Happy Birthday

"Yaaayyy! Today is my birthday. I am forty! Jennifer said I had to have my picture taken with my cake. I told her that was just for the kids."


"I was wrong. I'll make the best of it. This is my cake. German Chocolate from a box. It's my favorite. Isn't my wife awesome for making it for me? Too bad she'll eat most of it."


"Want some? You'd better hurry before she eats it all."

Happy 40th Doug and Many, Many More!!!

Apple Project #3 - Extraction

I don't mean the juice from the fruit....


I mean the fruit from June's mouth.

Easier said than done.

Egg Cookery

Since early August, our little flock has been providing us with 4 eggs a day. Needless to say, we've been eating a lot of eggs. Henry has especially embraced the addition of this ~ impossible to get closer to the source ~protein to his diet.


He has begun fixing his own breakfast everyday. Of course, egg cookery has been his focus and usually there is ham involved. He takes it very seriously and concentration is high. I have many, many pictures of the egg dishes he has created. For some reason the children feel compelled to photograph everything they cook. Hmmmm.

They say the true testament of a great chef is the ability to cook eggs beautifully. There are so many methods and so many ways for the cooking of them to go horribly wrong.

I think these are beautiful.

But the service is the best.

Found

WANTED:
The perfect family meal.
Cost effective. Broadly appealing.
Minimal prep. One pot ideal. Easily doubled.
Slow cooker adaptability a plus. Keeps well.
Exceptional on a cold night. (think Halloween)
Great when spouse is working late,
Daughter needs to be picked up from a play date,
Quickly growing middle schooler is "hanging out" with friends,
Youngest is accompanying you to a cross country meet
you cleverly volunteered to work,
while cheering on dedicated runner.
(said runner will dilly-dally endlessly after meet)
Homework must be done.
The clock is ticking.

If you are expecting lots of pretty pictures and interesting ingredients you'll be disappointed.


Apparently, the less prep the messier I am. I could blame it on the time crunch? Easy pantry ingredients. Few things to wash.


Dump it all into a slow cooker and set to low. See to-do list above.


When most everyone is home, serve with cornbread and fried apples, if you have the time.

You can thank me later.

Old Fashioned "One Pot" Bean Dinner

1# lean ground beef (try grass fed)
1/2# sliced bacon, cut into 2" pieces
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
2) 28oz. cans pork and beans
1) 20oz. can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1-2 cups frozen lima beans
1 1/2 cups ketchup
1/4 cup light brown sugar
3 T. cider vinegar

In a medium sized saute pan, cook the ground beef over medium-high heat until browned. Drain off the fat and dump meat into a 4 quart pan or slow cooker. In the same skillet cook the bacon and onion over medium heat. Bacon should still be limp, about 6-8 minutes. Drain off the fat and add to the beef.

Dump in all beans, ketchup, brown sugar and cider vinegar. Stir well.

Cover and cook on extra low simmer on the stove top or in a a crock pot on low until hot and bubbly.

Serves 10

Apple Project #2 - Apple Fruit Leather

Many years back, as an over achieving pre-school mom, I made fruit leather for Max's class when they were studying Indians. I mean Native Americans. Max has repeatedly asked me to make it again over the years. I made it once or twice - or maybe just once. It takes a lot of apples to make a little bit of leather and it's seemed cost prohibitive. Considering that when left to their own devices a $3 box of organic fruit leather is gone in, ohhhh, 5 minutes.

"Oh, but it's so much more healthy than fruit roll-ups." That's not comforting when you know the transaction hasn't cleared with the bank and the empty box sits on the counter. (why put it in the recycling?)

My recent apple windfall put me in a position to make apple fruit leather for Max. It's super easy, really tasty, comes together in no time and dries as you sleep.

To fill a half sheet pan, I peeled and chopped apples to equal about 8 cups. I cooked them over medium low heat with a bit of apple juice to prevent sticking. Remember the objective is to reduce the water content so don't add to much additional liquid. Once soft they got into the blender.


Blend into a nice smooth puree that looks like baby food.


For the first batch I added 1 T. sugar, 2 teaspoons of lemon juice and a 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon. For the second batch I have ready to go into the oven I tried agave nectar and The Spice House pumpkin pie spice.


You can simply line your sheet pan with saran wrap. Try not to have too much extra around the edges and avoid letting it touch the oven racks. I used my silpat mat but since I was concerned about it seeping underneath the mat, I lined the edges with plastic wrap. I found that's not necessary so if you have a silpat that's the way to go. It seems weird to cook on plastic so I might suggest trying parchment paper cut to fit the pan instead. Spread the puree into a smooth even layer.


Into the oven at 150 degrees, right before I hopped into bed. Let it cook overnight and in the morning...


Ta-Da!


A patient and happy boy!

I chose to jelly roll the leather with saran wrap (again parchment is perhaps a better choice) and cut it in to pieces as above.

Then I hid them so I could dole them out s-l-o-w-l-y.

I wanted to enjoy my efforts for longer than 5 minutes.

Apple Project #1 - Apple Cider Vinegar

As the saying goes, when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. In this case, life has given me apples and thus many cores, so I am making vinegar.

This is not the first time I've made cider vinegar. My hope is this time it will actually works. The first attempt involved The Little House on the Prairie Cookbook. (admitted living history geek) Perhaps it was the lack rain water or big barrel but it became a long forgotten science project in the furnace room. Oh well.

This experience was vastly different and required little in the way of ingredients - or equipment. It starts with only the peels and cores of two apples.


One quart filtered water, 1/4 cup raw sugar and a big glass jar.

Completely dissolve the sugar in the slightly warmed water and add the apple scraps. Top the jar with butter muslin to keep foreign objects out and allow wild yeast in.

And wait. In about 2-3 weeks it should begin to darken at which point the scraps are removed and the vinegar left to ferment further.

Time will tell - and I'll tell you.

Good Bye Summer!

Today, the last day of Summer 2010, I want to document a few of the simple things we enjoyed.



Hanging out on the porch. It's the perfect place to relax, have lunch, produce a "talk show" and catch up with friends and neighbors. It's also the perfect place to drink beer.

Our new stamped patio was poured. This is the first step in a huge project. Eventually, we'll have a plumbed outdoor kitchen with fireplace, wood-fired oven, grill and smoker. Doug has done a great job designing it and we look forward to beginning the building. We also look forward to the pizzas we will make.


Henry had his first lesson in cement work.


The ice cream man has returned to Prairie Street. Gone are the days of a 50 cent ice cream but the thrill is still the same.


We gathered lots of eggs.


My first baby turned 14. Jake is a great kid and caring brother. He cracks me up everyday. I love that about it him. He's not going to get any older, right?


We hosted the 2nd Annual Wing Thing to raise funds for Make-A-Wish. Thanks to family and friends we were able to send off $1800 to grant wishes for some deserving kids.

Once again, Doug killed it with the wings. Check out the chef's perfect shirt.

Wing Man. Get it? Hysterical but not easy to get him to wear! Thank you for honey making me laugh. (some more)

While we stayed close to home, we had a busy summer and though we're sad to see it go,

we are anxious to see what autumn will bring.