Morning Bliss

Oh my gosh.  Baked oatmeal makes me so happy! If my family doesn't wake soon, they may not all get some of this.

I can't be held responsible.

Baked Oatmeal

3 cups oats
1 1/2 c. milk (or 1/2 c powder milk, 1 1/2 c. water)
2 eggs
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 c. brown sugar, honey or sugar
1/4 c. butter
2 c. apples, apple sauce, or any canned fruit

Bake at 375 for 20 minutes.  

As a canner, one thing I love about this recipe is that I can throw any fruit or jam that isn't moving quickly in place of the apples.  This time I put in 1 c. of rhubarb marmalade and added the peaches on top after it baked.  Skip the apples and cinnamon and try ginger and pears.  Canned plums that turned out mushy, or that weird sauce you thought might be good over ice cream.  Or you can try sunflower seeds, almonds, raisins, cranberries, dried cherries -- be creative and resourceful.  

Every combination I've tried has been a success.  Even though I woke way too early this morning, I'm happy!

Soyless Taco Seasoning

When Beth first started to articulate her food allergies, she called it her "taco feeling". It was the feeling she got when we ate tacos at home.   It was a feeling on the back of her tongue or in her throat.  I'm not exactly sure, but it made her stop eating.

And that was bad because I used to make tacos to increase protein in the kids' diets every time they'd gone a few days without eating meat (they didn't like steak, any red unground meat, or anything that required chewing).  Tacos were always a hit. 

I used to use one of those seasoning mixes for the taco meat.  I also used to use a mix for chilli, but she didn't get a reaction with that.  The only difference between the two mixes was soy protein.

So, no more taco seasoning around here.

Until, once again, I found a mix recipe in Mary Ostyn's book (Family Feasts for $75 a Week) and I use it for chilli too. 

Taco Seasoning Mix

1/2 cup dried minced onion            2 tablespoons garlic powder
1/4 cup sweet paprika                    1 tablespoons ground cumin
1/4 cup cornstarch                        1 tablespoon dried oregano
3 tablespoons chili powder             1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons salt

Put all in a jar and shake it well.  Use 1/4 cup of mix for every pound of ground beef.  

I'm out of mix right now because I haven't bounht garlic powder for a while, so I can give you no visual.  Happily, we are still eating the garlic from the garden that I harvested last year.  The new batch is starting to poke up through the leaf mulch, so I may just have figured out how much garlic to grow to avoid buying Chinese garlic. 

Maybe I should dry some of it and grind it into powder.  That's probably a good idea before it starts to sprout in the basement. I'm just thinking that as I type.  Hmmm, I'll give you an update if it works well.  It worked great with leek, so I can't think why it wouldn't work with garlic. 

Soyless, Wheatless Soup Mix

I love Cream of Mushroom soup.  And Cream of Chicken soup.  And Cream of Broccolli soup.  And Cream of Celery Soup.


So many Albertan and Edmontonians are familiar with these cookbooks. 

You might find a few in your own stash of cookbooks.  Although dated in some ways, many of the recipes are nice and simple and contain common ingredients, so I keep them around and flip through them once in a while.

But many of the casseroles and vegetable recipes include Cream of ?? soup. That was the easy way to make a casserole in the 80's and 90's. 

These soups almost all contain soy, which the girls can't have.  And they contain wheat, which Yvon can't have.  For the past few years I just didn't buy it and didn't get to eat it.  Occasionally I would buy it, but the girls would make me feel bad when I made it just for myself.

And actually, since making a lot of things from scratch, I've started to find that unexpected things taste really sweet to me.  Why should mushroom soup taste sweet?   That doesn't seem right.

I was really pleased to find a recipe for "Cream of Anything" soup mix in a new recipe book.  It's a simple thing to make, and a revelation to me.  Why did I never think of doing something like this myself?  It's hardly rocket science and I find I use it a lot.  And it's soyfree and wheatfree. 

You can use it for soup, of course, by adding the celery, chicken, broccolli or mushrooms, but you can also use it for creamy sauces or the base of many casseroles.   I used it today for the creamy portion of a turkey pot pie. 

Cream of Anything Soup Mix  (Mary Ostyn's recipe in Family Feasts for $75 a Week)

3 cups powdered milk
1 cup cornstarch
1 cup powdered chick bouillon (I add this later because I haven't found a soy-free powdered bouillon)
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

To make soup, combine 1/2 cup dry mix with 1 1/4 cup water.  Blend well and oil, cooking for 2-3 minutes.  It will thicken as it cools. 

To this, you can add other ingredients like chicken, mushrooms or celery.  Or brocolli and cheese. 

 Yay!  This recipe has brought cream soup back into our lives.  

My dry pantry

Besides garlic, I'm starting to run out of other tasty things.  Mainly in my herb selection, but canned tomatoes and carrots are dangerously low as well. 

When I say "dangerous", you realize that no one will be hurt by this.  Just my sensitive desire to provide from my own garden. 

This is my lovely herb and spice drawer.  

Please don't judge me.  I'd like to have this:

 

but I just aim to improve every year.  And I do.  Last fall I started labelling the tops of my jars in this drawer so I could actually tell what was in them without lifting them all out and reading a side label, or worse, smelling them to know what the green stuff was. 

See? Baby steps. 

These are two empty jars:  thyme and lemon balm.  I seeded lemon thyme this year hoping it will do better than my balm did.   It's so hard to know because the weather was so bad last year.  And is lemon balm a perennial?  If so, I should get it back again and hopefully bigger.  I'll have to look that up. 

I'm also totally out of oregano.  That's a pity because I could use a lot more of that and I don't see signs of life on the small oregano plant yet. 

I've been using the dehydrator more every year.  I got a free book from a book exchange room at the Jasper museum last month called "Dry It, You'll Like It".  I'm sure it was seen as a hippy book in the seventies, written by people living on the edge of normal, but I read it cover to cover.  Loads of good advice and a plan for a solar dehydrator.  I'll have to try some of their recipes and ideas.

One of the most useful dried item from last year turned out to be the dried leeks.  Well, the dried cherries, strawberries, plums and apples were probably the most loved and have been gone the longest, but I've been using leeks in loads of things.  Anytime I'm too lazy to chop an onion really.  And I still have lots left. 

And when I'm really pushed for time and don't think the leeks will rehydrate in the recipe quickly enough, Yvon brilliantly thought to whiz some up in the Magic Bullet.  Leek powder is perfect and I use it all the time.

And parsley and chives have been in our kitchen drawer every year for years now.  I don't know why exactly, but I've also always kept a bag of balloons in this drawer. You can see them in the picture.   It used to be very handy when the kids were little and easily distracted by a new toy while I was cooking, I guess.  One day they'll be too old for balloons but for now, they still know where to look for them. 

Back on topic though, I like growing parsley for some reason.  It even looks pretty as the green in a flowering basket, so I always have too much of it.  And the chives propogate themselves prettily through the flower garden.  I don't mind. 

My mint plant was tiny last year.  I thought anyone who grew mint had to much mint.  What did I do wrong?  I don't use a lot of mint in my cooking, but I still ran out.

Swiss chard and kale were also very good dried.  I throw them in most tomato sauces (pizza, spaghetti, lasagna, chili) and the kids never complain.  In fact, if I crumble it small enough they probably think it's just parsley.  I'm hoping a lot of the nutrition is preserved in the drying process because I do count it as a veggie portion in their meals.  I'm totally out of the dried kale and have been for some time.  Again, the lack of heat last summer did us no favours. 

Things I won't dry again are carrots, peppers, green beans and zucchini.  Although the kids like the zucchini chips when they were fresh, no one would eat them after a few months.  Either the novelty wore off or the texture changed.  The other vegetables just didn't taste great or have great texture when rehydrated.  I did try to use them in soups and stews, but wasn't impressed.  As long as I have freezers, that's what I'll do with those veggies. 

Thinking about the leek powder though, maybe I can still blend up the unwanted vegetables and make cream soups.  Maybe that's something to try before I throw them out. 

What do you dry?

Split Pea Soup

The only thing better than a bowl of soup on a cold day, is a bowl of soup made by someone else. 

Growing up, we were treated to a Dutch recipe of pea soup called snert.  We called it snot because it was green, and we didn't like it.  I know that I didn't like the thickness of the soup, and maybe that skewed my perception of it, or maybe my tastebuds are maturing.

This soup is fabulous, made by my friend and brought to my house because most of her family doesn't like it.  My kids do.  

And why isn't it green? I didn't ask.  Maybe she uses yellow split peas.  According to the web, the only difference between yellow and green split peas is the colour.  That might make the difference between a child calling it snot and snert though.  And maybe the difference between a child trying it or not.  That's a big difference really.

As far as I can tell, the other big difference is the thickness.  This version is thin and souplike.  The one I grew up with was really thick.  

So, make it the way you like by switching out the green peas for yellow, or adding more or less water to thin it out, but this is the soup I've been enjoying for two straight days now.  I'll have to try my mom's soup again one day. I'll probably love it now.

      Her Mom's Pea Soup

      2 cups dried peas

      ham (however much you have, and the bone if you have that too)

      1 carrot

      1 celery stock

      1 onion, sauteed

      1 bay leaf

      1 potato

      salt and pepper to taste

      Boil the peas in 10 cups of water for 5 minutes with the ham bone.  Leave to soak for 1 hour.

      Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer until the veggies are soft.  Remove the bone and eat!

Ancestry

Now I feel like I have to post something even if I'm not thinking about terribly much.  It doesn't really mean nothing is in my thoughts though.

Tonight there are a few things going on around here.  Guides and Brownies are having a potluck supper tonight to celebrate their various ancestral backgrounds.  So, what should I make? 

Meat and potatoes would be the normal Dutch meal.  Blah.  Boerenkole?  Potatoes with green bits doesn't have univeral appeal with other people's kids.  Hmmm.   Oliebolen was suggested by the kids, but I don't have a deep fryer.  Croquettes?  Same hinderance.  Boterkoek?  Desserts are always loved, and something so full of butter should appeal to everyone.

Then there is their French heritage.  Pancakes with maple syrup?  Hard to cook and bring.  Split pea soup?  Even I say "yuck" to that.  Tourtierre?  Again, I say yuck because I've never liked the traditional spices in that and I shouldn't experiment on others with my first attempt.  Hmm.  Laura voted for French Fries.  Not exactly Quebecois french, unless I turn it into poutine.  There's a thought.

At Christmas my kids were granted their Metis status.  We've raised them with none of that cultural background simply because Yvon was not raised that way either.  I wouldn't say there was a lack of pride in that part of their family background, but certainly no emphasis.  However, bannock would be easy to bring.  

So, boterkoek and either bannock or poutine.  We'll see what the afternoon brings. 

And tonight I've been asked by Beth's principal to either speak to the open house attendees at the school about our experience with late French immersion or just be a contact for potential students to talk to.  I hate public speaking so I've opted for the second option.  Really I'd rather attend choir practice, but last year I wished for some parents to talk to about the challenges that late immersion might bring, or some reassurance that this is a good thing to do.  I'll suck it up and be that parent tonight.

New toy

I don't mind having kitchen toys if I use them.  I thought my pasta maker might become one of those unused toys, but I've made lots of pasta with it.  Especially since I have yet to see gluten free lasagna on any store shelf. 

This current new toy cost more than I think I will use though, so I only bought one quarter of it.   Rosa and two other deer hunters will own the other three quarters.

I don't know though.  Today's little experiment was really exciting.  I know it's odd to get excited about squeezing raw meat and seasonings into pig intestines, but it was awesome.  And I don't aspire to normality.

I had defrosted some chicken for last night, but last night's supper went a little differently than planned.  Yvon had a meeting I'd forgotten about and, while I escorted one child to piano lessons, there was no one to cook supper at home.  Tuna from a can dumped into my pre-made salad sufficed and satisfied most food groups and hungry tummies in a rush. 

Anyway, the Power Fist box sat in our hallway for over a week taunting me.  "Try me, try me!" it whispered every day.  Fine.  Raw chicken that had to be used, casings in the fridge waiting for a bigger sausage-making day to happen, some pork fat waiting for the same.  It looked like I had everything I needed. 

Although I had borrowed the KitchenAid attachments to grind the fat and meat, I wanted to try it with my own tools if possible.  My ancient cast iron meat grinder worked just fine.  It's maybe coarser than the KitchenAid grinder, but I don't mind that. 

The last time we made sausages, we used the KitchenAid attachment which injected a lot of air in the casings and required two people with constant vigilance.  I can't say I enjoyed the stuffing part of the process.  However, the Power Fist didn't break one casing, I had only a couple of air bubbles to pop, and I did it easily by myself while twisting the links.  I thought maybe I'd have to wait until the kids came home to help, but it wasn't hard to manage.

Before I forget, here's the recipe I used.  You can do it yourself without putting it into casings.  It's a tasty mixture made into patties too.  I ended up with enough stuck in the sausage tube to have a bit for lunch.  

Rosemary Chicken Sausages

2 lbs chicken             (I used deboned thighs)
1/2 lb pork fat           (dirt cheap from your favourite butcher)
1/2 cup dried apples
3 Tbsp fresh chopped parsley
1 tsp pepper
1/2 Tbsp salt          
1 Tbsp chopped dry rosemary
1 cup powdered skim milk
Bit of ice water (maybe 1/4 cup?)

Grind the meat and fat together.  Mix in the rest of the ingredients, except the water.  Re-grind the mixture.  Using your stand mixer or by hand, knead the whole mess together, adding water to make it a soft, stringy consistency.  Fry a small patty to see if you're happy with the seasonings.  I was.

Rinse the casing in cold water and gently feed it onto the sausage stuffer tube.  Tie a knot in the casing.  Load up the sausage press and slowly start to fill the casing.  The first one is where most of the air went, so I popped the first sausage with a sharp knife to let it escape.  Apparently a natural casing self-heals, so you aren't left with a hole-y sausage.  Keep going, holding back the casing so it doesn't feed too fast.  Knot the end, pop any holes and twist your links. 

I don't know if any of you will ever make sausage, but if you do and have questions, I can go into more detail one-on-one.  I know almost all of you on a phone-call basis. 

Next time I'll plan ahead and have some dried apricots to include like the original recipe included.  Or maybe cranberries would be good.  The sweetness of the apples is good, but there wasn't enough of it to really notice. 

Maybe I'll use the sausage stuffer more often.  For reference sake, it took about 1 1/2 hours to make it, although making more would not have added too much time.  A lot of the time was setting up and reading the manual, searching for a recipe, and cleaning up the tools after.  My next sausage venture will be 15 pounds of pork sausage with a friend.  I can't wait to do it again!

Music at the office

We sang an old familiar tune today.


While having a picnic.



With (and for) this old guy at the office.

We forgot the candles, but baby carrots work okay in a pinch. I wouldn't suggest you light them!

And the cheesecake was fabulous! Made and decorated primarily by Laura, who was inspired by one of those cake shows on the Food Network.

This morning she also helped bake this cake. And decorated it alone.

This is for tonight's book club meeting. It's currently sitting in the fridge at the library, ready and waiting for the guests, and for it's thick caramely topping.

And it's a surprise for Yvon. After the cheesecake at lunch I'm sure he thinks the festivities are over. Shhhh!

Happy birthday!