Recipe Update


A couple of posts ago I discussed some recipes I was trying so I thought I would update.

Brownies -- the recipe I tried with three different chocolates was just too chewy -- in fact, it didn't taste done even though I cooked it longer than it called for.  So, I finally tried the one bowl recipe on the inside of the Baker's Unsweetened Chocolate Box and that is exactly what I was looking for.  After taste testing it was about as close to a box mix as I think I will get so it is going to be my go-to brownie recipe.

Cornbread -- I haven't made this recipe again but will this week.  I had tweaked the original recipe myself so I am going back to the original recipe only I am going to cut the sugar in half.  I will revisit when I have done that.

Squash Salad -- I recently read the book French Women Don't Get Facelifts and was surprised that there were some recipes included.  One caught my eye and I tried it yesterday.  It is a squash salad and it was surprisingly good -- I wasn't sure what to expect.  The ingredients are yellow squash, thinly sliced , zucchini sliced into thin ribbons and cherry tomatoes.  A light dressing of olive oil, sherry vinegar and lemon juice is added along with chopped fresh mint and feta cheese.  I had to change the recipe in a bit because I didn't have the correct ingredients.  I substituted lime juice for the lemon juice because I was out of lemon juice.  I also substituted white wine vinegar for the sherry vinegar and I had to chop up a tomato as I forgot to buy cherry tomatoes.  I don't think the tomatoes made a big difference but I am not sure about the lime juice and the different vinegar.  With all that changing, though, it was really good.  I had never thought about a squash salad but it will become part of my regular rotation.

For anybody who thinks I have taken all leave of my senses in my old age let me explain.  I am trying to get all the toxins and negative things out of my diet and my house so I have resorted to scratch cooking which is actually proving to be more fun that I thought it would be.  I am not a stranger to the concept but we have gotten to the point that we are either eating out or take-out or convenience foods and I am trying to change that.  I used to spend my time quilting or cross stitching or internet surfing -- now I find I am spending my time cooking.  I have been dabbling in the creation of a greener life and also becoming more minimalist in our lifestyle and I like the idea of buying raw ingredients and putting them together to actually make something rather than just opening a box or a can and worrying about the ingredients that I can't pronounce or what is lining the can.  After a weekend pantry overhaul, I am standing back looking at my lovely, retro glass jars full of flours, sugars and cornmeal -- my turntables with my baking supplies organized where I can actually find something and all my bottles there in one place -- and it is peaceful.  It is somehow relaxing and reassuring to know that I can actually create what I want from these simple ingredients and don't have to rely on a box of something that I might or might not have.  I know that sounds really crazy but it takes me back to what I consider a better time -- my youth -- when everybody lived this way.  It makes me happy.

So, now that I have found the perfect brownie recipe and the perfect cornbread recipe I am off to find the perfect biscuit recipe.  I grew up eating biscuits made from Pioneer Biscuit Mix -- local to San Antonio -- and it makes lovely biscuits.  My goal is to find a recipe to make equally as good biscuits as those from scratch.  I will review when I do.

Musing Mondays -- February 17, 2014


Musing Mondays is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.  To participate you need to answer one of several questions.  Today I will be discussing what I am reading currently and my opinion of the book.

I am currently reading The Quilter's Legacy by Jennifer Chiaverini.  It is the fifth book in the Elm Creek Creek series.  While you wouldn't have to read these books in order, it is helpful because there is a serial aspect to them.

I have only just begun this book but I am totally into it.  Even though I am more than twenty years younger than the main character -- Sylvia Bergstrom -- I identify with her.  I don't think I am necessarily like her because, in the first book, she is quite gruff but I think I admire her.  In any event, for an octogenarian, she has serious spunk.

I especially love the setting of these books.  Elm Creek Manor is a place I could see myself visiting and probably never wanting to leave.  The thought of having inherited a mansion and then turning it into something like a quilt camp just sounds like a lot of fun. 

Then, there is the quilting.  When I began this series of books, I thought they would be heavy with all things quilting but they aren't.  There is just enough to get me over my "quilting block" and inspire me to get back into it.  I am the sort of person that has to be in the mood to do something and sometimes I need a little push.

The history aspect of these books is very appealing.  If you like history or do genealogy these books will appeal to you.  There is a little of all of it. These books also have a bit of mystery to them so if you like mysteries, there is some of that for you, as well.

All in all, I have enjoyed this series thus far and I am sure my current read will be no different. 

To Mix or Not To Mix -- that is the dilemma!


Ok, I am trying to regain my sanity straighten out and reorganize my pantry. I seem to have an abundance of outdated food and many duplicates of things that I don't need.  I know why.  It is a large pantry and very disorganized so when I can't find something I need I just go out and buy more and then shove it in the over stuffed pantry on top of the stuff I already have.  If they had a show for Pantry Hoarders I would be a great candidate for it.

Hubs and I have been looking at ways to reorganize and so we made several purchases.  Since I am trying to cook more from scratch and less from processed, boxed foods, I am looking for storage for more raw ingredients.  I had several of these jars in the past, gave them away and realized lately that they were really good so I have purchased more.

We have a reasonably large pantry with L-shaped shelves.  That is all fine and good except for those pesky corners which are very difficult to deal with because things get lost in them.  When you are shorter, like I seem to be getting, the third shelf up is just too high for me to get into the corner so we bought  three of these for two of the corners.

We bought two large ones -- one for bottles and one for baking supplies.  I seem to constantly lose that little tin of baking powder.  You can't imagine how much I was able to put on these whirly gigs and clear off much shelf space.  The smaller one we use for meds.  We don't have medicine cabinets in the bathrooms so we keep those things in the kitchen but want them up out of the way of curious children.  So, they have worked well so far.

 
 I have been paying close attention to our food and what is in it so I am making more of an attempt to cook from scratch.  My husband doesn't like my cooking -- much prefers restaurant fare -- so I thought he would really like home cooked meals from scratch.  Wrong! Again -- he prefers restaurant food.  I, on the other hand, am tiring of it.  As I find myself harkening back to a different time (makes my childhood sound eons past) I realize that I really like my cooking, such as it is.  I like easy, simple meals -- mostly cooked in an oven because the stove top and I don't seem to play nice together. ( A couple of months ago I actually started my first ever grease fire but that is another story.)  However, I don't like all the junk that is in most of our foods -- from the unrecognizable ingredients in boxed goods to the linings of the cans.  I mean, seriously, why do they have to screw up the green beans -- those cute little diagonally cut morsels we all put in green bean casseroles?  So, in an effort to find scratch recipes that will successfully replace the boxed varieties and get rid of the poisonous cans, I have been doing lots of research and lots of playing in the kitchen.  Fortunately, Hubs has been a willing taste tester although he doesn't like much of what I am doing but at least he is honest.

My first attempt was to make a hot cocoa mix that would rival Swiss Miss.  I found a recipe online that was DIVINE! It consisted of powdered milk, unsweetened cocoa, powdered sugar and white chocolate chips.  Basically you grind it all up together in the food processor and mix 1/3 of a cup of the mix to a mug of hot milk.  It was perfect and entirely too sweet.  I am making an effort to cut sugar out of my diet but I am realistic and know that is going to be difficult so I am going about it slowly.  If I am going to eat something sweet I want it to be worth it. Today I tried to make it one cup at a time, without the powdered sugar.  It was really good but it didn't mix up well so I am going to concoct my own recipe and try again.

Then, I tried to find a recipe for brownies that were as good as a boxed mix.  I googled "chewy brownie recipe" and picked from the numerous sites that came up.  They were chewy all right -- as in not done even though I cooked them longer than the recipe called for.  I will be revisiting that with a recipe I found from Rachel Ray's site.  It calls for three types of chocolate so we will see.  I will probably have to rely on somebody else's opinion of these because I am pretty sure there will be too much sugar for me.

Then, there was the cornbread.  I like my cornbread to be a bit cakey rather than crumbly and I found a recipe that I thought would work to replace my favorite Pioneer Corn Muffin mix.  I had read a couple of other recipes that called for brown sugar in them and so I thought I would divide the sugar using white sugar for half and brown for the other half.  The recipes said "it made the cornbread".  Well, not for me.  The bread rose up beautifully and had a lovely texture.  It was a little darker due to the brown sugar but it tasted really -- well -- brown sugary.  Too much molasses.  So, I will try it again without the brown sugar and I will probably swap the milk with buttermilk and cut the sugar in half.

Fortunately my regular white bread recipe has turned out to be a winner.  I did substitute butter for the shortening but that was the only change I made and it is the only bread we have had in the house for weeks.  It makes a lovely full loaf and it lasts for several days unlike the bread made in the bread machine.  I also used one of these pans for the last loaf I made and I loved the results although most breadmakers will tell you to just use a regular aluminum loaf pan.  I have been using that sort of pan and it turns out great but I ran across this pottery pan in the back of a bottom cabinet -- I forgot I had bought it -- and it was really good.

So, I can't believe I am having all these culinary adventures in my old age but I am .  My three year old granddaughter wants to be a "cooker" and loves to get in the kitchen so I am having thoughts of trying to influence her to cook from scratch, something I could never achieve with her mother.  She already has a good sense of "good food" versus "bad food" so maybe with a little encouragement from me her interest in cooking will grow.  Of course, for that to happen, I have to work at it myself so maybe I will have some recipes to pass on to her when she gets that restaurant of her own she says she wants.  Or, maybe she will just be able to feed herself which is a good goal as well.

I Am Not Sure When it Happened .....

but, I have changed.

I am a child of the 50's -- you know, that perfect decade where all women vacuumed in high heels and pearls and children could run free without fear.

I am a teenager of the 60's -- you know, the perfect generation even with all the social discord and inequities and drugs but wonderful clothes and music which drove most of our parents to distraction and practically the poor house.

I was never a "flower child".  I was too busy being cute in preppy clothes and since I didn't seem to be able to grow long, gloriously straight hair it seemed pointless to try.  I did try being "mod" and would layer white eyeliner over blue eyeliner (thanks Maybelline!) and I tried my hand at asymmetrical hair cuts.

The 70's found me in the professional world which I didn't do very well, fashion wise, a wedding dress which I did quite well and for the rest of the decade I was in maternity or mommy clothes.

Everything after that was a blur.  I seemed to have completely lost my identity.  I can't remember what I did, other than Mommy things, or what I wore.

Now here I am -- 63 years old and suddenly discovering a "new" me.  I am a late bloomer -- now I am becoming a flower child -- environmentally that is -- not particularly politically -- I am too religious to think politically -- they don't seem to go together very well.  I digress.  I don't know what to do with this new found me.

I don't even know when it happened.  I could feel it coming on a few years ago when the news about plastics leaked (sorry for the pun) out. Then I started reading about the toxins in our everyday world -- things I had been exposed to all my life.  Then I thought about my children -- how much had I exposed them to toxic things never realizing.  The guilt was a little overwhelming.  I watched my parents pass away due to self inflicted diseases -- they were life-long smokers -- how could they do that, how could their addictions be more important than me -- how did their smoking affect me long term.  I started changing everything in our lives -- my husband's head was spinning.

 Then I got the diagnosis -- you know, the one everybody dreads.  You know, the one that seems to be more and more common and suddenly my interest in our environment -- generally and personally -- was tantamount. Nobody knows what happened with me.  I was asked if I smoked or lived in a smoking home -- well, yes, for twenty two years.  I got "the look", the nod and info duly noted.

So, since that little life altering event I have done a lot of major changes.  I have taken to buying more and more organic food.  I have just about completely cut sugar out of my diet and am eating more fruits and vegetables -- almost to the point of being vegetarian.  I have tossed all my cosmetics and skin care and have replaced these items with organic items -- most of which I can eat.

Good as skin moisturizer and to pop popcorn

good for facial masques and for burns

Good in granola and on your face

 

Ok -- don't eat this

 My household cleaning items consists of soap/water, baking soda and vinegar.  I make my own laundry soap and am planning to making my own dishwashing soap next week.   I am completely aware of everything I put on my body as well as in my body.  My husband isn't sure of all of this -- especially since I refuse to use his favorite Dawn dishwashing detergent  but I do allow it in the kitchen.

I have been doing all I can to increase my exercise without actually exercising, although some of that is going to start happening as well.  I bought a pedometer and now count my steps throughout my day.

If, late in the day, I don't feel as if I have walked enough, I have a "track" through my open concept house that I walk-- it is 100 steps around it so I just do several of those.  I was so stiff this morning that I did a few laps just to walk through the pain and loosen up -- it worked.

These are all things that have changed about me.  I have become more thoughtful about what I do and how I spend my time.  I have become acutely aware of what we, as humans, do to our environment and to ourselves and it is totally frightening.  I have, as a result, gone back to doing things like we used to do them when I was a child.  I wash more dishes by hand (little bit of exercise there), I bake our bread by a recipe that I mix with a spoon, not a bread machine--great upper body exercise.  I have regressed.  I have walked away from our modern, advanced life in many ways.  I watch less tv and read more books.  I have cut down on computer time and sleep more.

And, what have I got for all of this?  Am I healthier? I would like to think so.  Am I more socially aware?  Oh yes.  Am I richer?  Monetarily -- in a way because doing things the way I am doing them is cheaper.  I am not buying expensive cosmetics and skin care or cleaning items.

The things, however, that I have gotten from all of this is doing things the "old" way keeps us moving.  Using non toxic products and a little elbow grease won't hurt us.  If using less toxic cosmetics mean we use less and look more like ourselves-- so be it.   I have learned that less is truly more.  By feeling like I am doing something positive for myself, my family and those around me I feel calm.  I am not obsessing over things anymore.  I am not anxiety ridden anymore.  I am not frightened anymore and I am able to "live and let live".  I don't worry one whit about what people think about me or what I do or how I think.  I am focused on "paying it forward".  I haven't figured out how to do that on a large scale and maybe that is because it isn't supposed to be done on a large scale -- maybe it is the little things that count.  I don't know but that is my goal -- to pay it forward.  It is my purpose in life now, aside from my family, to do what little good I can for others and trying to reduce my carbon footprint is one of those ways.

Yes, I think I have become a flower child.  I wonder if I should try, once again, to grow long, glorious hair?

2014 Goodreads Challenge


My third book for the 2014 Goodreads Challenge is French Women Don't Get Facelifts by Mireille Guiliano. Like Guiliano's other book French Women Don't Get Fat, the author has provided insight as to how French women stay vibrant and youthful throughout their lives.  Actually, the advice given in the book seems pretty universal, eat less, more veg and fruit, moderate exercise -- all good advice but the one difference is the author promotes more "natural" ageing and less intervention involving surgeries, drugs, injections, cosmetics, chemicals etc.  She discuses everything from style to supplements to food, even including some recipes -- one of which I intend to try this week.

It was a good book in that it gives women of "a certain age" license to be what we are and to be comfortable in our skin.  I enjoyed reading it.

The Humble Hanky


The weather in North Texas has been inexplicable this winter.  It has always been variable but it has gone from the ridiculous to the sublime this winter.  It was 70 on Saturday and freezing with ice and snow on Sunday.  I have been sick for over a week.  I thought it was seasonal allergies but I think I was wrong.  I believe I have either had an old fashioned cold or a sinus infection but whatever it is I feel bad enough to not want to leave the house but good enough to be bored out of my mind.  So, what is a sneezy, honking, coughing girl to do?  Well, I decided to sew.  And what did I decide to sew?  Hankies. 

The decision was fueled by a very raw, painful nose and by the plan to use up some fabric scraps that were big enough to do something with but not so big to constitute yardage.  Plus, I had a block of time that I could actually sit down and get involved in something but I didn't feel good enough to have to actually get involved in anything I had to THINK about.  So, being the person I am and always researching ways to be thrifty and green, I had been looking at making handkerchiefs and flannel cosmetic squares.  So, I fished around my fabric stash and found a bunch of flannel left over from making baby blankets, I cut it up, hemmed it down and this was my final product. 

9 flannel hankies

I then decided to take the scraps from making the hankies and make some cosmetic squares.  I don't wear a lot of makeup and all of it washes off with soap and water.  I also don't wear nail polish so I don't have to worry about removing that so these should work really nicely for applying the rosewater I use after I wash my face. 

cosmetic squares

I simply cut the leftover flannel into 2 inch squares, stacked two together and zigzagged around the edges. They are nice and soft and just the right size.

I was planning on using a lingerie bag to store the soiled items waiting for the laundry but I have decided to use a small, plastic trash can in the laundry room and just place the items in there.  It will be small so I can wash it out and spray it down from time to time.  Unless I am sick, which rarely happens, I don't use many tissues so I think this new hanky plan will work for me. I have been using them for a day now and I have to say I have kept up with the one I have in my hand/pocket quite well and am not having to go around and pick up stray tissues all over the floor.

I do have a lovely collection of vintage handkerchiefs that I pulled out before making these but somehow they just didn't look so comfy and besides, they are pretty and I didn't want to use them for actually blowing my nose.  Plus, I think my flannel ones are really absorbent and they feel really good.

So, that is what a half sick, bored person does on a ice and snow day in North Texas.  You might be asking yourself what will she do today?  Well, I am going to finish a set of placemats I started about four years ago and make some matching napkins for them.  I will post photos.

BTW -- in case you are wondering, yes, I did visit my little Dr. man and I did take an antibiotic and I now think the whole thing is breaking up and leaving me so hopefully I will be back to my old self completely in the next couple of days.

I Thought I Was Getting Lucky and then....

Yep, the cedar got me.  At least I think it is cedar fever and not the flu but I feel rotten.

Pollen off cedar bush outside San Antonio

It is a miserable time of the year for me and especially this year as I have been babysitting and the child has been sick since Tuesday with SOMETHING -- they are treating it like the flu even though her rapid flu test came back negative.  However, I don't feel fluish -- I feel allegy-ish -- itchy throat, eyes, coughing my head off but I was spiking a low grade fever last night so I don't know.  However, I am really tired of coughing now and nothing seems to help. So, I will probably be off to see the little dr. man tomorrow but, in the meantime, I am probably going to have to miss my grandson's 7th birthday party.  However, I would rather miss it than be in a roomful of kids and pick up who knows what from them.  I am not sure what shape my immune system is in after chemo treatments so I am trying to be sensible.   I have felt so good and had so much energy that I don't want to put myself in harms way.  There was a time when I wouldn't think of myself first but that only got me into trouble so now I have to put myself first. It isn't easy but for now that is what I have to do.

So, I am going to start some bread in a bit, if I can quit coughing long enough to do it and that will probably be it for the day.  Ugh -- don't like this -- no, not at all!

Booking Through Thursday


If there was one book you could make sure nobody ever read again … what would it be? And why?

It would be "Bramwell Valley" by John Harold McCoy.  It was the first book I read on my Nook -- I got it free and it is a good thing because it was just plain awful.  I don't usually say that about books but with this one, I just can't help it.

Sorry Mr. McCoy.

Granola

 I cook.  I haven't always enjoyed it and still don't enjoy a lot of cooking but I have a few things I do like to do.  Granola is one of them.

Six cups of regular rolled oats

2 tsp, cinnamon and vanilla, 1 tsp salt, diced walnuts to taste

2/3 cups local honey, 1/4 cups neutral oil

1 cup currants -- more or less to taste or you can use raisins

All mixed up and spread on cookie sheet to cook

Ok, you mix everything together except the currants (or raisins), spread in a thin layer on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 for.....well, that is a tricky question.  I have tried timing it but it messes up on a regular basis so my advice would be to WATCH it.  It burns easily because of the honey so just watch it until you get it browned to your satisfaction.

After it cools add the currants or raisins and stir.  

Sometimes, when I can find it, I add a cup or two of shredded, unsweetened coconut before I bake it.  It adds a little texture but, being unsweetened, it doesn't make it overly sweet.

I store it in a glass jar and there you have it.

Busy work, busy work ----


The weather here in North Texas has been very Texas-like lately.  We have had several days of really gorgeous, springlike weather but as is usual in Texas, it changes quickly and so do our activities.  We have been getting out and about a lot during the good days which has been great but we have also been staying in a lot which requires having something to do so you just don't succumb to cabin fever.  I have been doing a lot of these.

They are very addicting and satisfies my need to do handwork and I can watch tv and not have to concentrate on it too much.  I am not sure what i am going to do with them when I am done but I will figure it out.  Since I am interested in making placemats and napkins lately, I might use some of them for that.  This is just a small sampling of what I have to work with -- trust me -- there are MANY!

I have also been doing some reading for my 2014 Goodreads Challenge.  Right now I am reading "French Women Don't Get Facelifts" by Mireille Guiliano.  I have just started it but it seems to embrace the same ideals of aging that I possess myself.  Trying to do it gracefully but perhaps this book will give me some pointers.

I am also reading "The Big House"  by George Howe Colt.  It is the story of the summer house owned by his family and a vanishing way of life.  I just started it but it is very good, so far, and takes me to a part of the country -- New England -- that I have never been to but always wanted to go to and gives a glimpse into the lives of people who spend their summers in houses in places they don't live -- an event less common today, I would suspect.

I have also been baking lots of bread.  I don't care for commercially made bread.  I don't know why, it is what I was raised on, but it just doesn't taste good to me anymore.  So, I have been baking bread and doing it the old fashioned way -- not in a bread machine -- because I prefer the form.  The bread machine bread doesn't make nice sandwiches and it also dries out much quicker. 

Venturing farther into the cooking realm, I have also been making my own granola.  Not rocket science, I know, but it is really good and the more I eat of this homemade food, the less I like the commercial, processed varieties.  I haven't calculated cost because that isn't really my emphasis in  making things myself, but I would imagine that it makes the products more expensive but at least we aren't throwing half the food away which is another calculated expense.  So, I have now taken to making my own breakfast cereal, my own bread, my own cookies and I discovered a lovely little cake in my very first Betty Crocker cookbook which was given to me as a wedding present.  It is called "Dinette Cake" and is made in a 9 inch cake pan.  It comes up in a nice layer and frosted it makes a great little dessert for us with only six portions (or eight if you cut it that way) which means a lot less for us to eat since neither one of us need it at all.

So, that is what I have been doing.  Sounds boring but it has been a lot of fun and I have been having a great time exploring new ways of doing things.

2014 Goodreads Challenge


I finished the second book for my 2014 Goodreads Challenge -- The Christmas Candle by Max Lucado.

I had seen the book in B&N many times and saw the ads for the movie but never picked the book up nor did I see the movie at Christmas.  I wanted to but time just never allowed.

I was reading a post at Brandon's Notepad and his review of the book and the movie made me want to read it right away.  So, while still reading the post, I  downloaded the book and started reading immediately.  It is a short read but it is very good, very satisfying.  Although it is a bit predictable, that didn't take away from its charm or its message.  It takes place in a small English village with a cast of colorful characters welcoming a new minister following the death of the rector that had always been there.  The young man is pleasant enough and catches the eye of the local young women but he has a hard and bitter heart .  The townsfolk are perplexed that he refused to believe in the legend of the candle -- a time honored belief of the people that really brings hope to them.  However, as the Christmas season progresses, the young rector has a change of heart and, at the end ..... well, maybe you should read it for yourself.

There are things about the book that are a bit vague such as what denomination does the young minister belong to.  I believe him to be Church of England.  The reason I say this is the term "rector".  In Methodist churches the ministers are called Brother (at least ours was when I was growing up) and in Lutheran Churches they are called Pastor.  Also, because this is set in England I think it is a safe assumption to make.  There is not a lot said about the village itself but you can picture a small, English village with a bridge going across a small creek or river at the edge of town.  You know it is small because of the population and their interaction with each other.  There is enough said, however, so that you can form a mental picture.  The author adequately makes you feel the cold of the winter and the warmth of the indoors as well as the light of the candle and the presence of the angel.

And then there is the sub-story of Abigail. 

This is a good little read -- a lot packed into a small book.  I don't generally re-read books but I think I will re-read this one around Christmas next year and I can't wait for the movie to come out next month.

I recommend.