Canning Chili beans

Yesterday we canned chili beans. Come winter when the snow is blowing, there is nothing better then a bowl of chili to warm you up.

You may ask just how did I work these up.  Let me tell you.

Chili Beans

6 cups dry kidney beans

4 medium chopped onions

1 pint jar diced tomatoes

2 small green peppers chopped

1 Tablespoon red pepper flakes

6 cloves garlic diced fine

6 Tablespoons chili powder

2 Tablespoon dry mustard

2 Tablespoons brown sugar

2 Tablespoons salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Rinse beans. Cover with 2-3 inches of water in a large pot.  Bring to a boil. Boil for 2 minutes and turn off, cover let set 1 hour.

Drain, drain again, cover with another 2-3 inches of water. Add remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally for 30 minutes. 

Pack into pint jars. Pressure can for 90 minutes at 15 lbs. 

Today, August 12, it was a steamy 88 degrees, but you know what . . .we had chili for dinner!!  We also had leftover fresh peach pie. Yum yum!

An old cookbook

Today I decided to clean out my cookbook cabinet shelf. I came across a cookbook that belonged to my late aunt Tessie. 

This recipe gave us a good laugh.  A 10 cent bag of potato chips????  So I turned the cookbook over and saw it was dated 1955. The potato chip of our choice back then were  made by a fairly local company named Backers. They are still in business today! I remember in 1962 stopping at the local grocery market while walking home from school.  We could get nickel or dime candy bars and nickle and dime bags of chips too. Sodas were 10 cents with a 2 cents deposit. When you took the bottles back you could get your money back. In our case, we never took the cash. Earl's market had the best candy counter. 

More interesting things found in this old book were some  "hints". I'm going after my hand cream as soon as I'm finished typing! 

Speaking of recipes, a friend told me about this blackberry lush recipe the other day. So today I cut the recipe in half and made it for the blacksmith and me. OMG is it good. 

Here's the recipe!


To see what I did on Saturday check it out here. Osage Bluff Blacksmith.

The Garden's end

It's a bittersweet day. The garden got a killer frost last night. I guess all good things must come to an end.

On yesterday's post I talked about the green tomato pickles. Since we knew the killer frost was imminent, we decided to try our hand at making some.

We picked all that was left which came to about 11 or 12 pounds.

We cut them up along with some onions and sprinkled them down with canning salt. They sat overnight in the refrigerator.

The next day, they were drained and a pickling solution was made.

The end results was 5 quarts and one pint. Now the waiting starts, 3 weeks before they can be sampled.

Here is the recipe we used for sweet and tangy green tomato pickles.

We also canned the last of our turnip kraut. 42 pints. We've done this before and here is a link to previous post on making turnip kraut.

And so we close another canning season with the shelves stocked full. 228 pints, 53 quarts jars, plus 27 qt bags in the freezer full of corn, not to mention the 15 gallons of blackberries. Now if the blacksmith bags a deer, we will be set for awhile!

Tomato soup recipe

Okay gals here is the recipe a few of you have asked for. The soup will be a great thing to have on a cold snowy day, which is what would be nice after the record breaking temperature's we have had here this week.

15 lbs ripe tomatoes (I weighed before I cored)
4 large onions, chopped
4 stalks celery, chopped
1 red pepper

Core and quarter tomatoes, add all the vegetables and cook until tender.
Put through sieve.

I use a Norpro Sauce Master like this one.

Now take:
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup salt (I used just a little less)
1/2 cup butter (Yes I used real butter)
1/2 cup flour (I use more like 3/4 cup, I like a thicker soup)

Mix all this together with a fork, a pastry blender might work. You want it to be smashed well.

Mix dry mix with tomato pulp and boil together for 5 minutes.

Ladle into quart jars and seal. (This gave me 6 quarts and 1 pint)

Pressure cook for 15 minutes at 15 pounds pressure.

When you heat the soup this winter, do not let it boil. I like to add a little bit of milk to tame it down.

I can't take credit for this recipe without giving credit to the blacksmith's aunt Mary.

Enjoy!!!!

Things to share and some NOT to share

I like to think of myself a person who is very willing to share.  “Sharing” can actually mean giving something as an outright gift: for example, to “share” one's food really means to give some of it as a gift.

So let me share with you this old favorite cookbook of mine. It's copyrighted 1977, the birth year of my first born son. It's a book I haven't used in quite a few years. With busy lives, little kids and a job it was hard to always keep the sour dough starter going, let alone to find time to bake breads.

But life sometimes slows down and I thought it was time to make another starter, and so I did Sunday night. Last night while scanning the book for my first new recipe I found sour dough pancakes.

This is what they looked like this morning. They are so light and fluffy, melt in your mouth goodness. You will forget all about the real butter you have slathered on them, or the maple syrup.

Sourdough Cherry Rose Rolls

This recipe from page 61 might just be my next favorite. I remember making these over 30 years ago and they were delicious.

Back to sharing.

Lizzie wanted to share her "Pink Lizzy" with Bentley but there just wasn't room.

I even shared my bucket of water with her today, between transplanting some grass. 

She then wandered (okay we took her back there) to the raspberries. The wild raspberries are almost  finished, but still we found a few. As much as I love these myself, I shared.

 And a few more I shared with her.


Now to things I really didn't want to share.

Gallbladder issues.

Did you know gallbladder disease is hereditary?  Well that is what they told the newlywed.  Yes, the daughter inherited gallstones from her mother. Me, I gave it to her!

So tomorrow at 9 AM, she is having surgery. Not something a young bride needs just 3 1/2 months into her marriage. But I have no fear the new son in law will take great care of her.

Now let me share my recipe for Whiskey slush with you, because tomorrow might be a stressful day for this mother living 352 miles away from the surgery center.

Whiskey slush

12 oz frozen lemonade

6 oz frozen Orange juice

1 cup sugar

6 cups water

2 cups prepared tea (I used 2 cups water and 3 tea bags)

1 1/2 cups bourbon

Mix all together in a large plastic container. 

Place in freezer, stir about every 6 to 12 hours for the first day or two.

Serve with spoon and add a little bit of white soda.

Or spoon it straight into your mouth if the need be! 

Is it a Nor'easter or a Nor'wester?????????

There are storm warnings everywhere. It's coming, it's coming. The first news releases were reporting 6 to 8 inches. Then it jumped 9 to 12. Now it's up to 12 to 18 inches. Holy cow, if we get that much, the kids around here will be going to school until July 4th. None of that wimpy getting out end of May stuff.


This is what it looked like at dusk today.

So I have a game plan . . . .

This fabric needs to be turned into 2 book covers, gifts for the flower girls in the wedding in March. The covers hold crayons and pencils, as well as a notebook to sketch in.

I have to finish two ring bearer's pillows. One is partially beaded. The boxed one is for me to copy.

I still have some left to do on the quilt. But it is getting considerably less.

Our pantry is still somewhat stocked, and the freezer is full. I have coffee, milk, eggs, and bread, along with flour and yeast. The blacksmith has a tank full of gas for the tractor to blade a path out for us. The propane tanks are full, the pile of wood is covered, and water has been drawn.

And so after all those chores, we sat down for a nice country meal. Can you guess our meat?

Now let me show you what's for dinner tomorrow night. (with or without electricity, thank goodness for a propane camp stove.)

You finely dice pork tenderloin.

Mix a lot of spices, a little pineapple, onions, and cilantro.

Marinate over night.

Here's the recipe for it! Tacos Al Pastor.

1 pound pork tenderloin, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 (8-oz.) can pineapple tidbits in juice, drained
1 medium onion, chopped
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon Mexican-style chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon canola oil
6 (8-inch) soft taco-size corn or flour tortillas, warmed

Toppings: chopped radishes, fresh cilantro leaves, crumbled queso fresco, chopped onions, chopped jalapeño

1. Combine pork and next 9 ingredients in a large zip-top plastic freezer bag. Seal and chill 4 to 24 hours.

2. Cook pork mixture in hot oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, stirring often, 10 minutes or until pork is done. Serve mixture with warm tortillas and desired toppings.

Hope I can visit with you all over the next few days. Now if I just had a generator . . . .

BFF

You have one, I have one, almost everyone has one. A BFF.

Mine happens to be my next door neighbor. Well almost, there are no houses in between us, but we are about a half mile apart as the road goes. But on a clear day, if we yell really, really loud, we could probably hear each other. When the leaves are off the trees in the winter, we can see each other's lights.

Over the 16 years we have lived "side by side", we have borrowed plenty of things from each other. We each have boys the same age, and our girls are just one year apart. So there have been the usual things to borrow . . . school supplies, computers, printers, even substitute parenting I'm pretty sure.

Then we adults have borrowed things like sinker molds (it's a guy thing) or a bag of water softener salt. Okay I was out of salt, but she still called to see if I had a bag to borrow. We are always raiding each others cabinets for cans of cream of something soup, onions, potatoes, oil to fry fish or chicken, breading for the fish, an egg, a cup of milk, and so much more.

Today was no different. She called me to see if by chance I had any cream cheese. I said "sure I do". She said she'd be right over. I yelled "wait, do you have a stick of butter?" "Yes", she said. I said "okay, I'll trade you".

Over she drives. (Remember I said we're a half mile apart). She said we were life savers again. They were making blackberry torte. We started laughing since we were making blackberry crisp!

It's scary sometimes, how much alike we are!


Our blackberry crisp.
Recipe courtesy of Ree at Pioneer Woman. Click here for the recipe.

Okay so we changed it a little, we used blackberries and Missouri black walnuts. Otherwise it was the same.

The blacksmith picks a good recipe!

The Missouri Conservation magazine came out a few weeks ago.

The blacksmith saw a recipe in there he wanted to try.

I must say I was a little skeptical.

Tonight, I will say I completely changed my way of thinking after tasting his creation.

It beats any shrimp creole I ever had in New Orleans.

Thanks dear! It was fantastic!

Here's the recipe.

BLUEGILL CREOLE
¼ cup chopped onion
1/4 cup celery
1/4 cup green pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons olive oil
¾ cup chicken broth
1 tablespoon tomato paste
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon each dried basil
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/8 teaspoon each white, black, and cayenne pepper
Dash paprika
½ cup diced Italian tomatoes, drained
1 pound bluegill fillets
Hot cooked rice
Minced fresh parsley
In a small skillet, sauté the onion, celery, green pepper and garlic in oil until tender. Add the broth, tomato paste and seasonings and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes. Stir in Italian tomatoes.

Arrange the fillets in a greased 13-inch x 9-inch x 2-inch baking dish; top with vegetable mixture. Bake uncovered at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. Serve over rice and sprinkle with parsley. Yield: 4 servings.

Party post still coming soon.

Homemade cinnamon or Hot rolls

Thursday I purchased high gluten flour at Weaver's Market. The young Amish girl told me that would be just the trick for perfect sweet rolls.

She knew what she was talking about. I made a batch yesterday and they were the best ever. I used my tried and true 20 year old recipe and this flour made all the difference.

Here is the recipe if you want to give it a try.


Hot Rolls/Sweet Roll dough

In a large bowl combine:
2 pkg Rapid rise yeast
1 cup very warm water
1 T. sugar
Stir until dissolved

In a smaller bowl:
Melt 3 T. butter/oleo
add 2 eggs
1 tsp salt
2/3 cups sugar
Beat well with a fork

Microwave 1 cup milk for 2 minutes.

Add butter/egg mixture to yeast mixture and mix.
Stir in 3 cups flour until well mixed.

Put 2 cups flour over batter but do not stir yet. Pour the hot milk over the flour and then stir in. Mix well.

Cover and let double until double in bulk.

Stir down and cover. Store in the refrigerator at least 8 hours or overnight. Will keep about 5 days.

To make cinnamon rolls (half of the dough will make 12 rolls in a 9 by 13 inch pan) roll out to about ½ thick. Then brush with melted butter. Sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon. Roll up and slice. Place in greased pan and let rise. Bake 350 about 20 minutes. When cool drizzle with powdered sugar icing.

To make hot rolls: Roll about ¾ inch thick. Cut into circles. Before you place the circle in a grease pan, coat the sides only with melted butter. Place about 1/4 inch apart in pan. Let rise. Bake at 350 for 20 to 25 minutes. When they come out of the oven, brush with melted butter and let set in the pan a few minutes before turning out.

Baby it's still cold outside

Yes it's still freezing in Mid-Missouri.

The guys have left to go ice fishing. Visit the Blacksmith's blog to see yesterday's report.

As for me, I am going to make this Gumbo.

I attend the cooking school years ago on a

husband's business trip.

It's the best Gumbo I've found.

Let me know if you try it.

Then I am going to cut some fabric for Laurie's Granny. I need 230 printed squares, 4 1/2 inches square. I found some pretty

fabric at Hobby Lobby yesterday.

If I'm lucky I might get to take care of the 3 grand kids while Mommy does some YMCA time.

Hope you're all staying warm.

Dinner tonight

Candied green beans, fried turnips and smothered pork loin.

My friend Tammy at Flat Creek Farm was telling me how to fry turnips. Today on PBS I saw the Lidia's Italy show. She had a guest cook from Arkansas cooking with her. They made skillet fried turnips.

Here's the recipe the best I could copy.

Saute about 4 slices of diced bacon until crisp.

Add 1 clove of garlic and 1/2 of an onion, chopped.

Add 5 to 6 medium diced turnips and 1 diced potato.

Continue to fry for 5 to 10 minutes.

In a small bowl mix 2 teaspoons sugar, 2 Tablespoons water and 2 Tablespoons cider vinegar.

Add to skillet to de-glaze.

Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes.

These were really good!

As for the candied green beans, here is what I did. The recipe is my own version.

Dice 3 slices of bacon and fry until crisp.

In a casserole dish add 1 can partially drained green beans.

Pour the bacon and some of the fat over the beans.

Add about 1/2 cup brown sugar.

Mix and bake 1 hour at 350.

Okay so we had a little pork fat for dinner. But gosh was it good!

After dinner, it was time to make the turnip kraut. We filled a 6 gallon and a 3 gallon crock. It will take about 2 weeks to sour before it can be canned.

Okay I know this blog originally started as a quilting blog, and believe me it will return to that. However, sometime food gets in the way.

I did some sewing today. I'm still working on two small quilts. My printer is out of ink, and I need that to make some paper piece patterns. Hopefully the snail mail tomorrow will deliver the cartridges I ordered.

The weather was beautiful. I washed some windows in between sewing.

Time to rest now.

The smells of fall

This cooler weather makes me want to cook. I could make soup every day of the week.



This is my latest pot. It's called CABBAGE SOUP. Here's the recipe:

7 -8 cups chicken broth
1 cup long-grain white rice, such as basmati or jasmine
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3/4 pound kielbasa, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced
1 onion, halved and thinly sliced
1/2 medium green cabbage, cored and finely shredded
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

In a medium saucepan, combine 1 3/4 cups of the chicken broth with the rice and bring to a simmer. Cover and cook over low heat for 18 minutes, until the rice is tender.
Meanwhile, in a soup pot, heat the oil. Add the kielbasa and cook over moderately high heat until lightly browned, about 4 minutes. Add the onion and cabbage and cook until softened, about 6 minutes. Add the remaining broth and bring to a simmer. Cook over moderately low heat until the cabbage is tender, 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, stir in the rice and serve.




I then made Judy's Pumpkin gingerbread. I added Missouri black walnuts. Raisins would be good too, however, someone in this household won't eat them. Go here if you'd like her recipe.












While all of the above was either simmering or baking, I made a double batch of kettle corn. The grand kids were coming after school and would need a snack.










Look at this real cool handkerchief I bought Saturday in Rosebud Missouri. Can you imagine getting a birthday handkerchief?












I got all 6 of these for $5.00 It was the buy of the day. Around here they usually got for $2 to $5 a piece.





BRB, time for another piece of pumpkin bread and cup of hot steamy black coffee!
Bon appetit'!!

My turn

First of all I want to thank Brady for his help with the post from yesterday. I didn't post the pictures I took on Sunday. I wanted to give him all the limelight.

We had the boys most of the day. It was a beautiful day to be outside, as you can tell by the pictures from our backyard.









Brady peeking through the big rock










The guys












King of the rock










The other King


I've had several inquires on the shavings. This is a recipe I got from BT's grandmother. She had all her recipes memorized. And she could tell them to you in German as well as English.

To make Shavings, here is what I do: Take 3 or 4 or more eggs and beat well by hand with a fork. Beat in a pinch of salt and 1 to 2 tablespoons of milk. Beat some more. Start adding flour, about a cup at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add enough flour until it's a soft dough that you can roll out. Keep your counter floured well. Roll very thin. Thinner than pie crust.

I then use a pizza cutter to cut into rectangles about 2 by 3 inches. Make two or three slits in each one.

Fry immediately in hot oil (I use Canola). Drain and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon that you have put in a old shaker. Enjoy!

Let me know if you try them.

Why are they called shavings? Grandma thought they looked like the wood shavings on the floor of Grandpa's carpenter shop.

As for the recipe for my pepper jelly, it's sure-jell. Take the jelly and put it over a block of creme cheese. Spread on crackers. Oh gosh is that good! If you're close by I'm up to a few more trades! I wish Sara was closer, she has items she is willing to trade. Maybe even maple syrup!

I hope we all stay safe tonight. Strong storms are predicted.
70 degrees 10PM

Quilted wallhangings are finished!

Here they are finally! Rita from Reetrving asked me to make these for her friend in MN. I put them in the mail this morning.

I also add these for Rita as a special little gift. I found the pattern on someones blog. I can't remember who's, so thank you to who ever it was.

Now I have one day to clean house and plan my meal for Christmas night. the DIL loves fried chicken instead of turkey. As do the 2 grandsons. So fried chicken it will be. That is if I remember to remind the hubby to pick the chicken up at the butcher shop on Christmas eve day. If you can fry the chicken without it ever being frozen it is so much better.

Today I finished shopping. Yeppers I bought the last two presents today. I usually have my act a little more together but this year it is lacking. Can I blame it on the economy, the election, the weather, or the fact of getting older? I don't know.

I made an old family recipe from my mother in law yesterday. It is so good. Especially since BT and I have been picking out Missouri black walnuts. If you'd like to try it here is the recipe:

Cornflake Cookies

1 cup sugar

1 cup coconut

3 cups cornflakes

3 egg whites

1 cup nuts (we used black walnuts)

Beat egg whites until stiff. Add sugar and beat. then add coconut, nuts and corn flakes. Bet well and drop on ungreased cookies sheet using a teaspoon. Bake 300 20 minutes.

So good.

8:30 pm, 24 degress and a winter storm warning has been posted!