Breakfast on the Run

What are you doing with all your extra eggs? Our flock is in their first summer of laying so we are getting a nice number of eggs every day. EVERY DAY!! We set up a roadside stand to sell our extras but, honestly, our market area is flooded. Fortunately eggs can be stored in a variety of ways for leaner times. One of my favorite ways is to freeze them, prepared, for quick breakfasts. In a month or so our garden is going to be flooded with produce to put up and, shortly after that, we will have rabbits ready to butcher. It's going to be soooo busy around here. On those days a quick breakfast will really be handy. Already the mornings are full of getting everything watered before the sun starts working its magic. Today I grabbed a thawed breakfast taco out of the fridge and had it baking while I did the morning chores. It was nice to come inside to a hot breakfast!

I used my recipe for breakfast burritos and just substituted a smaller tortilla to make these the perfect size to eat on the go. Scrambled eggs hold up well in the freezer- very tasty- just be careful not to overcook them. We have a grandchild with a dairy allergy so I didn't add the cheese this time. It's easy to unwrap and add it individually after thawing to avoid accidental exposure.

Freezer Breakfast Burritos

Ingredients

1 pound pre-cooked, drained well, and cooled meat (bacon, ham, sausage, etc…)

8 scrambled and cooled eggs

½ bag frozen Potatoes O’Brien cooked, drained and cooled

Shredded cheddar cheese to taste (approx. 1 cup)

8-10 burrito size flour tortillas warmed slightly in microwave

Instructions
To use

Divide all ingredients between tortillas. Wrap and place in a freezer bag (I like to individually wrap them in foil first because I bake to reheat.) Freeze.

Transfer individual burritos to the refrigerator the night before. Wrap in paper towel to microwave 1-3 minutes or until heated through. Wrap in foil to bake at 350 10-15 minutes or until heated through. Heating times will vary due to thawing conditions and different ingredients.

Prepare Ingredients

Make an assembly line

Wrap them all up

Freezer ready

Homemade Soup Base for the Freezer

I'm posting the how-to first with the explanation to follow. Folks who get frustrated at scrolling through blog posts to get to a recipe will understand! 😉

HOW TO
1. In large skillet, saute onions and garlic in tiny amount of fat choice to soften.
2. Add ground meat of choice and slowly incorporate tomato juice a little at a time as meat browns. You want the juice to tenderize the meat without making a sauce.
3. When the meat has reached the safe temperature for consumption, drain fat and set it aside to cool.
4. Once cooled, divide it into freezer safe bags and add any additional seasonings before freezing. I like to freeze the bags flat to make defrosting quicker.

WHY
 We buy our ground meat in bulk packages at the grocery store and repackage in smaller bags for the freezer or in pre-frozen one pound packs from the processor. Some of our favorite meals in the winter time use that meat in the base, especially soups like chili and vegetable. When I'm really busy, taking the time to cook the meat before I add the other ingredients takes too much time. I know some people cook soups with raw meat from the beginning but I feel much safer knowing the meat has reached safe temperatures before hand. For me, the most efficient way to make sure the meat is thoroughly cooked AND to save time on those hectic days is to pre-cook a large batch on a slow day. Then I separate it into smaller bags, add the seasonings for the specific soup it will be, and refreeze it.

 When those busy days roll around, I take a bag of soup base out of the freezer and dump it into the slow cooker or simmer pot, add all the other goodies, and let it do its magic while I go about my day. I've also used the base as quick meats for things like casseroles, tacos, and lasagna according to the seasonings I added before freezing.

 I didn't add amounts to the directions because it depends on how much ground meat you are preparing and what you will be adding to it. We, personally, like a lot of onion and garlic so I don't worry about adding too much but you should use your own discretion. You can also skip the tomato juice if you like. We use a lot of lean meat and the juice really does tenderize it as it cooks.

Goat Recipe- Neck Bones

Every time we get a goat back from the processor, there are packages of neck bones. That's not a cut I was used to seeing in the meat case at the grocery store and I wasn't sure what to do with them. I asked some old timers. None of them had ever cooked goat meat but they shared how they fixed other neck bones and from that I came up with the way we like to fix them.

First I boil them in water with some seasoned salt and bay leaves. (When they are cooked through I save that broth for another day- it's a good enrichment for chili or soup, just skim as much fat as possible after it has been chilled.)

Neck bones in the slow cooker

If I'm having a busy day, I'll set them to boil in the slow cooker. When the meat is nearing the done point, spread some drained sauerkraut (however much you need for each person to have a serving) on a baking sheet. I prefer the crunchy homemade kraut with this dish but canned will work in a pinch. Place kraut in a hot (400*ish) oven for about 10 minutes to get it heated through. Then remove the neck bones from the broth and arrange in a single layer on top of the hot kraut. Place the baking sheet back in the oven and turn on the broiler for 5-10 minutes. Turn pan occasionally and watch carefully. Remove when the meat has started to sizzle and the kraut is starting to brown. Serve while still piping hot. 

I wish I could show you a picture of the completed dish but we ate it before I thought to take one.

Homemade Peanut Butter in About 5 Minutes

Superman has his Kryptonite. I have my peanut butter. I love the stuff. Shh, don't tell anyone or it will be my downfall. DH has managed to bribe some favors out of me by waving a Reese's cup in front of my nose.  So I don't buy the stuff. Ever. My willpower is a goner to peanut butter.

When I do indulge in the treat, I make it myself. That makes it healthier and I can control how much is in the kitchen at any given time. Here's my method for making homemade peanut butter:

Ingredients

1 Cup roasted, salted peanuts (shelled and skinned). Sometimes I mix with unsalted for less salt.

Tools

An electric mini chopper

A strong thumb

1. Place peanuts in mini chopper. Close lid and do not open again until step 8.

2. Press button with thumb to activate chopper for one minute. Peanuts will be crumbly.

3. Wiggle Thumb to regain strength

4. Press and hold button for another minute. Peanuts will be sticking together but dry and not spreadable. Some folks would stop and add oil at this point but I persevere without it.

5. Wiggle Thumb again. (It might take a few seconds to get the blood flowing this time.)

6. Press and hold the button for another minute. The mixture will appear to break apart and then form a ball that swirls around the blade.

7. Stick your thumb in your mouth for a second. Give it a little pep talk.

8 Press and hold the button for about 30 more seconds. The ball will smooth back out into a paste with more oils released and will be SPREADABLE! Open the lid and give a quick stir to check.

Voila! Peanut butter with no added sugar or oils. It will not be sweet, I prefer to keep it this way. Adding it to jelly or jam (or CHOCOLATE) makes it plenty sweet enough for me but you could certainly add in whatever sweetener you prefer at this point. 

It stores well in the fridge for about a week- maybe longer, I've never been able to keep from devouring it that long.

Fast Food

Hitting up restaurants because all the home cooking options are in the deep freeze and will require long hours of thawing and then cooking-- sound familiar? It's an easy trap. So I'm working on preparing quick-thaw options for those busy days when it would be easy to hit a drive-thru.

I spent all day yesterday boiling and de-boning a rooster. Then I had several small packages of pre-cooked chicken and broth for quick to fix soups, stews, pot pies, etc... Then I moved on to some ground goat meat. Generally I would fry it crumbled with some onion and spices and then re-freeze it, for soups, chili, or casseroles. But this time I wanted something a little different so I made up a batch of meatballs to have for pasta dishes. I remember the first time I was faced with frozen goat meat. I was a little intimidated. We had worked so hard to grow and butcher it...what if I messed it up? Yikes!

I've had a little more practice preparing goat dishes now. But for anyone just starting out and looking for advice, I'll leave the recipe for ground goat meatballs at the end of this post.

Right now I'm getting ready for a fun day at the mall with my niece. We're doing an end of summer outing before school starts in a few days. Malls aren't my favorite source of entertainment but it will be worth it to get in some girly time. Of course we will have to hit every ice cream/cookie/pretzel stand and stop at a fast food place for a "real" meal. LOL



GROUND GOAT MEATBALLS
Ingredients
1 pound ground goat
1 egg
1/4 cup dehydrated onion (or VERY finely diced raw onion)
1/2 to 3/4 cup quick oats
several good shakes Worcestershire Sauce

Preheat oven to 350*. Combine all ingredients really well (mix with clean hands for best results.) Shape mixture into balls. We prefer small ones so I make 25-30 (goat meat is leaner than hamburger and won't shrink as much.) Place on a foil lined cookie sheet lightly sprayed with oil.

Bake at 350* on middle rack of oven for 30-40 minutes or until center of meatball reaches 160*. My meat thermometer bit the dust last week so for this batch I cut the largest one open to make sure it had cooked through.

Grits and Granola

First the grits
 What do you do with them? I mean after the first meal when they're all warm and gritty and soaking up egg yolk? The leftover grits? And why can't I make just one serving? The box says I'm making one serving but believe me, it looks like just the same amount as two servings! I don't get it... but I'll have happy grit-eating chickens when I finally get around to taking the cold pan out of the fridge where I've been storing it.

 And granola
 It's a great day for making granola. Is there a bad day? My house smells like cinnamon and vanilla and toasted oats and almonds. Mmm. I don't have to worry about leftover granola (sorry chickens!)  I'll share the recipe I use in case you want to make your own home smell soooo good:

GRANOLA
Preheat oven to 300* and adjust racks to middle.

In large bowl combine
6 Cups Oats (I use quick oats because that's what Sam's Club sells in bulk)
6 Tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
1 Teaspoon salt

On low heat combine until just melted
1/2 Cup coconut oil
1/2 to 2/3 Cup honey (I use the lesser amount if I'm adding sweetened fruit)
1 Tablespoon vanilla

Stir liquid into oat mixture thoroughly. Divide between 2 cookie sheets and spread evenly. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven, stir oat mixture and add in 1/2 Cup nuts and seeds of choice (I like sliced almonds) and 1 Tablespoon ground flax seed per each cookie sheet. Return to oven and bake for 10-15 minutes longer (light, golden, toasty brown.) Let cool for about 20 minutes and then break apart. Granola will harden as it cools. Stir in small dice dried fruit if desired. Enjoy!

Grumpy Apple Cobbler

We had a small cook-out for Labor Day, nothing fancy, just us and some of our kids. My DH is one of those guys who likes to grill. No, scratch that, he loves to grill. A LOT. So anytime there's a chance of people visiting he gets out the charcoal- rain or shine. I've even seen him smoke a brisket with snow on the ground. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the meats and veggies he grills up and he really does think he's being helpful by taking over some of the cooking chores, but cook-outs are a lot of work!

For this particular gathering, we decided to keep it simple- DH would cook a small goat roast and some sliced pork loin (not all of our kids enjoy homegrown meat and that's ok.) I devilled some eggs and fixed some pinto beans. We had a nice big bowl of applesauce that hadn't made it to the freezer yet. All that we were lacking was a dessert. I made the mistake of asking DH what he would like. In my mind we were still on the same page- simple. I can't read my DH's mind-thank goodness!-but somehow he had left simple and wandered on over to who knows where? He looked at the bucket full of (tiny) apples we had left and declared, "apple cobbler." I don't know if you remember from yesterday's applesauce post but I loathe peeling apples-do not like it at all. And DH wouldn't have time to do it this time. But his mind was made up, I tried reminding him that he also liked blackberry cobbler. Nope. Nuh-uh. Apple cobbler it would be.

Now we've reached the part of the story where I have to confess- I got grumpy. I KNOW it's hard to believe! But my DH was leaving the next day so of course I was going to do whatever he wanted to make him happy because I'm a perfect wife and who cares about a poor little Hoosier Girl peeling all those itty bitty apples and getting blisters on her fingers and sore feet....grumpy...soooo grumpy that the apple bucket got set down a little too hard, drawers got slammed, things got muttered under MY breath, and a few dirty looks got aimed at my DH's back. After about a half hour of all that, most of the apples were peeled and DH had taken refuge in the backyard with the grill. Even the dogs slunk off to parts unknown. And I was left to muddle in my shame alone. Sigh.

Anyway, the cobbler got done. The food was all good. the kids played some catch and then we had a good time around the coffee table with coffee and a board game. It was a great day-after I got over my bad attitude!

A serious game of catch!

And here's my favorite apple cobbler recipe:
Ingredients
Pie Crust-enough for top and bottom of 9x13 pan ( I triple the recipe for a 9 inch pie crust)
5 to 6 cups peeled and thinly sliced apples
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 Tbsp flour
1/2 cup water
1 Tbsp butter
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Directions
Preheat oven to 425. Line pan with 1/2 of the pastry leaving a 1 inch overhang. Blend sugar and flour. Sprinkle 2 Tablespoons of this mixture over bottom crust. Stir the rest into the apples. Turn apple mixture into pan. Pour water all over the fruit. Dot with butter and sprinkle the cinnamon all over the top. Cut steam vents into remaining pastry and place over top. Sprinkle top crust with a little sugar if desired. Bring up overhanging crust. Bake about 20 minutes or until pastry starts to brown, then reduce heat to 350 and continue baking until fruit is tender and juice oozes up through the vents. Cool on rack.

Blackberry Dumplings Mohawk

So, here is my most favorite blackberry recipe. I don't know how many times I've pulled this out as a last minute dessert when I get surprise dinner guests. I keep blackberries in the freezer and with this recipe, I can use them without thawing by just increasing the cook time. I got it from my most favorite cookbook which you can read about by clicking HERE. The book states that "this recipe comes from an American Indian woman. It dates before ovens."

Blackberry Dumplings Mohawk

Ingredients for Berry Sauce
1 quart blackberries
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
 dash of salt
1 Tbsp lemon juice (not needed if berries aren't over ripe)

Ingredients for Dumplings
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 Tbsp firm butter
1/2 cup plus 1 Tbsp milk

To make Berry Sauce
Put washed berries into a 3 quart saucepan with a tight fitting cover. Add next 4 ingredients and stir into berries gently. Cover and simmer 3 minutes.
- if berries were well drained, you might want to add an extra Tbsp or two of water. I find I can do this part ahead of time and just return the sauce to simmer when the dumplings are added.

Dumplings
 Combine first 4 ingredients. Cut butter into flour mixture with pastry blender until the size of rice. Add milk all at once and stir vigorously for half a minute with a fork. Drop from tsp onto simmering berries, dipping spoon each time into hot sauce before dipping into batter. Cover tightly. Simmer over very low heat 20 minutes. Do not uncover during this cooking period. Spoon dumplings into individual dishes and pour sauce and berries over top. Serve warm. 4 servings.
-If you want to make it fancy, scoop a little ice cream or whipped cream in with it. However, it is delicious as is!

-Some parts are paraphrased, italics are mine.

Slow-Cooked Goat Roast Recipe

I'm still getting used to opening the deep freezer and finding home grown meat in there. We've had a few chickens and rabbits "in hibernation" for a year or so but adding 2 goat kids really filled it up. I have to confess this- having a DH who lives on the road most of the year, I would save the home grown meat til he would be home, for "special" meals. Most of the food I ate while I was home alone was store bought, small packaged stuff. But now that the freezer is full, that is silly. So I'm learning how to cook for one from our own butchered meat! And this year I'm going to try to keep track of how much meat I buy at the store. So far I've purchased 1 rotisserie chicken, not because I'm out of chicken here but I really like it rotisserie style, and it's not getting cooked that way here in January. So I caved. But this week I cooked a goat roast. That's a lot of meat for one person. However, I know how to make more than one meal out of it. Just like the leftover Thanksgiving turkey, I can get a lot of sandwiches and soup out of that roast. It turned out so delicious that I wanted to share the recipe.
 So, here's how I fixed my slow-cooked goat roast:

1. Oil the slow cooker and spread some chopped garlic on the bottom.

2. Place roast on top of garlic. Cover it with a can of petite diced tomatoes w/ roasted garlic and onions. Sprinkle on some rosemary. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.











3.Turn up your willpower and let cool for a few minutes before serving.

Souper Saturday 8

Coming up with a soup themed blog post every Saturday sure has made weekend meal planning easier. It's funny how now I'm thinking about soup all week long-seeing soup ideas in everyday tasks even! For example, yesterday I was thinking "I really need to decide what kind of soup I'm going to make tomorrow" while I was removing the fall pumpkin from my front porch. (It just wasn't blending in too well with the Christmas decor.) That led me to remembering how my grandma would roast pumpkins in her oven to use in pies and such. Which got me to thinking about all the recipes I've seen online for pumpkin soup-which I have never made or eaten. And I was curious. I have to confess that cooking anything new intimidates me. But I'm home alone-who's going to know if I mess this up? I'm going for it!
 (By the way- my chickens have been patiently waiting since October for that porch pumpkin. So they got their treat today!)
 As I sorted through a ton of recipes for pumpkin soup I was amazed at how many differences of opinion there were. Thicken it or loosen it? Cinnamon or nutmeg? I just got a basic idea of how I wanted to try my hand at it, and came up with this:

Pumpkin Soup 
Ingredients:
1/2 Cup finely diced onion
1 Tablespoon butter
1 Tablespoon flour
1 chicken bouillon cube dissolved in 1 Cup boiling water
2 teaspoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1-2 teaspoons salt
15 oz can solid pumpkin
12 oz can evaporated milk
Assembly:
In saucepan cook onions in butter until tender.
Remove from heat and blend in flour until smooth.
Add in broth, spices, and pumpkin. Stirring constantly (mixture will be thick and will scorch easily,) bring to a boil.
Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
Slowly stir in evaporated milk. Remove from heat and serve.

Ta Da! Pumpkin Soup in my favorite chipped bowl with hastily jotted ingredients.
 DELICIOUS!

Souper Saturday 6

 We had a busy day- shopping and shopping and more shopping. Black Friday is one of my pet peeves and we don't participate in the madness. But since DH will be heading to Virginia on Monday, we decided to brave the crowds today for some Christmas shopping. I'd like to say we do all of our shopping at local businesses. But the truth is, we drive 60 miles to a more urban setting to get a lot of our gifts. This isn't because the prices are lower, we just can't find most of the items we want locally. Since we drove so far, we tried to get as much as we could in one trip. That made for a long day! So we didn't make soup. Our fridge is still overflowing with Thanksgiving leftovers. And we're still at the point where we consider it a blessing-another day or so and eh.....
 But I do have a soup "tip" for those of you who are stretching the last of the leftovers. If you need a soup to make a nice side for a turkey sandwich or the last of the tossed salad, I would recommend a tomato soup. Not only are tomato products not found on most holiday tables, but they compliment any meat dish without overpowering it. If you are like me, you might not care for canned tomato soup. But there is a quick fix "cheat" that keeps it handy in the pantry:
  Simply combine equal parts tomato sauce (store bought or homemade) and evaporated milk. After heating slowly to simmer, taste and add more of either ingredient to your taste. We usually don't need to adjust either one. There you have it-simple, easy, inexpensive, delicious, and handy tomato soup. But use caution when serving it to guests, they might be misled into believing the cook has put extra effort into preparing their meal!
 Enjoy!

Souper Saturday 5

Confession: As I sit here typing this, it isn't really Saturday. It's really Friday night. Yes, I am sitting at my kitchen table, blogging at 9:30pm on a Friday night (I promise I am fully dressed) because my DH is in St. Louis so I don't have a hot Friday night date. Ahhh such is my life. HOWEVER, he does have a light workload for the weekend AND St. Louis is only 3 hours away AND the only thing I had planned for Saturday was soup blogging. So I decided to cheat and set up a "scheduled post." I hope it works as I've never tried it before. I bet you'll forgive me, but if you can't just ship your complaints to me in St. Louis :)
 Tomorrow's Today's soup will be more of a stew type of dish: chicken and dumplings. There are 2 different types of dumplings, rolled and drop. I've never tried to make rolled dumplings, it always just sounded like "big noodles" to me. So here is my recipe for chicken and "drop" dumplings:
 Chicken and Dumplings
In a heavy pot, boil  1-2 pounds of chicken parts in 2 quarts of water with seasoned salt, and pepper to taste (about 1 Tablespoon of each.) When chicken is fully cooked, remove from pot. Add 1 Cup each sliced celery and carrots to the broth, bring to a boil, then simmer. While veggies are cooking, remove chicken from bones and skin. Shred or chop the chicken into bite size pieces and return to pot with the veggies. Taste to see if more seasoning is needed. Continue to simmer while preparing dumpling batter.

Dumplings- In a bowl combine 1 1/2 Cups all purpose flour, 3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and a pinch of parsley (optional.) Add  3/4 cup milk and quickly stir with a fork until well blended.

Make sure there is enough liquid remaining in the stew (at least 3 cups) and return to a boil. Drop dumpling batter onto stew with a teaspoon, dipping spoon into hot liquid each time to keep the batter from sticking. As soon as dumplings are all in, cover tightly and boil moderately fast for 12 minutes. Do not peak-keep that lid on!!! After 12 minutes, arrange stew on a platter (or you can serve it Hoosier Girl fashion-leave it in the pot and holler "come and get it") and serve immediately.

Oh my goodness-that will warm you up!!

Souper Saturday 4

Another grey, dreary, downright chilly Saturday! It's also my anniversary. So am I making some exotic, romantic, gourmet soup to celebrate the special day with my DH? Heck no, he is still in Milwaukee.
 But I am going to make a soup that we both really like. Actually it's a chicken chili. Having traveled over most of the U.S. I've learned one thing about chili-it's not the same wherever you go. No, it's like pizza or clam chowder or hot dogs, a very regional dish. In some places chili is a "soup" and in some places chili is a, well, "not soup." I'm going to make my version of chicken chili "soup" but it can be easily adapted to be the other. And since this recipe makes a family size pot and I am here by myself, I will add that most of this soup will go into the crockpot in the morning for after church services. It really is better the second day!

Chicken Chili
 Ingredients:
1 pound of shredded cooked chicken. I use the roasted laying hens that were too tough for frying.
1 quart chicken broth. This also comes from the old hens.
2 or 3 (15 or 16 oz) cans of white beans. This depends on how many servings you want.
Water to taste. Depending on the richness of the broth, it might need tamed down with a cup (or four) of water.
And the most important ingredient:

Ok, ok, I know it's a (gasp) processed food. So it's my dirty little secret. I've tried to replicate it. I've tried other brands. There is just something about this combination of seasonings that makes the perfect chicken chili. I also use it to make chicken enchiladas and Mexican casseroles that have chicken in them. Sooo shoot me. Just promise me you will never use the chili directions on the back of the package. Ewwww.


To make the chili:
Put chicken, broth, and beans in soup pot. Heat to almost boiling. Add seasoning packet and stir to dissolve well. Add water to taste. The longer it simmers, the better the flavors will combine. We like to add crushed tortilla chips and sour cream as a topping. Yum!

Souper Saturday 3

Sinus Alert!! The weather changed real quick here. So now I have a sinus headache. Ugh!! Usually when someone mentions soup for a stopped up head, the first thing to come to mind is Chicken Noodle. But not for me. My go-to, feel better, breathe easier soup is French Onion. You can go to The National Onion Association's website to learn about all the health properties of onions. You might be surprised at all the benefits of eating onions!  

French Onion Soup (please ignore the tear stains on this post, sniff sniff)

1. Select your onions and chop or dice them.                                  I prefer to buy individual onions versus taking my chances with the pre-bagged ones. The number you will need will depend on the size of the onions and how much soup you want to make. Today I had extra large onions and was only making enough soup for myself. I used 1 1/2 of the onions shown here. (Yes, I like a lot of onion in my soup!) I wanted to dice mine small so I use my handy dandy chopper. 

2. Place onions in soup pan with 4 or 5 hefty dashes of seasoned salt, 6-8 drops of liquid mesquite smoke, and 2 Tablespoons olive oil (butter would make a much richer tasting soup but I'm saving my butter splurging for the holidays.) 

Saute over medium/low heat until onions are very soft.

Add 1 can of beef broth and simmer over low heat. WA-LA! French onion soup! This is a really great dish but if you want to "fancy it up," read on.

While soup is simmering, slice and toast some french bread (one thick slice per serving.) Float your crouton on top of the soup and....

sprinkle on some shredded mozzarella or a nice slice of provolone cheese. Stick in microwave for a few seconds to melt the cheese, or if you have an oven safe dish, run it under the broiler to make the cheese brown and bubbly.

Numbers 11:5  We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick
Anybody want to share a soup recipe? Feel free to link it up!

Souper Saturday 2

Cozy, huh?

This soup is one of my favorites. It's quick and easy to fix and it was perfect to make while I am out of town using DH's tiny motel kitchenette.

 Corn Chowder
You will need:
1 Cup of chopped bacon
1 medium onion-chopped
4 small potatoes (I use red)-chopped
2 Cups frozen cut corn
2 14 oz cans chicken broth
half and half or condensed milk to taste (1-2 Cups?)

(ignore DH's brown banana-that's what I've been doing LOL)

salt and pepper to taste







To make:
Saute the bacon until browned. Drain off all but about 2 Tbsp of the fat. Add chopped onions and saute until translucent. Add potatoes, corn, and chicken broth. Bring to a boil then simmer until potatoes are tender.

Oops- spilled the bag of corn into the pot. Extra corny!

Right before serving add seasonings and milk to taste. (Roasted red peppers make an awesome garnish.)

Side notes about this soup-
1) If you don't have potatoes and onions on hand, frozen potatoes O'brian are just as good.
2) This is a really good soup to make on camping trips. Just substitute shelf stable bacon, canned or dried corn, and dried milk and nothing will need to be kept cool.

Something New-Souper Saturday

 I spent part of the day yesterday picking up leaves and feeding them to the goats. It got me out of the house while a crew was putting in our new furnace. But I noticed there were way more leaves than I would ever be able to pick up one-by-one. Yep, fall is here!
 My favorite thing to cook in the fall is soup. I don't make it much anymore. A pot of soup goes a long way for one person. But when I know the kids are coming over or DH will be here, I like to have a soup or stew simmering on the stovetop.
 And I thought it would be fun to share my soup recipes with you. So let's do Souper Saturday! Every Saturday I will post a recipe and I'd like for you to share yours also, please!
 I'll start it off with one of my favorites-caution: this makes a very large pot of soup, but can be reduced easily.

Clean Out the Fridge Soup
In soup pot, start off with leftover chicken or ham broth (4 or 5 cups.) Each time you add veggies, check to see if you need to add liquid. Bring to a low boil.
In the first 20 minutes of cooking add your longer cooking veggies such as-peeled cubed potatoes, celery, carrots, onions, bell pepper. (4-5 cups altogether)
In the next 15 minutes add your other veggies such as broccoli, cauliflower, cubed squash.(again 4-5 cups)
During the last 10 minutes reduce heat and stir in 1-2 pounds of cubed velveeta cheese, one pound of (chopped or shredded) cooked chicken or ham, and then add some milk, half and half, evaporated milk etc... to your taste. Simmer until cheese is melted and soup is warm.
There you have an awesome soup and all the veggies that were wilting in the fridge (and that leftover Sunday ham or chicken) have been removed. Not to mention you just got rid of all the milk that was about to expire!

When This Chick's Away

...the hens still lay. and lay. and lay.

 I'm still spending  a lot of time lately visiting my MIL. She is doing better but the doctors are keeping her in critical care. But I did get a few free hours the other day. And since the eggs are still multiplying in the fridge(especially the duck eggs), I used that time to make some egg noodles. I had a relaxing time of rolling out noodles while my mind wandered all over the universe. I solved all the world's problems, made up some new verses to a couple of my favorite songs, and shooed beagles out of the kitchen-a very nice "alone and loving it" time!
 I also made a huge mess!

 But it is worth it to have those noodles in the freezer!

Egg Noodle Recipe
Ingredients for each batch:
Approx. 1 Cup flour (I use all-purpose)
1/2 teaspoon each salt and baking powder
1 duck egg or large chicken egg
water
Directions:
Combine dry inredients. Crack duck egg into flour mix. Fill up 1/2 egg shell (the bigger half-I can never crack them even!) with water and add to flour mix. Stir well and add more flour or water if needed. Roll out on floured surface. Slice into noodle shape with sharp knife or- if you want to buy a noodle cutter like your grandma had, google herb mincer as that is what they call them nowadays. Let noodles air dry a few hours. Freeze until ready to use.

Rainy Day Soup Recipe

 Yesterday we got most of the shelter put up in the soon to be buck pen. We are dividing the current goat pen into 2 halves instead of building a completely new fence. It was a fast and furious project! The wind was blowing steady around 50 mph, DH is still on back surgery recovery restrictions so I had to help with any lifting, and 2 curious goats were determined to sniff/chew/poop on everything we brought into the pen. And to add insult to injury, Archie takes DH's presence in the pen as a challenge. So we had to stay together. And I had to guard DH with the cattle prod..... A LOT. Needless to say, there was not any way I could get a chance to take a picture. (Insert sad face emoticon here)
 Today I planned to get out there and take some pictures to show you our progress. Then we were going to start on installing the fence panels to divide the pen. But it is raining.... A LOT.
 So I am going to share the Taco Soup recipe from yesterday. I made it all up as I went along and it got a rave review! And there were no complaints about having the leftovers this evening. Score! (Insert smiley face emoticon here)

Taco Soup:
ingredients for soup
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
2 1/2 cups salsa (mine was homemade, very chunky, medium hot)
1/2 pound rinsed black beans (mine were cooked from dry, probably 2 cans worth)
2 cups sweet corn (fresh, frozen, or canned)
1 large can tomato juice
garnishes
crushed tortilla chips
fresh lime slices
sour cream
shredded sharp cheddar cheese
directions
Brown and drain ground beef. Stir in remaining ingredients except tomato juice. Add tomato juice slowly so you get the desired consistency (I used a little less than one can.) Heat to boiling and then reduce heat and simmer for the amount of time it takes to build a goat shelter (approx. 2 hours) Serve with garnishes. (Insert full and happy tummy emoticon here)

Grandma's Popcorn Balls

fresh popcorn balls

 Christmas isn't Christmas without my grandma's popcorn balls!  I've tried the popcorn balls that are so pretty at the grocery stores and they are always dry and tasteless. Bleh, sawdust. So I will stick to my grandma's homemade ones. (There's a pun in there, you'll get it if you try this for yourself!) These are yummy, gooey, and oh-so-easy!
 I like to make a pyramid out of them for a Christmas table centerpiece. Or they can be wrapped up and added to a food gift. They are also fun to hand out to a youth group or take to a classroom Christmas party!

Grandma's Popcorn Balls
1. Pop up 3 quarts of unsalted popcorn, set aside.
2. In a saucepan melt 6 Tablespoons of butter. Remove from heat.
3. To the melted butter add 3 Cups miniature marshmallows. Stir until marshmallows are melted.
4. To the marshmallow mixture add 3 Tablespoons dry Jell-o (I used cherry and lime flavors-one per batch- to get the red and green colors.) Stir until Jell-o is well blended.
5. Pour marshmallow mixture over popped corn. Stir very well.
6. As mixture cools, with  well buttered hands, shape into balls.  Set aside to cool thoroughly. Wrap individually with plastic wrap or store in a sealed container.

Peppermint Fudge

 It seems the divinity recipe I posted yesterday was a little intimidating to some. So today I'm making and sharing something incredibly easy. In fact, the name of the candy is actually Easy Peppermint Fudge. But it is so rich and delicious and special that my family thinks I slave over it. So we'll just keep that easy part between you and me, okay? 

 This is a fun recipe to get little ones involved in. There's counting, stirring, color changes,and smashing stuff! But when it's finished, the candy is perfect as a gift or as an addition to a food gift-you know, like those little strawberry shaped hard candies that come in store bought gift boxes? A couple squares of this fudge wrapped in pretty cellophane and added to a basket just says "You're special and I made this just for you" all over it. 

 Here's how you do it:   

Line an 8x8 pan with foil (I don't have one that size so I use a 9x7 and it works fine.)

Put 15 unwrapped starlight peppermint candies in a gallon size resealable bag

Coarsely crush the candy (I used a rolling pin, the bottom of a heavy can would work.)

In a medium saucepan, combine 1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk and 1/4 Cup (1/2 stick) butter over low heat. Stir until butter melts and mixture is simmering. Remove from heat.

Add 16 ounces of white chocolate (chips or coarsely chopped bars) and stir until melted and smooth.

Add 1 teaspoon peppermint extract and 8-10 drops red food color stirring until blended.

Stir in all but 1 Tablespoon of the crushed mint candies. Warning: It's very important not to let any of your fingers come in contact with this mixture. If that happens, you must resist the urge to lick the offensive pre-fudge off or the rest of the batch will. not. get. made! You will eat this out of the pan! Okay, maybe that's just me. (shrug)

Spread in the pan and sprinkle the top with the remaining crushed mint candies. Refrigerate approx. 4 hours (until firm.)

To finish: Invert pan onto a cutting board and peel off foil. Turn right side up and cut into 1 inch squares.
To store: Place in airtight container using waxed paper between layers. Refrigerate.