds Appealing

Now while being self sufficient in such a manner is great and sounds appealing..I’m not giving up my bread machine!…lol.

No..taking things to extremes never brings about freedom, it is really fun to read about however.

and with that thought here is a bread machine recipe..

Onion-Herb Focaccia1/2 cup water
1 large egg
4 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups bread flour
4 teaspoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons Fleischmann’s® Bread Machine Yeast
3/4 cup chopped onion
1/2 teaspoon rosemary — crushed

 

Measure water, egg, 1 tablespoon oil, salt, bread flour, sugar and yeast into bread machine pan into the order suggested by the manufacturer. Process in dough/manual cycle. When cycle is complete, remove dough from machine to lightly floured surface. If necessary, knead in enough flour to make dough easy to handle.

Divide dough in half; form each into smooth ball. Roll each ball into 10-inch round. Place each on greased baking sheet or 12- to 14-inch pizza pan. Cover and set aside.

Cook onion and rosemary in 3 tablespoons oil until onion is tender. With fingertips, press slight indentations into each round. Evenly sprinkle onion mixture on rounds. Cover; let rise in warm draft-free place until almost doubled in size, 20 to 30 minutes.

Bake at 375ºF for 12 to 15 minutes or until done, switching positions of sheets halfway through baking for even browning. Remove from sheets and cool on wire racks. Makes two round breads.

Source:
“Fleischmann’s Yeast”
S(Internet address):
“http://www.breadworld.com/index.html”

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Path To Freedom

I have stumbled on a gold mine in Path To Freedom blog/journal.

They are journaling their path toward self sufficiency! What a find, check it out!

I always lean toward being self sufficient. That is why I love to can and freeze and garden.

That feeling of…hey we did it ourselves!

We didn’t pick it up at the supermarket or even the farmers market. We grew it, cooked it, canned it.

We know every ingredient within it. What a great feeling.

Now we haven’t gotten as sufficient as this great journal, but my mouth waters just to read it.

And to think they only have 1/5 of an acre! How in the world!

We own 42 acres.

On Canning

On Canning

There are some basics like-

don’t reduce your pickle brine with water because of the acid levels
boil, boil, boil all utensils and jars..don’t boil your seals, just scald them. The minute the jar stops boiling plunge the seal in with it
watch your head space,seals, and that your jar rims are clean

I did knock over a jar one year and didn’t catch that the seal broke, but it was very easy to detect when opening.

Just follow the recipes.

There are some really great canning sites on the net with all the info anyone would need.

People have been canning for eons.

I don’t understand why anyone would be afraid of it, but some are.

A Sign

I awoke at 4:30 this morning bug eyed with no return to slumber
in sight. What better time to read and write blogs thought I. My
family wouldn’t take kindly to me rattling kitchen
pots and pans at this hour.

I was thumbing through some old Southern Living Magazines last night
before bed and ran across the very same zucchini relish I made last week.
It was in the June 1995 issue. The old Beta Sigma Phi book I got it
from must be older than that.

Anyway..There was a Zucchini Pineapple Cake on the very same page,
so I whipped out my grater. It must be a sign from the
Lord of the harvest I figured.

Now.. This recipe calls for this to be a three layer cake.

How one finds room in the refrigerator between the diet coke,
buttermilk carton, uncooked harvest of vegetables,
and last nights leftover Paella for a three layer cake is beyond me.
Excuse me, I don’t understand foreign languages.

I made a sheet cake instead. If it was a sign surely this one little
moderation wouldn’t hurt.

It didn’t.
The photo or drippy frosting doesn’t give the taste justice.

Zucchini Pineapple Cake

— for cake
2 cups zucchini — grated
3 each large egg
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup vegetable oil
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup chopped pecans
15 ounces crushed pineapple — drained
— for frosting
8 ounces cream cheese
1/4 cup butter — softened
8 ounces crushed pineapple — drained
16 ounces powdered sugar

Drain shredded zucchini. Beat eggs with sugar vanilla and oil.

Stir in grated zucchini.

Combine flour,baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.

Gradually add flour mixture to zucchini mixture mixing well.

Add nuts and raisins.

Flour 3- 8 inch pans and pour in batter. Bake at 325 for 35 minutes

Cool to ice.
For icing mix all frosting ingredients and refrigerate for 1 hour while cake bakes and cools.

Ice cake and keep refrigerated until served.

Source:
“Southern Living magazine June 1995 issue”

Overwelmed

My garden is overwelming me at this time.

All the cooking, freezing and canning has left little time to read or write blogs.

I know my efforts will pay off in the winter, so I will keep on until the seasons bounty has left my yard.

For now time is scarce. This too shall pass.

In Search Of The Perfect Chow-chow

Through the winter months there is nothing more satisfying on a snowy evening than a pot of pinto beans and skillet of cornbread.

What makes a down home experience of this proportion more appealing is to break out a jar of summer memories in the form of chow-chow.

Chow-chow must be made when the getting is good. Tomato never stays green forever.

I sometimes wonder how I have a garden ripe tomato in my home the way I love winter chow-chow and summer green fried tomato. My garden must know this and truly love me to put forth more effort. It always does supply ripe tomato for canning and eating on bread with mayo.

Chow-chow must be loved unconditionally. He is such a mess in the process. All that chopping and gooey mess on your stove top is enough to wonder if chow-chow is worth the effort. But when you love someone, you just love them.

Here is the recipe I use which I have tweaked to my and family taste.

Can’t remember the original form, the recipe is very forgiving however and I have never had a more perfect chow-chow.

Hot Chow-Chow

1 each cabbage head — coarsely chopped, large head
3 each onion — coarsely chopped
5 each green tomatoes — coarsely chopped
2 each bell pepper — coarsely chopped
4 each hot pepper — chopped fine, your choice I use a combination banana, jalapeno
1/4 cup coarse salt
2 cups vinegar
2 tablespoons prepared mustard, 2 to 3 to taste
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon celery seed

Chop all veggies and place in a large crock. Pour salt over vegetables and then cover with water.

Place in refrigerator about 1 hour. Drain well.

In a large kettle place mustard and mix well with vinegar. Add sugar and all spices.

Bring mixture to a boil and boil 15 minutes.

Add vegetables and boil another 10 minutes stirring often.

Ladle into sterile jars and seal making sure jar rims are clean. Place in canner and process 5 minutes.

Remove jars and check that they seal properly and are airtight before storing.

Yield:
“4 pints”

My Favorite Meal

My favorite meal has to be crispy crust pizza with a fresh garden salad.

I also have to brag that I make a darn good pizza. If a cook loves pizza but doesn’t have a brick oven in the house the very best thing they can invest in is a large size, restaurant style, pizza pan.

The two things in my house I could never do without are my bread machine and pizza pan.

Why? Pizza!

The crust I prepare is a bread machine recipe. It goes as follows..

Bread Machine Crispy Pizza Dough

1 cup warm water
1 tablespoon virgin olive oil
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cornmeal
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 ounce yeast — 1- 1/4 oz packet

Place all ingredients in bread machine in above order ending with salt and yeast placed in a well made in center of flour. Try not to get yeast in water.

Set machine to pizza dough. This will take about 50 minutes.

Fit dough in large pizza pan, cover with sauce and your favorite pizza ingredients.

Yield:
“1 large pizza”
———————————–

Then comes the simple sauce, which should be made first to give flavor time to blend. I often replace the rosemary with two tablespoons grated parmesan.

Easy Pizza Sauce

1 can tomato paste — (6 ounce)
1 1/2 cups water
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic — pressed
salt to taste
ground black pepper to taste
1/2 tablespoon dried oregano
1/2 tablespoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary — crushed

DIRECTIONS:
Mix together the tomato paste, water, and olive oil. Mix well. Add garlic, salt and pepper to taste, oregano, basil, and rosemary. Mix well and let stand several hours to let flavors blend. No cooking necessary, just spread on dough.
——————————–
Top with your favorite ingredients. Bake in a preheated 425 degree oven 15-20 minutes.

I also like a mozzerella and cheddar blend for the cheese. I have yet to find this mixture bagged so I grate it myself.

It is a simple yet satisfying meal. My favorite not only in taste, but also convenience.

Here is supper. I didn’t have tomato for my garden salad as tomato isn’t ripe at my home just yet..but I can’t wait! Next time round!

Crabapple Liquer

Our crabapple trees are loaded this year.

There are only so many things one can do with crabapples.

There is my last jar of jelly to consider, half eaten,
but I also want to do something different.

I found this floating around the web some time back.
I can’t remember where I got it but it sounds like something to try.
If anyone has ever tried this I would love some feedback on how it turned out.

Crabapple Liquer

Many crabapples to fill mason jar
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup vodka
1 stick cinnamon (optional)

I take a quart (or litre) mason jar, fill it with quartered crabapples, add sugar (lots of room between the quarters) and vodka. Ocassionally toss in a stick of cinnamon. Place on its side (make sure you’ve put the lid on -tight-), rotate 90 degrees every day so that the sugar gets mixed and all crabapples get equally soaked. After 2 weeks, filter out the apples.

My Morning

My morning consisted of cleaning veggies.

My least favorite to clean are onions. Onions don’t come out of a garden all packed and bunched like they do in the grocery store. Onions are quite ugly when disturbed from their bed. I suppose like people they may need the coffee to make them more social.

Here are a few looking a little more like their grocery store cousins.

Oh..and my liar zuchinni plants are still bearing, but I think I found the right recipe on the net-
Liar Zuchinni Recipe

ingredients
1- raincoat
1- pair sunglasses
1- fast car full of gas
armload of zuchinni

method
put on raincoat and sunglasses.
drive to your local Walmart with zuchinni
Scan parking lot for an unlocked vehical
Place zuchinni in back seat and drive away quickly hoping no one recognizes you

Chef Ricks Blackberry Jam Cake

I opened my last can of blackberry jam from last year. To free up the jar for more canning, I made a jam cake.

I got the recipe at this link- Chef Ricks Blackberry Jam Cake

The texture is chewy and bread like. I like that but…

I don’t think hubby will like it. I will see tonight.

The recipe called to bake the cake 45-50 minutes. In my oven 40 minutes was even a bit too overdone.

If hubby doesn’t like it, I am thinking I could break it up and make a bread pudding with the insides.

Call out the cake salvage please!