They Shall Rise Up and Call Her Blessed

 I sit here typing with berry stained hands, loving that I can even do that. We have had a bumper crop of raspberries and found an amazing blackberry patch, so I'm in seventh heaven. We get to snack on berries all day long, and I'm gathering gallon bags full in the freezer.

I pulled out one of my favorite antique Ball Blue Book canning books from 1932, and noticed this saying on the inside first page.

 "They shall call her blessed - this woman, who - loving and thoughtful of future joy and health - secures the goodness of Nature at her best, and cans against the barren sameness of the Winter months. Well does she look to the ways of her household. "

 

I love that paragraph as it speaks to my inner heart and soul. For me, gardening, canning, and preserving are a way to show my love and support our family in being healthy, staying out of debt, and enjoying the good things God blesses us with.

Tomorrow we go out for more blackberries because I've challenged my husband to try and eat what we have on hand, so we need plenty to go to.  He's very good about that sort of thing, so we are going to see how far we get into the winter without having to buy anything but dairy, meat and perhaps snack things like crackers. It will be fun to see how creative we can get. I will keep in touch.

Spiced Pear Syrup on a Why Not Wednesday

I was supposed to do a Tasty Tuesday share, but  it's obvious I missed that due to how crazy busy I get this time of year. Sooooo here's a recipe for Spiced Pear Syrup that's a delicious reason for why you should save your pear peelings and cores as you are canning. Make sure you have pint or quart canning jars sterilized and ready to fill and process.

Set up a big pot next to where you will be peeling and coring your pears. Make sure you wash your pears prior to doing this. As you prep your fruit for canning add all the peelings and cores that aren't buggy or rotted into the pot. When done fill the pot with water to cover the fruit scraps. Simmer until until everything is mushy, about an hour.
Take a colander and line it with cheesecloth. Put the colander over a large bowl and pour the fruit scraps into the colander. Let drain until all the juices are in the bowl. You might have to help this along by pressing your fruit pulp and moving it around in the colander. Don't be afraid to squeeze handfuls to get any extra juice.
Discard your scraps into your compost pile if you have one and measure your liquid. Pour into a large stockpot. For every cup of liquid add about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of sugar and 2 teaspoons of cornstarch, plus one tablespoon of lemon juice for every 8 cups. Add 1 teaspoon each ground ginger and nutmeg for every 8 cups of liquid. Stir to blend in the cornstarch and bring to a simmer, stirring constantly. Once thickened and hot pour into jars, wipe rims and cap with lids. Process for 20 minutes for pints to 30 minutes for quarts. This is a great way to use your fruit scraps without having any waste. The syrup is mild and absolutely wonderful over pumpkin pancakes. Any questions, drop me a line!

Pear Perfection

We are in the car on our way to Heber Valley so my time here may be short, but I have to share some ways to enjoy pears this Autumn. I bought a box of pears from a friend at church in Oregon. On the way back to Utah I get this phone call from a sweet elderly woman who had more pears than she knew what to do with so I scored big time! Yay! The first box of pears are already on the shelf in the form of pear sauce, much like applesauce only yummier in my opinion. I also saved the peels and made spicy pear syrup for pancakes. Due to the battery getting low on my puter I will share the recipes with you on Tasty Tuesday, but I had to let you know I'm still here, just canning and painting and canning some more. Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend!

Food Storage in Small Spaces

Last night for Family Home Evening we worked on our food storage, yay! Finally I can reclaim my studio and get organized. Our trip to town on Saturday was not only a fish & chips and aquarium fish venture but we also picked up storage drawers for my studio and what are called cansolidators for our canned goods. I know, it sounds weird going out for fish & chips and then buying goldfish...lol. I love the cansolidators, which are a wonderful way to store a lot of canned goods in small spaces. Shelf Reliance is the name of the company that makes these. They do have large storage racks but these smaller units are so perfect for us. We were able to stack 5 units, which hold 40 cans each so talk about space savings! The beauty of these units is that the cans rotate as you take one out so we can put new cans in the top of each row and take from the bottom to keep things rotating. I still have more canned goods downstairs but this was a great start. It frees up closet space in our bedroom for things such as my sewing "stuff" and our bill box and so on. Now, if someone could come up with a rotating system for bottled foods we would be set! You don't want to see what the middle of my studio looks like right now though as we had to take stuff out of the closet. I will be posting before and after pix on my art blog though. Other places to store food for those who live in small places are under the bed, which I don't like as we always have a herd of dust bunnies living under the bed. Closets, sure if you only have a few clothes and shoes but I don't really know anyone who is that frugal. If you want a great deal on the cansolidators you can find them at Costco and some Walmart stores.

Venison Anyone?

This last summer a neighbor shared some venison and elk steaks from her last Autumn's hunting trip. It brought back so many memories from my youth of tall bottles of canned venison and jerky made from the deer Mom got when she went hunting with friends. We loved the jerky, and the way she knew how to make venison with gravy and tiny potatoes. It made me want to go hunting too.

Some friends from church gave us about 25 pounds of venison after their hunting trip last week. I was so tickled! I was able to get 12 pints of canned meat, a huge batch of jerky, and enough left over for several pounds of burger and sausage. This is some nice deer meat, it was quite a large deer, and you can tell that my friends know how to take care of it. My Kitchenaide mixer has a nice food grinder attachment so I can do this at home. Almost everything is done but the sausage, which I am now going to find a recipe for. For dinner we are having venison chili, yay!

The rest of the story- It's a family tradition for my friends to go hunting each year. There are 5 brothers and their wives and families. They circle the campers and go out on their 4 wheelers to hunt. They were quite successful this year and so most of their freezers will be full. The brother that shared with us doesn't really like the meat except in jerky form, so he will keep what they need for jerky and give away the rest to those who might need the meat. Why did we get some? Well the wife was supposed to be here to help with our Super Saturday, but asked to bow out so she could go. Her husband wanted her there, and since they have a son on a mission right now, they thought it would be important for for all who could to go. I jokingly said I wanted some jerky, and they were way more than generous. As for me, I am very grateful to be able to relive memories of the past because of their generosity. We have already sampled some of the finished jerky and it is delicious! If you would like the recipes drop me a note.

Sabbath Sharing

As I finished wiping off the remnants of a failed attempt at Honey taffy I pondered on the events of the week. Friday it seemed that no matter what I did, with the exception of laundry, failed. The taffy wouldn't get stiff, the pinto bean fudge turned to a tasty but gooey vat of chocolate, and the white fudge, both batches, turned to sugary masses of not so usable candy. I did manage to get the peanut butter candy to stiffen up, as a matter of fact it was so stiff after sitting in the fridge I had to wait for hours before I could even attempt to pull it out and use it.
So why such a frustrating day? Perhaps it had to do with several things. One, I had a deadline. Murphy's Law states that if you wait til the last minute so to speak, you will have failure. Two, I was trying recipes I'd never used before. Three, I wasn't feeling well. Four, sometimes life is like that. Luckily, through inspiration I was able to salvage the pinto bean fudge, which became part of brownies both inside and as frosting. People loved it! The peanut butter candy I was going to make Reeses peanut butter cups out of, and after dipping a few balls and putting them in the pretty foil cups and realizing that it would take fooooorrreeeeevvvver! to do that, I had the idea come to me that I should take the rest of the candy, shape the rolled out mass into a flat rectangle and spread the melted chocolate over it. Then I could just cut it into squares when cooled. It worked! Funny thing, it was the most popular treat at our Super Service Saturday yesterday. All this was supposed to be for a tasters table showing all the good treats you could create from food storage items. Well I have a mission now, to find that best pinto bean fudge recipe, one that will work. And to get someone to show me how to make taffy. I know someone who knows how but she lives hundreds of miles away.
Speaking of service, here's a story that I found heart warming

http://mormonchurch.org/124/lds-church-helps-dikembe-mutombos-hospital

Here's the recipe I had success with that can be made using all food storage items. Yes, it's okay to have chocolate chips in your food storage....:-)

Peanut Butter Candy

2 c. peanut butter
2 c. honey
2 c. powdered milk

1 c. chocolate chips

In a heavy duty pot warm up honey and peanut butter. Do not bring to a boil. You are just warming it. Add powdered milk slowly, stirring to mix well. On a clean surface, knead candy until smooth. Lightly dust a sheet of tinfoil with powdered sugar and roll out candy to about 1/2 inch thick. Shape into a large rectangle. Melt your chocolate chips over a warm pot of water in a double boiler. I don't use the microwave as I have a lousy one, but if you know how to do this in the microwave, go for it. Spread your chocolate over the peanut butter candy and when the chocolate is set, cut into squares.

Minted Pear Lime & Apple Preserves

Minted Pear Lime & Apple Preserves

1 cup mint leaves, packed
3/4 c. water
4 cups unpeeled, grated bartlett pears
2 cups grated apple, any variety
zest of 2 limes
1/3 cup lime juice
7 1/2 cups sugar
1 box pectin
green food color

In a small sauce pan combine water and mint leaves. Bring to a boil, stir and take off burner. Let sit covered while you grate the pears and apples as well as zesting the limes. Strain mint water, squeezing the leaves to get all the juice. In a large pot combine the fruit, juices, lime zest and pectin. Make sure the pectin is dissolved before continuing. Bring mixture to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Boil for 2 minutes. Add sugar, stir in and bring back to a boil over medium heat. Stirring frequently, boil for 4 minutes. Take off burner, stir in a couple of drops of green food color if desired and pour into sterilized jars. Yield 11 cups

Tortillas and seeds.....

I've been trying to use some of our dried goods such as beans to make our budget stretch so we had bean tostadas the night before last. With just the two of us at home we usually have leftovers, but not always all of everything. So not having enough tostada shells required my being resourceful. I have lard and flour and salt, so I made tortillas! I'm a purist when it comes to some things so yes, I do use lard when the need arises, and tortillas just aren't the same without it. I used 2 cups flour, 2 T. lard, 1/2 t. salt and about 1/2 cup very warm water, or enough to make a kneadable dough. I kneaded the dough til it was soft and smooth, covered it and let it sit for a bit. Then I created 8 balls and flattened each then dipped each in flour and rolled them out as thin as I could. I cooked them in a very hot, dry skillet, turning quickly to keep them from burning. I kept them in a covered dish to keep warm until dinner. Yummy! You can make a dozen by using 3 cups flour, 3 T. lard or oil, 1/2-1 t. salt, and about 1 cup very warm water. No, I don't use baking powder in mine. I was taught by a gal from Nogales, Mexico how to make tortillas and she would never have thought of using it.
Aren't these delightful looking seed packets? I love how fresh and wonderful the veggies and plants look on these! It gets my fingers itching to play in the soil, working through it to get all the junk and lumps out and mixing the good stuff in. Here in Wendover we have to add things to the soil such as peat moss, and manure because our dirt is so alkyline an tough. The results are worth the effort though as we can get some very tasty food out of our garden. I order from Vesey's as they have the best seeds I've found and their seeds are perfect for the shorter growing season in our neck of the woods in Oregon. I know, Wendover isn't in Oregon, but we plant some things here before heading to Oregon for the summer. I can come back to tomatoes, carrots, beets and so on here, ready to harvest. I will start plants here to take to Oregon so they have time to mature before leaving there to come back here. Can you tell I love to garden?

Using What We Have on Hand.....

I have an eclectic collection of cookbooks, mostly older. One was printed in the 1950's and is full of ideas for using leftover items or stuff right off the shelf. Rather than run to the store each time I want to cook something I'm trying to learn to be more resourceful and use what's on hand. I had a bit of leftover bow tie pasta and salmon, but not enough to feed one person, much less a family so here's what I did. I took half a onion chopped, and sauted them in a frying pan with a little oil. I then added 1 15 oz. can of creamed corn and 1/2 cup canned milk. I added 1/3 a cup cheddar cheese powder, the macaroni and cheese kind, and let that get hot. I used to get this online but will have to find a new resource, rats! I heated up a pan of water as this was going on, and when boiling added 2 cups bow tie pasta and cooked that for 15 minutes then drained it. In the cheese sauce mixture I added lemon pepper, Old Bay seasoning and Lawry's seasoning to taste. I also added a dash or 2 of Tabasco. I then added 1 7 oz. can of salmon, Costco has the best I've ever tried. After this heated through, I added about 1/4 cup Parmesan and a little milk to keep the sauce creamy. I added the hot drained pasta and leftovers to the mix. Everyone raved! Our salad consisted of grape tomotoes, drained canned green beans, and chopped onion with a bit of italian dressing. We had a great meal, with what I had on hand!
Okay, back to the cookbook. There was a recipe for Pineapple Bran muffins I tweaked a bit using what I had on hand again, and here's the result. I replaced the bran with cornmeal and oats

Peachy Keen Muffins
2 c. flour
1/2 c. each cornmeal and oats
1T. baking powder
1 t. salt
1/4 c. sugar
1 -8 oz jar peach preserves
1 egg
1/2 c. evap milk
1/4 c. oil

Sift all dry ingredients together. Blend all wet ingredients and gently stir into dry ingredients until just moistened. Grease or line 12 muffin tins and distribute batter evenly. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes. Yummy!

New Goals.....

Aaaaawwww, aren't they cute? So soft, cuddly and tiny! They have nothing to do with this post, but I wanted a picture to share with you so I put up one of my paintings.

I had some good thoughts I wanted to share earlier, but they drifted away on the path that all good thoughts often go, getting lost among the tasks of the day, or, in my case in the fog of my brain....lol. I'll be so glad when my sinuses are healed. We set a goal this morning to read the scriptures together. I asked Kent when we should do this and he said we could read in the morning right after breakfast, and wouldn't you know it, we didn't do it! We have a serious family matter that has weighed heavily on my mind and that got in the way of my reminding him. I will get him to read though. Another goal we have is to stop being so negative. It's such a disease, and so non-productive! I'm sure that if we heard all the negative remarks about us, we would be totally crushed, so I think about that whenever an incident comes up that I'm thinking of sharing, or even a news story that irks me. And, while my inclination is to rant about what is going on in the U.S. today, it won't help, so I'm trying to learn to be pro-active. So let me ask you this, what are you doing to be prepared for what is coming with the economy and so forth? Are you planning a garden this year? Are you looking for ways to save money or cut back? What are you doing? Me, I will be going through the seed catalog and ordering seeds this week. I will be planting tomato seeds, and perhaps peppers and squash. I will be putting out pea seeds, in the garden, and maybe even some carrots and garlic.
Here's another recipe that I put together for a soup I was asked to make for our District Conference. It's very yummy if I do say so myself so give it a try!

Red Lentil and Wheat Berry Soup
2 c. cooked wheat berries - 1 c. dried red lentils,rinsed - 8 c. water
1 ham hock - 3 slices bacon, chopped - 1 onion, chopped - 1 large carrot, scrubbed or peeled, thinly sliced - 1 cup fresh sliced mushrooms -
1 1/2 c. chopped celery - 3 c. chopped cabbage - 3 cloves garlic, minced
1 16 oz. can stewed tomatoes - 1-8 oz. can tomato sauce - 4 chicken bullion cubes
1 bay leaf - 1 T. cumin powder - 1/2 t. red chili flakes
Seasoning salt to taste - 1/2 t. pepper - 1 cooked potato, cubed

Saute bacon, onion, garlic, celery and cabbage in a large pot until veggies are tender. Combine the rest of the ingredients in the pot and simmer slowly, covered, until lentils are cooked. Remove ham hock and serve hot. Serves 10-12.
If you want you can add some Garam Masala for a nice East Indian flare. This is a nice, healthy soup without much meat that can be adapted to whatever your family preferences are. Enjoy!

Wheat Berry Salad

Wonderful wheat! The delicious foods that can be created with it are amazing! And the nutrition factor is an added plus. Whole wheat has pantothenic acid, folic acid, biotin, B vitamins and E vitamins. Iron, potassium and magnesium are among the other health benefits of eating wheat.
You can sprout wheat for salads, grind it into flour for all sorts of goodies, including gluten that can be turned into mock meat. In this form it is almost a complete protein, lacking only lysine which can be made up by adding legumes, nuts, and vegetables. Cooking the wheat kernels gives you a plump wheat berry that can be used for breakfast cereal, salads, in soups and stews. Cracked wheat makes an easy and great extender for burger in meatloaf,meat balls, as well as taco filling.
You can save money by incorporating wheat into your weekly menu as well. Start by adding wheat slowly to your diet and you will feel better, save money, and also more fully follow the Word of Wisdom by learning to eat meat sparingly. Don't be afraid to experiment and Enjoy!
Here's a salad recipe that is really quite delicious.
Wheat Berry Salad

3 c. cooked wheat berries
3 sl. bacon cooked til crisp and crumbled
3/4 c. each chopped celery and grated carrot
1 c. chopped cabbage
I/2 c. chopped onion
1/2 c. each plain yogurt and mayonnaise
1/3 c. Craisins
1/2 t. course ground pepper
1 t. seasoning salt
1 T. honey

Combine all ingredients in a medium size bowl. Chill and serve. Servings 8
You can change any veggies and use broccoli or cauliflower, chopped.

I will be adding more like this so check back on occasion. Thanks for stopping by!

Adding Links

Today I'm spending my free time (grandson is sleeping)adding links to my new blog. So take some time to check them out and see what wonderful things there are to find out there!

Isn't Emmett the cutest little fella?! His latest thing is to read everything to find the letters or numbers he recognizes and tell you what they are. He doesn't speak many words yet, but loves to tell you about letters and numbers. He will flip through the phone book, a dictionary, magazines, anything with print, to find large and easy to recognize letters. It's fun to see what he does each day.
Tomorrow I plan on sharing some of my Cooking with Wheat recipes I created for our Enrichment night this week. Why should we store and use wheat, stop by tomorrow and I will share that. Have a great day!