Halloween Treat for Big Kids

This morning I was thinking about how busy this holiday can be when you have children at home and how completely boring and uneventful it is when they've all grown up and moved away.  After the drama of finding the perfect costume was over (which I did not enjoy), we used to have lots of fun as a family decorating the house, trick or treating to a few, select homes, attending fall festivals and for years, we invited friends over to our house to party.  It was never a scary time, just a time for lots of fun. 

As I get older, I realize that boring isn't necessarily a bad thing, in fact, I kind of like it.  However, for some reason today,  I was still feeling the need to celebrate this holiday in some way.  Since I already bought, and ate, the candy corn, I had to think of something else to do.  I decided to whip up a little something sweet and do some reverse trick or treating, sharing my goodies with friends.  Flipping through the recipe box, I found a frosted pumpkin cookie that sounded perfectly Halloween-y (I may have just made that word up), in a grown up kind of way.  Pumpkin puree, orange zest, raisins and nuts sounded like a delicious combination. 

Here's where the good part comes in.  These cookies don't have just any old frosting on them, oh no.  I slathered them with an "over the top" orange frosting made with fresh orange juice.  The only thing better than orange frosting on pumpkin cookies might be orange frosting on cinnamon rolls.  Hmm.  Maybe for Christmas?

These cookies are like eating little bites of chewy cake with yummy frosting.  I made them small, so they could be enjoyed three or four at a time.  No guilt friends.  It's Halloween.

Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Cookies with Orange Frosting

1 cup sugar

1 cup canned pumpkin

1/2 cup shortening ( I use non-hydrogenated)

1 T. grated orange zest

2 cups unbleached plain flour

1 t. baking powder

1 t. baking soda

1 t. cinnamon

1/4 t. salt

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup chopped nuts ( I like walnuts in these)

Heat oven to 375 degrees.  Mix sugar, pumpkin, shortening and orange zest.  Stir in flour,

baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.  Stir in raisins and nuts.

Drop onto ungreased cookie sheets.  Bake for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned.

Immediately remove from cookie sheet.  Let cool, then spread with frosting.

Frosting

1/4 cup melted butter

2 cups powdered sugar

1 t. orange extract

2 T. oranges juice - you may need to add more or less to get it to 

the right spreading consistency.

Stir sugar into melted butter.  Add extract and orange juice.

Growing Garlic

It's almost the end of the calendar year, and most gardener's are pretty worn out by this time.  I know I'm ready for a break, but there's just one more thing I have to get in the ground before I can rest.  Yes, it's time to plant the garlic.  Because I love cooking with garlic and use so much of it, I think I need to grow my own.  Last year I experimented by planting some garlic cloves and was pleasantly surprised when I harvested a dozen heads this summer.  Since I really didn't know what I was doing, I think I got lucky.  But it just made me want to learn more and grow more!  So I took a class.

If you know me well, you know I like to take classes and boy was this one worth a few hours on a Saturday afternoon.  Christopher, from Red Wing Farms in Asheville helped me learn everything I needed to know to feel confident in growing garlic.  And lucky for you ( and with his permission), I'm going to tell you all about it.

Garlic is a close relative to onions, shallots. leeks and chives and because it's a bulb plant, the ideal time to plant them is in the fall.  The first thing I learned is that there are two main kinds of garlic; hardneck and softneck.  The garlic you buy in the grocery store is a softneck variety.  That's because softneck garlic has a longer shelf life and if you are growing commercial garlic, that's very important.   Another thing I learned is that the softneck garlic is the only kind that can be braided after harvesting.  So even though I didn't know it at the time, what I planted last year was softneck garlic.  I  bought a head of garlic from the co-op for planting and that was a lucky decision too.  Because now I know that conventionally grown garlic is often sprayed to prevent it from sprouting, so buying organic garlic for planting is important.  

Even though softneck garlic has advantages, the hardneck garlic is supposed to be more flavorful than softneck and grows scapes in the spring.  Scapes are the flowering part of the plant and are tasty in lots of dishes.  I kept wondering why my garlic didn't have scapes last year, now I know.   It was because I had planted softneck and it doesn't have scapes.   This year I decided to grow some of both.

I ordered seed garlic from Filaree Garlic Farm in Washington state.  I loved looking through their catalog and they were really helpful in answering questions about my growing area.  I was thrilled with the quality of the seed garlic.  Each head was big and healthy and ready to plant.  If my garlic grows well this year,  I can save some of the largest heads to plant as seed next October.  That would be great, because seed garlic is expensive.  But there are so many different varieties of garlic with varying flavors that I think I may just have to try something new out of that catalog for years to come.

Before planting, I had to prepare the garden bed.  Doesn't that soil look nice?  After about five years of working these beds and adding composted material back into them each season, the soil is happy and brimming with worms and such.

I separated the cloves, reserving the smallest ones to plant as spring garlic.  They won't develop into full heads, but milder than regular garlic, they can be chopped and eaten like green onions. 

If each one of these cloves grow into a full head of garlic, I'm going to have plenty for storage.  I planted Kilarney Red as my hardneck variety and these will need to be eaten first when harvested in July.  I planted twice as much of the softneck variety, Silver White Silverskin, and hope these grow really well, so I can make more of those cool braids to store for winter, or maybe give for Christmas gifts?

The bigger the clove, the bigger the potential head of garlic will be.  

The cloves were planted like this, about 2 inches deep, and six inches apart.

After the garlic was planted and covered, I spread straw mulch over the bed.  This will help maintain moisture as well as  protect it from extreme freezing conditions through the winter. 

Last step was giving it a good watering.  And that's it.  Now, I basically forget about it until summer.  Some plants may send up green shoots during the winter, but when spring arrives the garlic begins it major growth spurt.  The hardest thing for me about growing garlic is wanting to see what's going on under that straw...and having to wait to dig it up.  I feel that way about all my root vegetables though.

Growing garlic is easy.  The only negative I can see, is it has to be in the ground for eight to nine months, monopolizing important garden space.  But if you have the room, it's a rewarding growing experience and having your own fresh garlic is huge for this cook.   This bed will probably be home for my garlic  for the next few growing seasons.  However,  I have my eye on a space to put in a few more raised beds before spring.  I am a big fan of growing food in boxes.

Kitchen Makeover Update

Once upon a time, on another blog, we started a kitchen remodeling project.  You can check that out here.  I knew then that it would take a while to complete.  New counter tops were the first big project and I sure have loved those.  Next we bought a dishwasher.  After going without one for a few years, I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed having a dishwasher again.  And since the last dishwasher we bought was when we built our house (about fifteen years ago), I was thrilled with how much they have improved!  This one is so nice and quiet, I can actually watch tv while the dishwasher is running.  This past month we took the next step and had the tile work done behind my cook top.  This is what it looked like before we started.

And this is what it looks like now.

What do you think?  I'm so in love with it!!!   After completing something major, we usually take a break for a while, sometimes a long while, before we jump back in.  But my dear husband must love me a lot, because this week he started repainting the island.  Now, this is a huge job and will drastically change the look of the kitchen.  It's been scary, change can be like that.  But I think it's going to be beautiful when it's finished.   I'll be back with pictures...

Daybook: On a Glorious October Day

Outside my window... October is putting on a show!   This is the view out of the back of my house and this is what I see 

 from our pasture.  The colors are so beautiful, I can hardly stand it.  I love, love, love fall!

I am wearing... a tiered peasant skirt, blue t shirt and tan jacket.  I'm heading out of the house today.  Oh, and I have on 

gold flats.  I'm not going barefoot.

I am listening to... the dryer  humming along and the fan on my computer.  I should put my laptop in the shop and have it 

checked out, but I don't want to go days without it.  Amazing how dependent I am on this computer.

I am thankful for... colored leaves, apples and pears, time with my children, and a weekend with my husband.  It was a "stay-

cation" and we spent more uninterrupted time together than we have in years.  Maybe next time, we will leave town, but I was

happy for what I could get.  

Around the house... lots of things going on around here!  In the kitchen, we've had tile work done behind the cook top.  It 

looks great (pictures coming soon).  A new heat pump and water heater aren't nearly as exciting, but were a necessity.  The 

painting of the kitchen island has begun and is a little scary.  But we're committed now!   It's going to be a big change for

my kitchen and will lighten things up, which will be good.  After talking with friends who had a house fire, we've put up new

smoke detectors on every level.  We've been terribly negligent about checking those and when we finally did, we found only

one that still worked.  We've been cleaning out the basement and are getting ready to put down new carpet there.  After kids

and animals have called that area home for the last fifteen years, it's time to clean things out and spruce it up.  And we're 

shopping for new furniture for the family room.  Also, very needful.  

I am loving... Lark Rise to Candleford.   Thanks to a friend who told me about streaming tv shows through Amazon, I've been 

catching up on this BBC series.  And I'm hooked.  The characters are delightful and  oh, so British!  I find myself thinking about

taking tea every afternoon.  Anyone like to join me?

I'm not a fan of... presidential debates.  They completely stress me out.  I'm not going to watch anymore.  I know who I'm voting

for and a debate just gets me anxious right before bedtime and messes up my sleep.  And I need my sleep!

I am hoping.... to see progress for some struggling young adults.  I pray.  I pray.  And I pray.  Not sure if there is anything else I 

can do right now.

I am reading.... Happiness at Home by Gretchen Rubin.  I loved her first book, The Happiness Project and am a regular visitor

to her blog.   Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind, by Ann Ross for the Relief Society Book Club and just finished selections from Montaigne's

Essays for the Great Books Discussion Group.  Miss Julia is fun and light and the Great Books have the potential to give me a 

headache, as I have to think so hard to understand them.   But I wanted to challenge myself, by reading things over my head and 

this works.  Oh, and I'm taking my own advise for life long learning of "hanging out with people smarter than yourself".  The nice 

folks in my discussion group are retired college and high school English teachers and man am I learning tons from them.

I am creating... lots of knitted dishcloths.  I like this project, because I can start and finish pretty quickly.  Plus it's good practice

for basic stitches, increasing and decreasing.  

I am pondering... some great thoughts from yesterday's Sacrament Meeting on the law of the harvest.

  "Gardening and farming call out the best qualities in us,  hard work, patience and tender care."

Mary Hyder

I am learning... to let go.  Well, I'm trying, anyway.

From the kitchen... pumpkin bread, soups, chicken pie and other hearty, yummy foods.  We had a pan of brownies (my mom's
recipe, which is my kid's favorite), every Sunday for about six weeks.   While Dillon and Jantzen were here, I  cooked a lot. They
sure appreciated mom's food.  Now I'm cooking for two again, so we're having salmon for dinner tonight.  Salmon with cherry sauce,
roasted sweet potatoes and sugar snap peas.  Makes me hungry just thinking about it.

Living my faith by... visiting primaries throughout the stake and watching their primary sacrament programs.  Absolutely 

precious.  We just completed our fall leadership training meeting.  That's always a relief.  I'm beginning to listen to the conference

talks from the last general conference.  "A conference talk a day, keeps satan away."  Mark and I are reading scriptures together

before bed each night.  His idea...and I love it.

In the garden... I planted garlic (blog post coming soon).  The lettuce and cabbages are growing, but slowly.  I think I planted

them a little too late, but I'm hoping they will still produce some good food.  I need to clean out the beans and the okra, both 

ready to go to the compost pile.

Around the farm... still working with the chickens to try to eradicate the mites.  Tara helped me for weeks with the dusting, until

she ended up infesting her own chickens, compliments of mine.  I felt really badly about that.  Because this is not a battle for the

faint of heart.  Fortunately she has lots of fight in her, I on the other hand am getting worn down by it.  We extracted one super

of honey and it is delicious.  Now we're feeding the bees hoping they will make it through the cold months ahead.  

A few plans for the rest of the week... Republican Women's Club Luncheon, book club meeting and three doctor's 

appointments.  I'm not sure how I let that happen...

A picture thought...

When I asked for help with the chandelier, I didn't expect him to do it this way! 

Frugal Friday Tips from the Kitchen and a Pumpkin Recipe

October means pumpkins on my porches and in my kitchen.

It's that time of year when I want to be whipping up goodies that smell and taste like autumn.  Since I buy canned pumpkin when it goes on sale in the fall and stock my shelves with it, I could (and sometimes do) make pumpkin desserts year round.  But when the leaves start turning and the cool days string together, I really want to start using that pumpkin.  Did you notice that first frugal tip?  Buy cheap and store for later!  I'll be talking a lot more about that in the months to come. 

This week, I decided to pull out Mom Wray's recipe for pumpkin bread.  It's a family favorite and tastes so good!   I made a double batch!  Making sweet nut breads are as simple as mixing dry ingredients with wet and pouring into a pan. While shopping at Fresh Market, I noticed they had their breads buy one get one free.  Even at that reduced price, it's less expensive to make your own.   Frugal tip #2.

Begin by mixing all the dry ingredients in a large bowl.  You don't even have to use a mixer, you can mix this by hand if you like.  But my mixing bowl is the largest bowl I have, so I use it.

Into the flour mixture goes lots of warm spices, like cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves.

In a separate bowl, the wet ingredients are mixed together.

Eggs first,

then oil, water and applesauce.  Now applesauce is my own little trick to using less oil.  It makes the bread healthier (although, to be honest I'm not really too concerned with that for this recipe), and since I live in apple country and make my own applesauce its less expensive than oil.  Frugal tip #3.

I love nuts in my bread, but nuts are expensive!  Just today I noticed the price of pecans in my local grocery store were $9.59 for 10 ounces.  I buy mine from Sam's and they are a little cheaper, but even then they are on the pricey side.  Here's a great tip for stretching this precious baking commodity.  Lightly toast your nuts on the stovetop before adding to your recipe.  You have to do this on low temperature and stir constantly, because they will burn quickly and then you obviously aren't saving money if you have to throw them out and start over.  The toasting process brings out the flavor of the nuts and you can use half the amount the recipe calls for without sacrificing the taste at all.  Frugal tip #4.

Toast, then chop.

Mix wet ingredients with dry and stir in nuts.  Pour into baking pans.  I like making mini loaves and this recipe will make five or two large loaves if you prefer.

The recipe calls for two cups of pumpkin, leaving this much leftover from the second can.  Little containers of food like pumpkin, can easily find their way to the back of the refrigerator and by the time you pull them out they can be covered with fuzzy growth.  I'm sure I'm not the only one that happens to, right?

When I put it in the fridge, I jot myself a note on the pad on the door that I have pumpkin in here that needs to be used.  And if the cookie making doesn't happen, I can always stir it into my oatmeal for breakfast, or make pumpkin waffles.  Oh, yeah!  Frugal tip #5 - always know what's in the refrigerator that needs to be used.  Wasted food is wasted money.

Here's the results of today's baking adventure.  What am I going to do with all of that bread?  Well, I tucked a couple of loaves into a "goodie box" that is accompanying two musicians back to Colorado and the rest will be gifts for some amazing ladies who will be helping me out with a primary training tomorrow morning.  And I kept a few for my sweetheart who just happens to love pumpkin bread.  I hope you try this one out for yourself.  I think you'll be happy with the results.

Mom Wray's Pumpkin Bread

3 1/2 cups unbleached plain flour

3 cups sugar

1/2 t. baking powder

2 t. baking soda

Stir the above ingredients together and then add:

1 1/2 t. salt

1 t. cloves

1 1/2 t. cinnamon

1 1/2 t. nutmeg

1 t. pumpkin pie spice

Mix well.  In another bowl, mix:

4 eggs

1/2 cup oil

1/2 cup applesauce

2/3 cup water

1 t. vanilla

2 cups pumpkin

1 cup toasted, chopped nuts

Add wet ingredients to dry and mix well.  Pour into greased and floured pans.

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes (5 small loaves) or for 1 hour (2 large loaves)

* If you don't use applesauce, you would use 1 cup of oil.

Food Cubes - A Frugal Friday Tip

I hate to waste food.  Often a recipe calls for a small amount of an ingredient and you're left wondering what to do with the rest of it. Tomato paste is a classic example. I've tried the tomato paste that comes in a tube and that's pretty handy.  Just squeeze out what you need, cap it and put it back in the refrigerator. But as with most things "convenient", those little tubes are pricey.  I would rather buy the small cans when they are on sale.  After using my tablespoon in a recipe, I put the rest in ice cube trays and make cubes from the leftovers.  The next time I need tomato paste, I defrost my cubes in the microwave and I'm ready to go.   I do the same thing with pesto.  These little cubes are perfect for when you need just a little to stir in soup or put on a slice of bread. Or how about on that leftover spaghetti from a few nights ago.  Am I the only one who never cooks the right amount of noodles?  What about lemons that are getting old and dried up in the refrigerator?  I juice them and make cubes.  I do the same thing with the zest.  Whenever I get ready to make chicken piccata, I pull out a few cubes and defrost them and that yummy meal is on the table in no time.  There is a definite difference in fresh lemon juice and juice that you buy in a bottle.  Fresh is always best and I try to use it whenever possible.  There are lots of other things that lend themselves to food cubes.  Chicken or vegetable broth cubes can be dropped into a pot of soup. Mashed and pureed fruits can be cubed and added to smoothies.  Can you think of others?  Each cube is about a tablespoon, so it's easy to know how many cubes you will need for a recipe.

Now, I've added another item to my cube stash.  Eggs.  Thanks to Jessica and her pinning, she found this idea on Pinterest and passed it along to me.  And I'm glad she did, because it's that time of year when the chickens are starting to lay fewer eggs.  In years past, I kept a light on a timer in the coop and the girls continued to lay eggs all winter.   But this year I've decided to let them run their natural course and that means the egg production will stop until spring.  While I have eggs now, I'm putting some in the freezer.  I don't know if I will have enough cubes to get me through the winter, but I'll be grateful for every egg I have.  I mean look at the color of that yolk!  You just can't buy eggs like that in the store.

I find that having food cubes in the freezer is a frugal way to manage my food dollars.   And with the rising cost of food, every little bit helps.   Come back next Friday and I'll share another idea to help you save money.  And please, share your ideas with me!

Judy's Won ton Salad

Whenever I make this salad, I enjoy sweet memories of a dear friend who used to live in my town and go to church with me.  She and her husband have since served three or four missions for our church ( I lost count), which have taken her to all parts of the world and they now reside in California.  She is one of my Titus 2 friends.  You can read about those special ladies here.  I learned so many things from her, but her example to me of a godly woman who was always serving others tops the list.  Judy didn't wait for an assignment, she saw a need and was there.  I know, because I was a recipient of her love on more than one occasion.  So when I pull out this recipe, I think of Judy and wish she would move back to NC.  I miss her!!   It's fun to remember the supper club meeting at my house, when she taught us how to make this salad.  Our theme that night was summer salads and this one was on the menu.  That's Judy on the left.

Now that's a bunch of cooks in the kitchen!   But we had so much fun.  I miss supper club too.

We turned out some killer food at those meetings.

I'm thankful that Judy shared this recipe that night, because it has become one of my family's favorite salads.  I've adapted it somewhat, to suit our needs better, but it still tastes like Judy's Won ton Salad.  The only problem with this salad is that it seems to grow in the bowl. You can't make a small Won ton Salad and it doesn't lend itself to leftovers, so you need to have a crowd when you make it.  If you have a large family or are entertaining, then it's a nonissue.  With Dillon and Jantzen home, I thought we would be able to finish it off...and we did.

As it's name implies, the star of this dish is won tons.  I use half a package and freeze the rest for another time.

The won tons are quickly fried in vegetable oil. This goes super fast, because it only takes a minute for them to brown, so don't walk away from the stove. That would be dangerous and you would burn them.   Drain on paper towel.  Set aside.

Chop some good crunchy lettuce, romaine works well.   Put this in a big bowl. 

Then chop and add the other ingredients on top of the lettuce.  I like green onions,

sliced and drained water chestnuts,

and cucumbers.  Carrots and red pepper would also be good( but I didn't add them this time).

I did however have some wonderful fresh pineapple in the fridge (thanks Carol), so I chopped that up and added it.

Earlier in the week, we had grilled chicken and I intentionally made extra for this salad.  So all I had to do was pull it out and chop it.

I toasted some sesame seeds to go on top of the salad

and whipped up the dressing.  I've cut the sugar in half and substituted agave nectar.  The dressing is still nice and sweet, but I can eat it with out guilt this way. The ingredients for the dressing are salt, rice vinegar, sugar, agave nectar and vegetable oil.  Very simple and really delicious.

Add the oil last and whisk together.

Now comes the fun part.  All those won tons that were fried up earlier, get crunched on top of the salad.

Thanks to Dillon for getting his hands dirty and helping out.  I still love having my kids in the kitchen.

We may have been having too much fun with this.  And Jantzen was running around snapping pictures like crazy, from unusual angles (like the one above) and making us all laugh. Who says cooking dinner can't be fun?  I have no pictures of the salad on plates. You'll have to use your imagination.  As soon as that dressing was on and we had tossed the salad, all we were thinking about was eating it!

Judy's Won Ton Salad 

1 head lettuce, chopped

1/2 package wontons, fried in oil, drained well on paper towels

chicken breasts, cooked and chopped

1 small can water chestnuts, chopped

chopped cucumbers, carrots, celery, red peppers (or whatever you like)

1/4 cup sesame seeds, toasted

3 small green onions, chopped

Chop lettuce, onions, water chestnuts and other vegetables of your choice.  Chop chicken.  Place all in large bowl.  Add sesame seeds and dressing.  Mix well.  Eat immediately.  Soggy wontons are no fun.

Dressing

2 t. salt

8 t. rice vinegar

5 T. sugar ( or combination of sugar and other sweetener such as agave)

1/2 cup vegetable oil

Mix well with wire whisk.  Sugar and salt will not completely dissolve.