Category: Food

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Soup for lunch and Friday catch up

Soup assembly line!

I’ve continued making soup 1 bowl at a time (Zuppa for One)

It works for me to use whatever is available and have a wonderful bowl of fresh soup.

I found I preferred having 1 bowl of soup with what sounded good vs making a giant pot of something that I had to eat again and again or freeze.

Today, I started with some beef and lentil meatballs in a tomato chipotle sauce***, chicken broth, corn and…

…sautéed kale. I added just a splash of white balsamic vinegar to the kale before adding to the soup.

Let it all simmer just a bit…

Then the chunky croutons with cheddar under the broiler until brown and bubbly…

And a dollop of greek yogurt to cool it all. (my beverage is Hibiscus Blueberry refrigerator tea – so pretty!)

Soup for lunch.

The additional bonus – for me, since I LOVE to cook! – is that the process of doing this is a wonderful and relaxing break in my day.

So.

Yep, it is cold here. The high today was 6F at my house. The morning started at -1F. The good news – for me, Bear and Auggie – is that we are shadowed from the NNE wind by the Jewell Basin wrap of mountains. I can sometimes hear and see the wind high in the treetops but it is calm on the ground and little wind chill effect. Other places the wind chill has been in the -20 to -30 range and forecast to maybe be in the -40 range tonight. By noon tomorrow, although we will stay very cold, the winds are to be done.

By late next week, we will hopefully be at normal December temperatures of 20’s daytime, low teens overnight. And maybe some snow.

The good news is, this prolonged cold SHOULD put the kibosh on a LOT of bugs and things like yellow jackets and wasps. I’ll still put pheromone traps out this Spring, but I think/hope we will NOT have a repeat of last Summer.

Bear is LOVING the cold and it is a joy to see him enjoying. I have all necessary clothing for going out and about and I’m enjoying also…maybe a little less than Bear :) !!

Auggie went out yesterday when it was 7F. I set my phone alarm for 5 minutes and then got him in. He wanted to go out today when it was about 2. I took him in my arms to the front porch. He gasped slightly and hung to my arm. We came in and he seemed resigned to play inside! It was blue sky and sunny so I expect difficult to reconcile that it WAS indeed VERY cold outside.

It is after 6:30 p.m. as I write.

I’m done with work for the day.

A fire in the woodstove.

Time for supper for all of us and then some time in front of the fire.

I have things to read.

Bear and Auggie will find their spots near me.

All is well in my home tonight and I am grateful.

I pray that livestock and wildlife will find places to survive this very cold night.

*** Homesick Texan’s Tex-Mex Meatballs in Chipotle Tomato Sauce is the inspiration for the meatballs and sauce. The sauce I make exactly to the linked recipe. The meatballs, I subbed 1/2 lentils (1 cup cooked) for 1/2 of the ground beef, did not use any zucchini and I used 1/8 cup of Masa Harina and 1/8 cup of my own saved bread crumbs in place of cracker crumbs for a binder.

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December 1

Thanksgiving is over.

It is December 1.

Let the games begin!

Sunday, after Thanksgiving…my traditional time to put up the Christmas tree and deck the halls.

This is the 5th of 7 Christmases in this house where I will NOT be putting up a Christmas tree. Each one of those 5 years, I’ve said to myself: “Maybe next year”.

Maybe next year.

Auggie is not actually allowed on my little dining table.

We’ve been training.

It has been going pretty well…

Auggie 1
Christmas people 0

Gah!

However, not unexpected and I think the call to NOT have a real tree this year was a good one.

My little silk tree is unbreakable and nothing spills and makes a mess when it comes a tumblin’ down.

In another fortunate circumstance, the lights are not working. They were on the fritz at the end of last year.

I think this is a good year to not have any lights on the little tree.

Also, just a few stuffed (UNBREAKABLE) ornaments underneath. (My favorite skier and mama rabbit skier are on top of the refrigerator – an Auggie no fly zone!)

The stockings are hung…as usual…by the chimney – with care… I think they are out of reach. We’ll see.

The first Christmasy treats: Peppermint bark and Peppermint crunch marshmallows.

December 1.

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Almond shortbread

After I made the Pecan Pie Shortbread …and by the way, it freezes beautifully … I wanted to try a version with candied pecans. I found a recipe for oven baked candied pecans that I thought would work. Then I got to thinking about almonds.

So, while not as pretty visually and I still don’t have a tart pan with pretty fluted edges … the almond version is VERY good.

I modified Sue of The View from Great Island’s Pecan Pie Shortbread recipe by using 1/4 tablespoon of almond extract and 3/4 tablespoon of vanilla extract. For the almond topping, froth 1 XL egg white, 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1 cup sliced or slivered almonds – spread on the shortbread before baking. Per Sue’s recipe, I covered loosely with foil to keep the almonds from getting too brown, removing it for the last 10 minutes.

Maybe next round some red and green sugar lightly sprinkled to give it a bit of a Christmas look.

My kitchen helper this morning…

The last time he tried to use this chair as a jungle gym, it tipped over: crash, bang, boom and surprised Auggie! He’s about 9 1/2 pounds now and longer so the play chair has become the nap chair when I’m in the kitchen.

Happy Day before Thanksgiving and Hanukkah and safe travel to all on the move.

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Pecan Pie shortbread and the ramifications of hunting

I like Pecan Pie.

I like a small sliver of Pecan Pie…more than a sliver is too rich, too sweet … for me.

I saw Sue of The View from Great Island’s Pecan Pie Shortbread .

I don’t have a tart pan but I DO have a springform pan…why, I’m not sure as I’m not a fan of cheesecake which is the usual springform pan thing…

Not as pretty as a tart pan…

But taste was not affected at all.

re the ramifications of hunting…as I was preparing this post, there was a commotion in the living room…and a mostly dead mouse…

Bear and Auggie were upset.

Bear was the mouser.

Still.

Death is upsetting – even to natural hunters. We all sat and I tried to assure both that we definitely needed to keep mice and voles and other rodents OUTSIDE. For all of our health’s sake. But, I do understand their upset. And I am glad that neither take death lightly.

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Weekend cooking: Cranberry Marmalade and Homemade Marshmallows

This morning, the first real taste and jell test of the marmalade – a perfect batch. My last batch of marmalade jelled to the consistency of gummy bears. This batch I used the cold plate test as well as the recipe timing and stopped as soon as the mix jelled on the cold plate.

I really enjoy making small batches of jam or marmalade. I used 8 ounces of cranberries, 1 orange and 1/2 lemon with equal weight sugar getting 5 half pint jars with not much fuss and no giant canning pot. This marmalade was in the jars at 8:03 a.m. Sunday morning and the pots and implements washed by 8:30.

After Friday’s sunshine, a cold and wet front moved in and it is supposed to be some form of cold and damp for the week before getting cold enough to snow next weekend.

We are down to less than 10 hours of daylight with the first and last hours being fairly dim between the clouds and the low southern arc of the sun.

Perfect “puttering in the kitchen” weather!

Next up: Peppermint marshmallows

Homemade marshmallow recipes have been making the food blog rounds and I wanted to try. All of the recipes were for stand mixers with the whisk attachment – partly due to a 12 minute mixing time and also incorporating air into the mix.

I don’t have a stand mixer. I DO have a KitchenAid “ultra power” hand mixer. No whisk attachment but I can make meringue with it so thought I had a chance with the marshmallows.

I set up the work area with everything ready. Unflavored gelatin in water is sitting in the mixing bowl while a sugar, corn syrup & salt mix is heating on the stove. A zip loc bag is waiting to be filled with the mix which I planned to pipe dollops onto oiled parchment ala this recipe: Sue of The View from Great Island’s DIY Marshmallow Dollops

After the mix comes to a boil and reaches a temp of 238, it gets added to the gelatin-water mix and that’s when the 12 minute beat to stiff peak procedure gets under way.

I’d read several funny blog posts about how stringy, gooey and VERY sticky the mix is… well, gelatin, corn syrup and sugar = very sticky! One post had dire warnings about resisting temptation to try to scrape bowls, clean beaters or taste with a finger swipe because of the danger of getting stuck to everything and the futility of getting every last bit. Thankfully, they also all said not to worry as everything cleaned up easily in hot water.

I did fairly well. I dipped 1 little spoon in to try a taste and kept a bit of marshmallow souvenir on my upper lip :) !

The hand mixer did fine and I had stiff peaks at about 9 minutes.

Those blobs ??? – they are supposed to be the dollops.

I’m not sure if I didn’t mix long enough, if the hand beater did not incorporate enough air, if I had too large a snip in my zip lock “pastry bag” or ???

After my dollops became blobs, I regrouped and put the rest of the mix in a bread pan to be cut into squares.

Only a partial defeat.

I will try again if I ever finish all of the current batch. I made a 1/2 recipe and have quite a lot of marshmallows!

Flavor-wise and consistency of the squares, I am VERY happy.

There is another recipe, actually an adaptation of a 1998 recipe that uses egg whites folded in at the end, reportedly increasing the light and fluffy. I used a mix of vanilla extract and peppermint extract but there is a peppermint crunch recipe that might be fun to try also.

Hey, you guys want a marshmallow?

I guess not.

*** Edit 11/15 (5 days later): WOW, these got better over time and today, Friday, I am down to 3 left. Although I grabbed several to have a bit of sweet with a cup of tea, mostly I put them in a hot coffee/cocoa/milk mix and blended them. This makes a frothy, thick mocha. The gooeyness of the melty marshmallows plus their flavor makes a perfect mocha. I have tried various combinations of sugar, honey, agave to get the flavor and consistency I wanted. Marshmallows do the trick! And, I read that these freeze beautifully.