Rose Hip - Ginger Cordial

This ought to be a fun, tasty and efficacious herbal cordial.

In response to an opening question by Linda Conroy on "how do people use rose hips", the following recipe was posted on Facebook by Heather Nic An Fhleisdeir, who makes a low alcohol tincture of rosehips and fresh gingerroot. She wrote this on Feb. 26:
 "(Fill) a jar one third the way full of dried deseeded rosehips, pouring just enough hot water over them to reconstitute and let cool. Fill with 40% alcohol (I like scotch whisky) and let steep three weeks. It has a nice body to it and since it is low in alcohol it extracts a nice amount of the nutrients. I like to mix it with my fresh ginger tincture, mmm"

Linda Conroy had posted: "Rose hips, fresh harvested from the wild contain between 1500-2500 grams of Vitamin C per 100 grams of weight. This is 47 times more than an orange. which contains around 53 mgs of Vitamin C per 100 grams of weight."
Of course it is easier to eat an orange... but rose hips are local, free, wildcrafted or cultivated food (uncontaminated with pesticides), and when you pick and process your own roses' hips, you become a personal part of the process of nourishing life.

I wrote: (I make) "Rose hip jam, but I always wonder if I'm destroying the Vit C by cooking? It does taste good, though."
Linda responded: "I do believe that some of the vitmain C is lost in each step of processing. The ultimate way to prepare roseship for optimal vitamin C is to prepare them fresh and not heating or drying them. This is why I like to steep them in honey or vinegar when they are fresh. But there are other nutrients that roseships offer when cooked, such as carotenes. (And since carotenes are fat soluable, roseship pie or cheese cake as mentioned above is ideal!)

Next year - rose hip honey, for sure!

Well, with all of that fresh knowledge, I decided to tincture some of my dried rose hips and in three week I'll add them to some ginger root honey I made.
Here is my method:

My Version Rose hip and Ginger root Cordial

March 11, 2010

1/2 cup dehydrated rose hips
1/2 cup hot, not boiling water
Cover rose hips with water, allow to cool. Then add:
1/2 cup Jack Daniels (43 percent Alc. by vol.= 86 proof)
Cover and allow to tincture for 3 weeks in a cupboard, shaking the bottle every day.
At the end of 3 weeks,stir in ginger honey, made by infusing 1/2 cup honey and peeled sliced gingerroot.

I'm not sure if I'll bother straining out the healthful solids to get a clear cordial - I'll try to keep this updated. However, rest assured, the rose hips and ginger won't go to waste.

Time to Reconsider those Hasty Resolutions

"Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?"
-Twelfth Night, 2. 3

(From The OFA: "Twelfth Night, the eve of January 6, is an English folk custom that marks the end of Christmas merrymaking and, in ancient Celtic tradition, the end of the 12-day winter solstice celebration.")

Yes, it is Twelfth Night, the end of Holiday Revels and time to Get Real. Are you falling off the diet-exercise wagon yet?
Cleaning up the gingerbread because you were brought up in the Clean Plate Club? Postponing that walk because of the sub zero wind chill factor? Feeling like a failure?
You may be a victim of a culture that tells you what to do and when to do it. Halloween insanity followed by Thanksgiving family time followed by Black Friday spending until Merry Christmas and more Sales! followed by... getting back in shape? Every year the same treadmill?
Who thought THAT up?

Shop now, buy this new thing. Get up, get down. Or else. You won't be the same as the Madison Avenue image of Kewl. COOL. Is that really YOU? New Years Day is not the only day you can begin a plan. Every day is a new day.

Have a piece of cheesecake, Bubbie. Make it a small piece and freeze the rest.



"Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?"
-Twelfth Night, 2. 3

This recipe was given to me by a close friend who believed in all that treadmill, until Fate handed her a platter of ____. Life does that, sometimes. It's how you roll with the punches that shows what kind of a person you are.

RECIPE: Cathy's Chocolate Espresso Cheesecake

Prepare a springform pan.
Wipe it well with butter, then press a crushed Oreo chocolate crumb crust into it, using the bottom of a smooth bottomed glass.
The original recipe called for 26 of those deep chocolate wafer cookies that I can't find anymore. I was going to buy a package of Oreos and scrape the lardy sugar filling out and proceed from there, but - lo and behold- the prepared Oreo chocolate crumb crust was half the price, and you only need to crush it up and press it into the springform pan, and chill.
(If you were raised on store bought cookies you won't understand my aversion to Oreo cookies. I really didn't want any leftover cookies around.)

Anyway, if you can find the original dark chocolate wafers, mix together 11/2 cup finely crushed chocolate wafers with:
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 Tbsp. sugar
Press into buttered spring form pan and chill until needed.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Get all of your ingredients ready and lined up to use as needed.
Soften 3 8-ounce packages of Philly cream cheese in the bowl of a stand mixer.
In the top of a double boiler, gently melt 12 ounces of Ghirardelli 60 percent bittersweet chocolate chips just until liquefied. Set aside.
Measure 1 cup sugar and 3 Tbsp. flour into another bowl. Stir until smooth with a fork, and set aside.
In another bowl, break 3 eggs. Then add the separated yolks of three more eggs. Stir with a fork and set aside.
Open up a 8 ounce carton of (heavy) whipping cream and set aside.
In a measuring cup, dissolve 2 Tbsp. instant espresso coffee in 2 Tbsp. hot water, and set aside.

Remove chilled crust from refrigerator, and place on a cookie rack over a jelly roll pan. set aside.
Beat cream cheese at medium speed until smooth. Scrape bowl.
Gradually add sugar/flour, beating until light and fluffy, scraping bowl.
At this point, you should note that beating air into the cheesecake may cause cracking when it bakes. So don't overdo the "beating."
Gradually add eggs, beating well, scraping bowl.
Beat in melted chocolate, espresso, and whipping cream at low speed until incorporated, scraping bowl.
Pour into prepared pan, then place pan on rack over jelly roll pan.
Place pan on bottom rack of preheated oven.
Bake for one hour. The edges will look raised, the middle will look uncooked. That's okay, you don't want to overcook it.
At the end of one hour, turn off heat and allow to sit in oven with door closed for another 40 minutes to an hour.
Remove from oven, let cool completely, still on the wire rack over the jelly roll pan.
Refrigerate for several hours, wrapping the bottom of the pan in foil or putting the pan over a plate to catch any butter leakage.

To serve, loosen cake around edge with a metal spatula. Unlock spring form pan and remove the ring.
Place the cheesecake with the pan bottom on a serving plate. You can garnish the cheesecake: I've never found it needed any frills.
Serve at room temperature. Use a hot dry knife to slice. Clean knife between each slice.
Store any leftover cheesecake in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
OR cut in wedges, then wrap loosely in plastic wrap and freeze, then the next day wrap frozen slices in foil, double wrap in freezer bags, and freeze for up to 6 months.
To serve frozen cheesecake, remove from freezer, unwrap and thaw overnight in refrigerator, OR unwrap and let thaw one hour at room temperature.

The ability to live in a moment and enjoy it, celebrate it, is a great thing.

Craft: Firestarters for the depth of winter

November was so busy (wasn't it?) I'm only finally getting a chance to catch up now ... so today I want to shed a little light on a simple craft that I contributed to a craft sale/open house that the Herb Society participates in every fall at our local historical tourist attraction, Crossroads Village.

Marketed to deer widows, Ladies' Night Out is a lot of fun - the weather is a factor, but by early November the lovely Christmas lights are up at the Village, and women who attend get a preview showing, as well as all the other goodies the Village marketers and supporting organizations brew up. The Herb Society last year ran out of our complementary make-it-and-take-it heat sealed tea bags filled with lavender, and this year, we ran out of bags for our fill-your-own potpourri bags. The event gets bigger every year! and selling our crafts and baked goods helps fill our 'ways and means' coffer to spend on our programs and projects.

That said, my friend Ulrike gave me a bag of pine cones when she was clearing out her excess craft stores last summer, so I Googled around and found some recipes for good old fashioned waxed pine cone fire-starters, like the ones we made in Girl Scouts when I was a kid. This is what I came up with:


Craft Recipe: Waxed Pine Cone Fire Starters

In a double boiler, or better yet, in a Pyrex measuring cup placed in hot water in a controlled heating pot such as my dedicated former Fry Daddy, melt old candle stubs and/or canning paraffin until just liquified. Fish out the old candle wicks and discard them.
(Let me mention, melted wax is dangerous, flammable. Watch it carefully and keep the temp low - just enough to melt your wax.)

Place candy or mini-muffin sized paper cupcake liners in a mini-muffin pan. Smoosh a wad of cotton dryer lint in each cup. Carefully fill each lint/liner with some melted paraffin and set aside to dry.
Meanwhile, wrap a length of candle wicking around the bottom of each pine cone, leaving a bit to light sticking out. Dip these pine cones in the melted wax, using a tongs. While still soft, place each dipped pine cone in turn on it's own wax and lint-filled cupcake liner to dry. The melted wax dripping from the pine cones will stick the cones to the lint.

When thoroughly dry, take the whole waxed cone/lint/paper with the tongs, and dip the whole thing again in colored, scented wax. For the second, colored, dipping, I used old red, then green, candle stubs from Christmases Past. (To add depth of color, add some peeled Crayola crayons.) For a Christmas-y scent, I added a swig of cinnamon oil (find it in the candy/frosting making aisle) to the red wax, and peppermint oil to the green wax.
Allow to dry thoroughly in the mini-muffin cups. Voila!



Package for gift giving by filling the bottom of clean recycled baskets (re-gifted, thrifted, or garage sale rejects) with holiday tissue paper. Arrange the fire starters in a single layer. Add a bow or some greenery - they can be dressed quite prettily. They cost practically nothing to make, except your time.


Finally, I printed "Use and Safety" inserts to package in each basket, (you always hope that people act like adults around fire. But You Never Know!) Here is the text:

Caution: These are fire starters, NOT candles! They burn hot -with a flame- for about 20 minutes.
Use ONLY for starting fires in fireplaces and fire pits.
Expect about 2 Tablespoons (1/8th cup) of wax to melt from them, so plan accordingly. If using in a fireplace, place on a small fireproof pan to protect your firebrick from melted wax.

To use: Lay one starter on its side with the wick underneath. Light wick and edges of paper liner.
Add tinder or fatwood, larger sticks, then larger wood and logs in sequence.
Always use safety precautions around fires.
Never leave fire unattended.
Douse ashes completely when finished.

Note: Anxiety ridden mother that I am, I did a test run on the patio, so I could write with authority on the safety and use concerns ...

My version of Elderberry Cough Syrup

It's really pretty tasty! And I think it's working during this germ-y season... I'll let you know.

I made some elderberry tincture last winter after taking a class by Jim McDonald that turned me on to tincturing, and then finding dehydrated berries for sale at a reliable beer-making supply shop.

Oh! BTW, a little news: Herb just learned this week that he won a third Silver Medal in the 2009 Great Lakes International Cider & Perry Competition, for his locally sourced, homemade (non-commercial) spiced apple wine. It really is good!

Back. Anyway, my tincture seemed nice, but I never really had a need to use it. I seem to be awfully healthy for such a broken down old gal (knocking on wood).
The only elderberries I've been able to find 'growing wild' are so near to roads that I don't trust their safety. This spring I planted a couple of tiny shrubs from the Conservation District in my backyard, but of course they need some time to grow.

Elderberry has been talked about by so many herbalists, especially during the recent season of flu scare, that I thought I'd try my hand at making and using 'it'. Most of the cough syrup recipes I've seen seem similar enough, so I thought I'd do my own riff and let you know how it turned out.

What I did
In a large saucepan combine:
1/2 cup dried elderberries
2 cups hot water
Bring to a boil while stirring constantly, then lower the heat and simmer about an hour, mashing berries occasionally.
(If you used fresh berries, you would only need a little water to keep from burning the berries initially, and you could simmer just long enough to juice the berries, but that's another recipe.)

Keep the lid on while simmering, and don't boil. If you can smell the berries in clouds of steam, then valuable essential nutrients are escaping into the air.
Remember, mash occasionally.

Pour it all into a cheesecloth lined 4-cup measuring cup to strain. Let sit to drain thoroughly.

Squeeze gently and discard berry pulp. (I set it aside to feed to my worm bin.)

Measure liquid and pour back in saucepan. To 1 1/2 cups juice stir in one generous cup of honey, heating briefly to blend well.

Remove from heat. For enhanced keeping quality, stir in 4 oz.* vodka, brandy or tincture.

Here is my innovation: I added that Elderberry tincture that I had made last fall. Double the berry, double the fun!

*By volume 8 + 12= 20 oz. : 20%= 4 oz.

I bottled mine in a quart canning jar with a plastic lid. It's pretty nice syrup - it's be good over ice cream or cake, or for an aperitif or a nightcap.
But to use 'medicinally' in the folk tradition, an adult dose would be a teaspoon a day. But look at the ingredients - a Tablespoon wouldn't hurt either, or stirring a teaspoon into a cuppa tea more often than once a day wouldn't hurt, might help build your resistance to cold and flu.

Recipe: (Roll and Cut Out) Sugar Cookies

Our little baker's helpers made Christmas cookies for Santa. 'A' wouldn't sit still enough for a photo, confirming the effect of too much sugar on 2-year olds, but 'K' seems to be enjoying herself as she shows off her handiwork.



The girls took home gingerbread cookies and sugar cut outs for their daddy and mommy, and to leave a few for Santa on The Big Night. Mission accomplished.
This is my new favorite recipe for a rich, short-but still soft- Christmas cookie.

RECIPE: Christmas Sugar Cut Outs

Sift together into a bowl and set aside:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cornstarch
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

In a stand mixer bowl, combine thoroughly:
1 cup butter, softened
1 three-ounce package Philly cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sugar

Beat in:
1 egg
1 tablespoon vanilla

Then gradually stir in the dry ingredients, at medium speed, until incorporated. By hand, form the dough into two balls, wrap and refrigerate for an hour or so.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Roll dough 1/8 to 1/4" thick.
Cut out shapes and place on parchment-lined baking sheets.
Bake about 7 minutes, until the bottoms just begin to show color.
Cool pans a minute on racks, then remove cookies to rack and cool.

When thoroughly cool, decorate with icing as desired.
Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Recipe: Gingerbread Cut-out Cookies

I made the sugar cut out dough (above) and this dough for gingerbread boys on Friday, and refrigerated it so we'd have it ready for the girls to cut, bake and decorate.
The MOST fun about being a grandmother is when K comes over and tells me she wants to do a 'project'.

This recipe for Gingerbread Boys has been our favorite for 33 or so years.
Now A grabs one in her little fist, runs around the table, and chants,
"Run, run, run, as fast as you can!
You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man!"

Gingerbread Boys

Sift together, and set aside:
3 cups flour (you can go 2:1 A.P. to whole wheat)
2 t. cinnamon
2 t. ground ginger
1 t. ground cloves
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. baking soda

In a stand mixer bowl, cream together:
1/2 cup (1 stick) margarine, softened
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup dark molasses
1 egg
1 t. vanilla extract

Stir in dry ingredients until well incorporated. Form dough into two flattened balls, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least two hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Roll dough on a lightly floured board, to 1/4". Cut shapes and place on parchment.
Reroll and cut rest of dough.
Bake 8-10 minutes.
Cool 2 minutes on sheet before removing to rack to cool.
Makes about 8 big Gingerbread Men and a lot of small ones.

We had to do something crafty for Christmas

I've seen this one everywhere on the web this year. I first learned to make Cinnamon Applesauce Ornaments from the Herb Society, when we made homey decorations one year for decorating the 1880's Eldridge House at Crossroads Village. If you want to make some, they add a non-caloric but delicious scent to the seasonal festivities, here's a thrifty tip: buy your cinnamon, cloves, white glue and applesauce at the dollar store.

Recipe: Cinnamon Applesauce Ornaments
(not edible)

1 c. cinnamon
1 Tbsp. ground cloves
2/3- 3/4 c. applesauce
2 tbsp. thick white craft glue

Combine ingredients, drizzling a little glue at a time until dough reaches the right consistency for rolling, not too wet, or crumbly. Work 2 to 3 minutes (knead) or until smooth. If it is too dry, add applesauce, if too wet, add more cinnamon. Knead ball on cinnamon-sprinkled surface until it holds together well.

Roll out (with cinnamon sprinkled rolling pin on cinnamon sprinkled surface) to 1/4 inch thickness, do not roll any thinner. Cut shapes with cookie cutters.

Use a drinking straw to cut a hanging hole. Using spatula, place on parchment lined baking sheet. Let air dry for 24-48 hours, turning ornaments occasionally to prevent warping, or dry in a dehydrator, or, in a low oven bake at 170-200 degrees for a couple of hours until dried out. Place on rack to cool.

Sand rough edges with an emory board if needed.

If desired, paint with acrylics after completely dry. For fake frosting, use a white fabric paint.

When you pack the ornaments away, cushion them to keep them from breaking. And, if they start to lose their scent over the years, add a drop of cinnamon oil to bring back the scent.

You can use these in a myriad of ways from gift package tie-ons to tree ornaments. This year, the girls strung them on 1/8" red ribbon and used them like a garland on the front of the old dresser where we keep their books.

Easy, Flaky Pie Crust

As long as we're talking pie...
It's not that hard to make a good pie crust! People keep fiddling around with recipes, but the smartest thing to do, frankly, is to spend time fiddling around with your technique.

Pie crusts are 'short'. That means they don't like to be over heated or over handled. So cool it!

I learned my Mom's pie when I was a kid, and even (surprise!) won a pie contest with my blueberry pie, at the El Rancho restaurant, if anyone remembers that Flint area moment in time.

As a young wife, I over worked the task. tried variations, and even tripped myself up in the making of pie shells. For a while I'd forgotten the fact that although empty baked pie shells required pricking with a fork to keep them in shape, baked in the crust filled pies, like pumpkin for instance, do not need pricking.
And if fact, if you prick a raw crust and fill it, it will not bake properly. It was a head slapping moment when I realized my mistake after a few failures. Live and learn. Mom was "gone" by then, or I'm sure she would have helped me figure it out faster.

After 20 years or so, I taught my Mom's crust to Herb, and he'd taken it over. I rarely make a pie crust any more, but we have cut WAY back on the pie desserts, due to the cholesterol. It's nice Crisco has decided to make their shortening with non-trans fat, but a few years ago at a Slow Food workshop at Applewood (The Ruth Mott estate in Flint), the chef-owner of a Fenton restaurant, The French Laundry, shared some excellent locally sourced fruit pie, and his recipe, and it was mmmm. lovely.
His crust recipe was, by the way, a lot like mine with the emphasis on technique, only he uses half lard or butter. Can't eat that too often, but the flavor was a memory revived.

Here are the basics of Mom's piecrust:

Sift together:
2 cups flour (I like unbleached King Arthur A.P.)
1/4 t. salt
1/8 t. baking powder

Cut in to crumbly crumbs:
3/4 cup cold shortening

Don't cut together too finely - that is overworking the 'short'.
Mix in a scant 1/3 cup ice cold water - don't overmix. With fingers, gather and shape dough into 2 flattened balls, put in a plastic bag and refrigerate for 15 minutes.

Roll one chilled ball on a floured pastry cloth with a floured rolling pin, to 1/8". Transfer to pie plate and trim edges.

For baked pie shell: Shape ruffled edge with thumb and fingers. Prick with a fork, and bake at 475 degree for 8-10 minutes. Cool and fill.

For single crust filled pie: Shape ruffled edge, fill and bake as directed in recipe. You can also prebake this crust but I never needed to do that.

For double crust (filled of course) pie: Fill, then roll second ball and fit top crust on top of filling. Dampen edges of bottom crust, trim both crusts to fit, and press together to seal. Shape ruffled edge. Bake as directed. You can sprinkle with granulated sugar before baking, I only do that with rhubarb pie. I never glaze with milk or egg wash either.

There you have it. Practice.

Pumpkin Recipe - Two Pumpkin Pies

Two! years ago, around Thanksgiving, I wrote my definitive comments on pie, pumpkin pie, and the coming holidays. But I never actually wrote out my pie recipe. So this year, I'll fix that sin of omission.
I've used the popular condensed milk recipe for many years, with a few personal additions (vanilla extract and molasses) - it's a foolproof recipe for a busy cook. Should I include it here? okay.

Creamy Pumpkin Pie

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare a single 9-inch crust pie shell, unbaked.

Blend together in a large bowl:
1 egg (or 2), beaten
16 0z canned pumpkin (2 generous cups of homemade puree)
1 can Eagle Brand condensed milk
1/8 cup molasses
1 t. vanilla extract
1/2 t salt
1 1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 t each: nutmeg, allspice, ginger
1/4 t. cloves

Pour into a prepared pie shell. Bake 50 minutes or until done. Test with a dinner knife inserted 1" from the edge. If you watch carefully, pull the pie out just as the center is inflating. Wait longer, and the pie will be overcooked. Cool.
Best served still slightly warm from the oven. Refrigerate leftovers.

***

Well, that is a fine pie, but this year I made Mom's old evaporated milk recipe with my little variation, and I think it beats the other.

My Mom's Pumpkin Pie

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Prepare a single 9-inch crust pie shell, unbaked.

Beat together in a large bowl:
2 eggs (3)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
a good slurp of molasses
1 t. vanilla extract
1/2 t. salt
1 1/2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. nutmeg
1/2 t. ginger
1/2 t. allspice
1/4 t. cloves

Stir in, blending well:
1 1/2 cup pumpkin puree (up to 2 cups)
1 1/2 cup Carnation evaporated milk

Pour into a prepared pie shell. Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Then lower oven temperature to 350 degrees and continue baking for 30-35 minutes, or until tests done (see above). Cool.
Best served still slightly warm from the oven. Refrigerate leftovers.

NOTE: This is different from the recipe on the can which, among other differences, adds flour (?) and only brown sugar. I've experimented by adding more pumpkin, but, if you do, remember it all has to fit in the pie shell, and the pie filling level does rise slightly from the action of the beaten eggs. So have a pyrex cup nearby to cook the extra in, just in case.

Nostalgia: Mom's recipe starts with a hotter oven, and the tradition was to bake the mincemeat pie first at the hotter temperature, and removing it and putting in the pumpkin pie. This is the first year in my life that we didn't have a mince pie for Thanksgiving. Times change and tastes change. My son brought a cherry pie with three kinds of cherries that he's been perfecting. We can have a mince pie for Christmas.

Pumpkin Recipes - Pepitas

As long as we are making squash for dinner, or pumpkin puree for recipes, or even just decorating with a carved jack-o'lantern, it seems silly not to use the seeds... they are so good for you! So, when you clean a squash - most* kinds have nice edible seeds - put the seeds in a colander to wash and toast them for snacks.
BTW, "pepita" means squash seed in Spanish.

*I have tried the seeds from various squashes. Not all are good to use. Pumpkin seed are well known taste treats, but, for instance, the seeds from the local farm stand's favorite squash, the Pink Banana, are huge... but they are all fiber-y shell and very little nutty center. Chew on a few of those babies and you'll end up with a mouthful of cardboard.

METHOD:
Wash the seeds, removing any stringy fiber and return to the colander. Dry with a kitchen towel. Place in a single layer on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
Sprinkle with the scantest amount of vegetable oil. I like sunflower or peanut oil for the nutty taste.
Sprinkle with salt and, if desired, with herbs or seasoning*, tossing with a spatula to coat, and returning to the single layer.
Bake in a slow oven, turning occasionally to brown evenly. I've toasted them at 200 degrees for up to an hour, or 350 degrees, turning often, for a half an hour.

*pumpkin pie spices, barbecue dry rub, Sazon Seasoning (achiote and culantro).

Pumpkin Recipes - Quick Bread

Pumpkin Quick Bread

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Line 3 loaf pans with waxed paper (a dab of Crisco will make it stick in place).

In a large bowl, thoroughly combine sugar and wet ingredients:
3 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil (sunflower or safflower)
2 cups pumpkin puree
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract

In a separate bowl, sift and combine dry ingredients:
3 1/2 cups a.p. flour
2 t. salt
2 t. baking soda
1 t. baking powder
2 t. cinnamon
1 t. nutmeg
1 t. cloves
1 t. allspice

Stir the dry ingredients into the wet. Add about a half cup of water if the batter is too thick. Optionally, you can stir in 1 cup of chopped walnuts, chopped pecans, raisins or dried cranberries.
Pour evenly into pans, and bake for 1 hour, until a toothpick tests clean. (It usually takes at least ten more minutes.)

Note: You might have read recipes using more water. My recipe uses less water because I make my own pumpkin puree instead of using canned pumpkin.
Note: For a lower cholesterol recipe, you can use egg substitute for the eggs, and replace half the oil with applesauce. Frankly, the result is not as good (I'd call it rubber-y).
Note: I've also substituted our CSA spelt flour for the a.p. flour and loved the result.

Pumpkin Recipe - Pumpkin Pie Squares

I made these pie squares when the boys were living at home. They liked them and it was a change from the traditional pie, although I think they're a tad sweet. Serve with unsweetened whipped cream.

Pumpkin Pie Squares

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cut together in a large bowl:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup quick oats
1/2 cup butter

Press crumbly mixture into a 9x13 pan. Bake 15 minutes.

In a large bowl, beat together:
2 cups pumpkin puree
1 12-oz can evaporated milk
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 t. salt
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. ginger
pinch cloves

Pour mixture into baked crust. Bake for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, cut together:
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
2 T butter

Sprinkle topping on hot 'pie' in oven and bake another 15-20 minutes.
Cool enough to cut in squares. Serve with a spatula. Refrigerate leftovers.

Pumpkin Recipes - Helen's Pumpkin Spice Bars

Have pumpkin, will bake.

Pumpkin Spice Bars

(A good way to use pumpkin - or any winter squash- from the kitchen of Helen E., who brought this nice sheet cake to the Genesee County Herb Society's refreshment table many years ago, and gave me the recipe.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease a jelly roll pan (15X10X1").

Beat 'wet' ingredients in a large bowl:
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil (safflower or sunflower)
2 cups pumpkin

Add 1/2 cup raisins. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, sift together 'dry' ingredients:
2 cups flour
2 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
3/4 t. salt
2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. ginger
1/4 t. cloves

Beat dry ingredients into wet. pour batter into pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes.
When thoroughly cooled, frost with cream cheese frosting (recipe follows) and sprinkle with 1 cup of chopped walnuts. Cut 4 X 8 = 32 2" x2" bars. Leftovers should be refrigerated.

NOTE: in this case, cutting the oil with half applesauce (to reduce the cholesterol and the cost) doesn't seem to change the texture enough to dismiss the idea.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Blend:
1 3-oz pkg. Philly cream cheese, softened
1 Tbsp. milk
1 t. vanilla extract
a dash of salt

Gradually stir in, then beat until smooth and spreadable, thinning if necessary with more milk:
2 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar

Dealing with the Plethora, IV

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

This recipe is my adaptation of a recipe in the G.M. Girl's Club Cookbook. It is probably best to use a stand mixer to put this one together.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Grease (well) and flour a Bundt pan, or a 9x13" cake pan.

Cream together in large bowl:
3/4 cup margarine (or butter)
3 eggs
2 cups sugar

Beat in:
1/4 cup orange juice (or lemon juice)
1/2 cup milk
2 t. vanilla extract (substitute coconut extract for a rich flavor)

Stir in:
2 cups grated zucchini (I've used up to 3 or 4 cups of zucchini, and it doesn't seem to be a problem)

Sift together in a separate bowl, then stir into wet ingredients:
2 1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup cocoa
2 1/2 t. baking powder
1 1/2 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
1 t. cinnamon

Optional stir ins:
1 cup chopped nuts or chocolate chips

Spread evenly in pan, then bake for 50 minutes to an hour, until it tests done with a toothpick.
Frost the cooled cake, or not. I don't think it needs any additions, except if you really wanted to splurge on the calories, add ice cream and warm chocolate sauce.

NOTE: A great version I made years ago and jotted down included additions of raspberry flavored chips, 1/4 cup fresh mint, chopped, and 1/4 t. peppermint extract.

Dealing with the Plethora, III

Zucchini for lunch?
Here's a great recipe for a zucchini bread that I love to eat spread with peanut butter. The added sunflower nuts (shelled seeds) make it special. For many years I made your typical zucchini bread with walnuts or occasionally with raisins, but I like this better!

(I started posting this yesterday, along with the other zuke recipes ... but then K and A arrived, and we went off to play. The girls loved sandwiches made with this bread. They spread their own peanut butter and jam, to the PB&Jelly song ... what fun!)

(Warning! A (gasp!) Political Note on my 'happy talk' blog:
I also appreciate the fact that this recipe calls for sunflower oil, a healthy alternative to the Genetically Modified - sourced oils such as soy, corn and canola that I no longer use. I believe in voting with my wallet, which is why I don't shop at Wallymart or eat at fast food chain restaurants. So kill me.)

Sunflower Zucchini Bread
Source: Country Living Gardener magazine (1993)

1 3/4 cup unsifted flour (I use spelt when I have it)
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup hulled sunflower seeds
1/2 cup raisins
2 teaspoons grated lemon rind
1/2 cup sunflower oil
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups shredded zucchini

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a loaf pan (I use a minimal amount of shortening to stick wax paper to line my loaf pans. Never have a problem with sticking.)

In a large bowl, thoroughly combine dry ingredients, then stir in peel, raisins and sunflower nuts.
In a separate measuring cup combine the shredded zucchini with the wet ingredients.
Stir the wet ingredients into the dry until just incorporated.
Spread batter into the loaf pan and bake 55-60 minutes, until cake tester comes out clean.

Cool bread in pan for at least 10 minutes, then on wire rack until cool.
Enjoy.

Dealing with the Plethora, II

Zucchini for breakfast?
Sure, zucchini fritters are just another name for pancakes if you serve them with maple syrup or fruit jam.

A recipe? Just take your old favorite corn fritter or potato latke recipe and substitute shredded, drained zucchini for the corn or potato.
If you're making them to serve as a side for dinner, serve with a dash of salt and pepper, no syrup. When we ate hot, fresh Kartoffelpuffer (potato pancakes) on the street in front of the wonderful Medieval cathedral in Koln, Germany, they were served with applesauce.

Here's how I make Easy Zucchini Fritters:

Put a couple of cups of shredded zucchini (and/or summer squash), squeezed to drain well, in a bowl. Stir in an egg or two. Beat in enough biscuit mix to make it look like a very thick pancake batter.
Like any fritter measure by 1/4 cups into hot oil and fry on both sides.
Keep warm on a paper towel and serve hot.

Dealing with the Plethora

... of zucchini.

The best thing about using a microwave oven in the summer is that you can steam veggies in no time at all, and you don't add a lot of humidity to an already humid afternoon. Three minute corn on the cob? Wrap 1-4 shucked cob(s) in a sheet of paper toweling, wet it, place it in the microwave oven and cook on HI for 3 minutes.
No pot of boiling water, no humidity.
Believe me, if you have always lived in an air conditioned home, you are one of The Lucky, and you should count your blessings.
But on to the topic of the day, zucchini, a gift from the garden that keeps on giving.

We've been backyard veggie gardeners since before the days when it wasn't 'kewl', and after I finally relented to modernism and let the guys add a microwave to the kitchen remodeling plan back in the late eighties (after our third son was born and life was hectic) I adapted the following zucchini recipe from an old Flint, Michigan Junior League's cookbook.

Cheezy Zucchini Casserole
4-5 servings

2-3 cups zucchini, diced

Microwave zuke on HI in a covered bowl with a small amount of water (1/4 cup?) about 5 minutes. Stir and nuke again a few minutes if needed, until tender but not mushy. Pour into a colander and drain well.

Combine, in the bowl:

1 egg
1 Tblsp. flour (heaping)
1/2 - 3/4 cup sour cream (I use my homemade Greek yogurt, but don't tell Herb)
1 - 1 1/2 cup shredded cheese, your choice
1/2 cup bacon, cooked, drained and crumbled

Stir it all together, then fold in the zucchini.
(At this point you can refrigerate it to finish later, but it will need another minute of cooking in the following step.)
Microwave on HI for 3 minutes. Stir lightly, then sprinkle with more crumbled bacon or buttered bread crumbs, and microwave for about 2 more minutes.
Enjoy!

And remember to pick your zucchini while they're still small!

Preserving last season's garlic harvest

I harvested too much garlic last year.
Gave it away to good cooks in the family, planted cloves from the best heads (last September), used (still using) plenty of fresh in cooking, and I even did that little whey fermentation experiment with a quart of those cloves.
But I still have garlic in my garage.
And spring is coming.

So yesterday I dragged out the trusty dehydrator.
I cleaned, peeled and chopped about three layers of garlic cloves and dried them for about 6 hours. With a little cheapo dehydrator like this one, as the food dries you need to watch it occasionally to make sure it stays nice - move it around a bit to distribute the hot spots. I consolidated the 3 layers into one for a final round.
It dried down to about a third of it's size.



Today I ground it into a powder.
Use a coffee grinder - I have three - one for coffee beans, one for dried green herbs, and the third for spicy things like spices, peppers and now, garlic. I ground a little kosher salt in the first batch thinking it would aid the grinder by adding a little tooth... but saw I didn't need to do that - just add the salt (if you want garlic salt) at bottling. Very little salt is in this product, but I thought it might keep the powder from clumping later on.



This Stuff is Good.
I Know How It Was Grown and Processed.
And It is a Thrifty Use for those smaller cloves of fresh garlic that won't keep their quality for much longer.
If I can do it, you can do it!

My Sauerkraut Tale

This post has photos! Yay! but you need to scroll down to see 'em.

When you were raised frugally, and when your home is your center, then growing a garden for food for your family is basic, a given. Buying local food is a trend now, but buying from roadside stands, pick your own farms, and farmers markets was always better than "store bought".
Michigan is a great spot for putting food by, we have such a variety and bounty of agricultural products grown here. And through the years I've canned, dehydrated, pickled, jammed, frozen ... you name it. But there are still things to learn, and that(learning)'s what keeps life interesting.

This year, as I've mentioned, I've been learning about fermented foods - a culinary art as old as mankind, probably, or at least as old as civilization. Think of many of the most wonderful foods: bread, wine, cheese, cured olives, pickled vegetables, yogurt, beer ... so many of the foods we think of as extra tasty are made with fermentation of some kind. It is both a way of keeping food past its fresh date, but fermentation many times adds another element to the original food that gives it an added health benefit.

You can read about fermentation in some of the books I've mentioned in previous posts, by Googling and so forth, so I'll leave details to experts. I'll just add here that I'm convinced fermented food are 'a good thing'. And move on to telling my little story about sauerkraut.

I've never really bothered to grow cabbage before, it's one of those plentifully available fall storage vegetables and I have a small yard. We did grow cabbage's cousins broccoli and Brussels sprouts until the groundhogs moved into our neighborhood. Blankety blank ground hogs. If you are too busy or too lazy to put up a strong fence against the varmints, then you are just 'planting a row' for the ground hogs.

Anyway, last summer our organic CSA farmer Pat Whetham gave away her extra cabbage seedlings after she planted what she needed and in a good permaculture fashion, I planted mine in my front yard in a spot that opened up when we had a diseased Colorado Blue Spruce cut down. So, instead of the half share of cabbage - plenty enough for two - that we got from our CSA, I had three extra heads of cabbage to deal with. Large heads, they grew like Topsy!

I had been reading some of the great food and gardening blogs out on the Internets, and with cabbage comes inspiration. I'd make sauerkraut.

I don't know why I never did it before. Maybe the stories I'd heard about the atrocious smell. Maybe I thought I would have to make a whole crock or barrel full. Maybe I thought it would have to be pressure canned or something fiddly that I didn't want to bother with. I don't really know why. Maybe everything has its own time and sauerkraut's time had arrived for me.
I can only say, I started small and it was easy.

My first recipe was from a little Extension bulletin, although that recipe was for 50 pounds of cabbage. My 5 pound cabbage made one quart jar of sauerkraut. I made several during the fall, the last of which we are now finishing up.

Finely chopping cabbage is easy and fast. My recipe called for chopping and weighing it. (Handily, my son had given me a postal scale he didn't need any more.) For every 5 pounds of cabbage, stir in 3 Tablespoons of salt. I used Kosher salt the first time.



Allow the salted cabbage to stand a while, to wilt a bit and get the juices working. Then mix and squeeze it for a while with your hands. This step is crucial to getting the action going. After some squeezing and mixing, the volume really decreases!



Pack the cabbage into a sterilized straight sided container - some use jars, some use crocks, some use food grade plastic buckets. It might be a way to make use of some of those old glass punch bowls you always see at the thrift store!
I used an old glass cookie jar I had handy. Push the cabbage down so the liquid squeezes up to the surface. You need the cabbage submerged in the juice. I used a plate and a weight consisting of a jar of vinegar I had handy. Some use clean rocks, in later batches I used a double plastic bag of water which conforms to fit the top of the kraut.



After a while, covered with cheesecloth and kept in a cool place, and yes, after the initial smelly fermentation part, you can pack it in a canning jar and store it in the fridge, ready to eat! If you made fifty pounds you'd have to hot pack it with a boiling water bath.
There it is in the kitchen with my herb vinegars, piima, and sourdough starter. I've always got some project going.



Here it is, ready to pack. Mmmm. Time for some bratwurst! ... or pork shoulder!


Finally, packed for the fridge.



Now after I made that initial recipe and found out how easy and good it was, it was time to try some variations: caraway seeds, the double bag of water trick, and I found a whey lacto-fermentation method in Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions cookbook. That's when I switched to sea salt and whey. The process is the same only use about 1 teaspoon salt and 1/4 cup whey to the same amount of cabbage. You can see Fallon's recipe uses whey which has health benefits, and much less salt. Which is important for those of us who are beginning to need to limit our salt intake.

Preserve the Harvest - Garlic

Before I get to the sauerkraut recipe, I wanted to post this very unusual recipe for fermented "pickled" garlic that really knocked my socks off, so to speak.

Growing garlic at home is great! You harvest big fresh juicy cloves and have some left to replant for next year's harvest. Talk about THRIFTY. But beside that, the quality is so much superior to the garlic you buy in the grocery store.

I've looked for ways to preserve my garlic for a long time. Even the nicest big juicy fresh cloves from our home harvest will begin to sprout those bitter green sprouts in midwinter, and by summer they'll be sadly shriveling and getting rubbery and stale while we wait for the fresh crop.

For a while I've been peeling and mashing extra fresh garlic and putting it away in small portions in the freezer. I've never dehydrated garlic cloves to grind with salt, but that is on my to-do list. But in Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions cookbook, I ran across a recipe for preserving fresh garlic cloves in whey and sea salt, and tried it this year.
Here is what I did:

Pickled Garlic

Pack clean fresh peeled cloves of garlic (about 10-12 heads) in a clean wide mouth quart Mason jar leaving some good head space. In a measuring cup combine two teaspoons each of sea salt and crushed dried oregano leaves with about an eighth of a cup of whey. Pour the mixture over the garlic and add enough water to cover the garlic. Cover tightly and let sit at room temperature at least three days before refrigerating.

THE SMELL is WONDERFUL! if you like the smell of raw garlic. It fills the kitchen!

The taste is, however, to my palate, quite strong - stronger than fresh garlic -
a little too strong, in an indescribable way.

At first I was disappointed, but then I decided to try to use a few in a cooked dish and was very pleasantly surprised. I took a few garlic cloves, crushed and chopped them, and added them to the typical saute of onions and peppers in olive oil with which I usually begin my Italian tomato based pasta sauce. Delicious!
I'm going to keep using them and see how long they last and how they maintain the same quality.
My summer harvested garlic is beginning to sprout! A promise of spring.