Aebleskivers

My family loves these, aebleskivers.  They are like pancakes but made round in a special pan.  We eat them with home made jam or jelly, syrup and sometimes we put little cuts of cooked sausage links in the center of them while they are cooking.  

Here is the recipe that I used last time I made them and they were delicious.  The batter stays good in the frige until the next day if you don't cook all of them.  It is also a good recipe for pancakes.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/11037/aebleskiver/

Fresh Pumpkin Ginger Bread

I made this Fresh Pumpkin Ginger Bread with my left over pumpkins from Halloween.  I had a huge jack-o-lantern that I sliced up and baked to add to my pumpkins.  Clean out your pumpkins inside and out.  Then bake them until they are tender.  I let them cool for about 20-30 minutes so that when I pureed them they would not make a mess.  Pumpkins can be stringy so make sure you puree them well. I had a variety of pumpkins that I mixed all the flesh together.  I am sure most kinds will be fine.

I used a recipe from allrecipes.com but changed it up a bit.  I live in high altitude and so I adjusted this recipe to fit where I live and what I had on hand.

  I also made this in large batches so that I could give it to neighbors and friends.  It really turned out great.

Pumpkin Ginger Bread

6 Cups Sugar

1/2 c. apple sauce

1 1/2 c. oil

8 eggs

5 1/3 c. fresh cooked pureed pumpkin flesh.

4 tsp. ginger

2 tsp. allspice

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

2 tsp. ground cloves

7 cups allpurpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 TBLS salt

1/2 tsp. baking powder

Preheat oven 350 degrees.  Oil and flour 4 bread pans.  Mix the first nine ingredients well then add the rest and mix.  Pour into your bread pans and bake for about an hour.  When the bread bounces back when touched or a tooth pick comes out clean when inserted into the center it is done.  It really is a fabulous bread.  I hope you try it. 

Scones With Whipped Cream and Cherrie Pie Filling

I had left over scone dough the other day and decided to make them for breakfast.  While I was searching the fridge for other breakfast items I remembered I had left over pie filling and whipped cream from other meals.  I really hate to waist so I fried up the scones and topped them with the cherry pie filling and whipped cream.  They were really decadent.  They were so rich one is more than enough.

The recipe is a buttermilk scone recipe.  I have the recipe book and would recommend it to everyone. There are a few recipes in there that I love.  If you cannot find the book I did look up a blog that has a recipe for them.http://lovellfamilyrecipes.blogspot.com/2010/02/lion-house-buttermilk-scones.html  When I topped the scones with canned pie filling.  I am sure any flavor will do.  I had homemade whipped cream because we have a corn allergy and most purchased whipped creams have corn starch and corn syrup.  It melts on the hot scone quickly but it is delicious.

When I am not making loads of scones I just fry them in a skillet on the stove.  If I am doing loads I will use my deep frier.  When you test the oil to see if it is hot enough dip the end of your dough in the hot oil.  If it bubbles right away it is ready to fry your scones.

Canning Pears

This fall has been wonderful to get so much fruit.  Who doesn't love pears?  These were given to me and boy are they beautiful.  They taste great too.  I made some wonderful pancakes with them.  Jamie Oliver has a youtube video that shows his girls making these pancakes.  They are so fluffy and good.

The recipe has 1 c. self rising flour, a pinch of salt and 1 c. milk, 1 egg and then you shred a fruit into the batter.  I used pears.  I made them several times and they turned out great each time.

I think that my kids like the pear juice the best.  I am glad to have them part of my food storage.

Orange Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

Orange Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

This recipe started from allrecipes.com but I changed it up.  I don't like cinnamon and nutmeg in all my breads so I left it out of mine.  It also called for nuts and we have nut allergies in our family so I left those out also.  The bread has a great texture and tastes really good.  I think if I had more oranges I would have increased the zest slightly.  I tend to have extra zucchini that is over flowing the measuring cup too when I measure.  

The bread turned out really well.  I made muffins and bread out of this recipe and my family liked it.  One of my daughters thought there were too many chocolate chips in it though.

Orange Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

3 eggs

2 c sugar

1 c oil

2 tsp vanilla

2 c zucchini

1 c chocolate chips

1 TBL Orange zest

3 c flour

1/4 tsp baking Powder

1 tsp Baking soda

1 tsp salt

Bake at 350 for about 50 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean when inserted into the center of the loaf.  It makes 2 loaves.  Mini muffins take about 13 minutes.

Vanilla Zucchini Bread

Vanilla Zucchini Bread

It seams to me that it is hard to find that zucchini bread recipe that your whole family will like.  I was making my zucchini bread to use up that plethora of zucchini that you get each fall.  I hate to waste, so I bake them into breads and muffins and freeze them.  I have found for me that I never use the zucchini that I shredded and put in my freezer, but the breads are ready to go.  I can grab a couple of loaves for a guild meeting or someone I visit without having to stop what I am doing.  They thaw very quickly and taste great.  It is also nice to have some ready for breakfast and snacks.

These are the mini muffins.  My kids loved them.

 This is one of the many loaves that I made.

Vanilla Zucchini Bread

3 eggs

2 c sugar

2/3 c oil

1/3 c grated pear

1 1/2 T vanilla

2 c zucchini

3 c flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

Mix it all together and bake at 350 F. until a tooth pick comes out clean when inserted into the bread.  The bread takes about 55 minutes.                                                                                                                                      If you are making mini muffins they only take about 13 minutes.

In making this recipe it sort of evolved.  I ran out of oil and only had enough for two batches.  I was tripling the batch so I grated a ripe pear to make up the difference in oil.  They turned out better than I ever expected.  My family loves them.

I have made so many I told my husband that maybe I will give them out now for Christmas.  That way I won't have to store them in my freezer and they will be fresh.  Besides doesn't it seem that we get so many treats at Christmas that it would be nice to get it at a different time.  He said people may not remember that I already gave them something.  I told him it doesn't matter I will.

Grape Juice

Canning Grape Juice

I love home bottled grape juice.  I know exactly what is in it and it only costs me the price of new lids.  I already have the jars and rings for the tops.  The grapes were given to me by my mother.  My grapes won't ripen for another month.  They really are best after it gets colder.  I started with green grapes that made the white grape juice.  Then I added a few purple to give my juice some color.  I think color makes things more appealing.

This is a steam juicer.  You put the water in the bottom level and the grapes in the top.  The steam rises to the grapes and they release the juice to the center level.  There is a clamp on the tube that comes out of the center level so that you can drain it into your sterilized jars below it.

This is from the green grapes.

The dark ones are from the purple grapes and the pink from a mixture of green and purple.

Peaches

Peaches

Peaches are so wonderful.  I got some peaches from my mother-in-law, who lives in Payson, Utah.  They are so delicious.  I had Peach Short Cake a couple of times.  I love the recipe in the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, it is for strawberry shortcake.  The biscuits are sweet and delicious with the peaches and whip cream.  I also bottled a few quarts and made peach jam.  I had never made peach jam before because my husband had said he didn't love peaches.  Well, he quite enjoyed the peach jam.

The jam really is delicious.  I don't know why I have never made it before.  I also made some peach/pear jam.  I like it too.

Black Bean Mango Salsa

I made this up the other day for dinner.  I had gotten some peppers, onions and mangoes from Bountiful Baskets and thought that this would be a good way to use them.  We used the black bean salsa in our shrimp tacos.  They were delicious.  

Black Bean Mango Salsa

1 med. onion

2 mangoes

3 garlic cloves

1 bunch of cilantro

2 green chilies

2 cans of black beans

1 large red pepper

juice of 1 lime

salt and pepper to taste

optional cumin to taste 

Directions: Chop and toss.  Serve with tacos or chips

 The shrimp I put in the tacos was precooked frozen shrimp.  I just warmed them in a pan with some Weber All Natural Smokey Mesquite Seasoning.  This is quite spicy for the kids, if you put too much of it on.  I like the taco shells that you cook at home.  They are very much worth the little time you take to cook them.

By the way, bountifulbaskets.org is where you order your basket.  It is a great deal with a great variety of fruits and vegetables.

Bottled Italian Chicken

     This chicken is flavored with the italian seasoning packet you would use in the salad dressings.  It is done only with the seasoning packet and chicken.  The chicken makes its own juices.  I did this so that I could whip out a quick meal when needed.  You may have tried the chicken recipe that you cook the chicken (about 4 breasts) in the crock pot all day with italian seasoning packet and butter, then at the end you add the can of cream of chicken and block of cream cheese.  You can even put frozen chicken in the crock pot and it still works out great.  It is really good if you haven't tried it you should.  I don't know the name of the recipe but we call it Ugly Chicken.  We serve it over a bed of rice or noodles.  It is a family favorite.  

     For bottling this I put 1/2 of a packet per jar.  I would next time put in the whole thing in each jar.  You fill your sterilized jars with chicken leaving 1 1/2 inch head space.  Wipe the rim and place hot lids on.  Process them as instructed with your pressure canner.

     It was very convenient to just open a jar, dump it in a pot and add the can of cream of chicken and cream cheese and heat.  The chicken can be shredded or just cut into smaller pieces.

  Convenient Sweet Mexican Chicken

I thought that it would be convenient to have this chicken bottled.  Normally you put the chicken in a crock pot with salsa and sugar and then shred it after it has cooked all day.  You eat it on tortillas, like tacos.  This is great with pork too.  It is so good but sometimes I don't plan ahead well.  I decided to bottle this.  It turned out fabulous.

Sweet Mexican Chicken Recipe.

2 c. brown sugar

2 jars (16 oz) salsa

Mix these together. Put the chicken in the clean sterilized jars.  Then pour the salsa mixture over the top filling in around the chicken.  Remember to leave 2 inches of head space.  Wipe the top rim and put the hot lids on.  Then process as your pressure canner recommends.  Sometimes it leaks out a little but it will be fine.  When you are ready to use it shred it and heat.  Serve with all the taco fixings, lettuce, cheese, tomato, avocado, and beans.