Cooking: Everyday Deviled Eggs

Where there are hens, there are eggs. Where there are eggs, there are people who are desperate to find things to do with the excess eggs when they aren't selling well and the family is getting tired of them. What's a gal to do?

Older eggs make better hard-boiled eggs, so when we get overloaded I either sell them cheap or boil them. The children, however, aren't all that excited about hard-cooked eggs as a snack. They can sit in the fridge for days if left unprepared. I have found, however, that it is simple to make them irresistible:

1. Cut them in half lengthwise
2. Take out the yolks
3. Mix the yolks with a few household goodies
4. Put the yolks back
5. Sit back and watch the kids devour them!

Deviled eggs are not just for parties! Watch how easy it is to turn them into an everyday snack.

Seriously, this is not hard. Cut 6 hard-boiled eggs in half lengthwise as carefully as you can. Gently remove the yolks and place them in a sandwich bag. Add 2 tablespoons of mayo (click here to learn how to make your own) and a teaspoon of mustard (I like spicy brown). Smoosh up the yolks in the bag. Snip the corner of the bag with scissors, and squeeze the filling back into the divot in the eggs. Sprinkle with paprika.

That's it! So easy! And Yummy!

Cooking: Super Hero Potato Salad

This is Super Hero Potato Salad because making it made me feel like a little bit of a hero(ine). You see, Waste is Gluttony's ugly twin brother (or at least that cousin that always ends up in the shadows in family photos), earning him a spot among the 7 Deadly Sins as far as I'm concerned. When I made this Potato and Egg Salad, I saved red potatoes that were starting to sprout, celery that I accidentally put on the top shelf of the refrigerator that partially froze, and the hard boiled eggs that didn't peel pretty enough to be pickled. Rescuing those perishables makes me their savior, right? Ok, so if you have little kids, feel free to tell them you are making "Super Hero Potato Salad" just to get them to try something new. I won't tell.



Family/Party Size (I always cook this way. Sorry.)

3 lbs red potatoes, cubed small & boiled (peel if you like- I'd rather not)
4-6 stalks celery, chopped
6-8 hard boiled eggs, chopped
fresh chives, snipped
1 cup mayonnaise (Wanna make your own? Here's how!)
1 tbs prepared mustard
1 tsp salt
1 tsp granulated garlic
1/4 tsp cayenne or hot paprika (skip this if you used spicy brown mustard)

Quick Method

Cube the potatoes small and boil in salted water until just soft and not too starchy.
Drain, then plunge into cold water. Drain again.
Toss together potatoes, celery, eggs, and chives.
Chill thoroughly.
Gently fold in mayo, mustard & seasonings.
Chill again or serve. Don't leave out more than an hour, unless you can sit the bowl in a bigger bowl full of ice. Mayo can be a breeding ground for bacteria that causes a large amount of food-borne illness.

Chives:
The first to show up to the party, and the last to leave!

Cooking: Homemade Hard Candy

If you follow my Twitter or Facebook, you already know that I burned myself making candy this year. I was testing for "crack," that magical (ok, it's science, not magic) change from gooey melted sugar to hard, suckable candy. I dipped a spoon in the goo, waited a couple seconds, then touched it with my finger (better test method described below). IT. WAS. HOT. I blew on it. The goo stuck to my finger and continued to burn me. I knew I had to get it off. So I did what any panicked, burning, too-proud-to-yell-for-help woman would do: I put my finger in my mouth. In my haste, I smeared some of the burning sugar on my upper lip. I quickly put my burning finger under the cold running water in the sink. I burn myself all the time. I'm a pro at this. The relief flooded over me. That was when I realized that my lip was burned. I guess the endorphins kept me from feeling it right away. As soon as I was able, I looked in the mirror to see what looked like a herpes blister on my upper lip. Four days before Christmas. Great.

This is my second year of making hard candy, and I think I have it down now. My first two batches burned this year, much to the dismay of Little Miss Farmer and the delight of the local wildlife who enjoyed licking the burnt sugar off a rock in my yard. Then I located the recipe I used last year and had much better success. Here's what worked for me:

Ingredients

2 cups white sugar
1 cup water
3/4 cup light corn syrup
flavorings (optional)*
food coloring (optional)
confectioners' sugar

*Flavorings that have worked for me:

• Mild Ginger Flavor - 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• Sweet Cinnamon - 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• Peppermint - 1 tsp peppermint extract
• Fruity - one (0.15 oz) packet of unsweetened drink mix, any flavor (adds color, too!) 

Directions

In a heavy 2 quart saucepan, combine the sugar, water and corn syrup. Cook, stirring constantly until the sugar is dissolved; then cook without stirring, lowering the heat and cooking more slowly during the last few minutes (seriously, do not rush it; sugar burns easily!), to the hard crack stage (EVERY recipe I have seen calls for 300-310 degrees F, but at my altitude, it is about 250 degrees F). An easy (and safe!) way to check for crack is to dip the tip of a dinner knife into the the candy, then plunge into ice water for a few seconds. If it is ice cold and rock hard like a lollipop, but not sticky, you're there.

Remove from heat, add flavoring and enough food coloring to color; stir only to mix. Pour into a cookie sheet or shallow baking dish that has been generously dusted with powdered sugar. Allow to cool slightly, score with a butter knife, and allow to cool completely. (Many people skip this step, but I find little squares more attractive than the "shards of glass" look accomplished by the traditional method of allowing it to cool then hitting it with a hammer.)

I'm not sure if dusting the top helps or not, but I did it...

Break the bits apart after it is completely cooled. Who am I kidding? Some of it is going to look like broken glass no matter how you do it. Toss in a small amount of powdered sugar to keep it from sticking together.

Now the hard part... try to keep the kids out of it!

Cooking: Scrapple

3  pounds processed pork parts
4  quarts broth
3  tbsp salt
4  tsp black pepper
2  tsp white pepper
1 1/2 tsp dried thyme
2  tsp rubbed sage
1  tsp ground savory
2  tsp granulated onion
3  tsp marjoram
1/8 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp nutmeg
3  cups corn meal
1  cup buckwheat flour


Making scrapple is actually more process than ingredients. The list of seasonings above, however, is the closest to the scrapple I remember in my youth. I am extremely proud of Mr. Farmer for working it out. The process usually takes us several days to complete.

The first step to making scrapple is the cooking of the first two ingredients: cooked pig parts and broth. Pork liver, tongue, etc. (basically anything you don't want to keep for the dogs - some people use snouts and such, but dogs LOVE those, so we don't) as well as bones with any meat left on them are boiled for hours and hours (sometimes we do this overnight) until fully cooked and meat is easily removed from the bones. The broth is strained off and put away to cool. The meat is sorted and separated to remove cartilage and excessive fat, then ground through a fine food mill.

When you're ready to cook, bring the broth and spices up to a near boil. Add the corn meal and the flour slowly. Once that is completely combined and smooth, add 3 pounds of the prepared meat. Simmer the scrapple low to medium low until the corn meal is soft and the flour is indistinguishable from the meat (they are about the same color, so we are talking about texture here). A slight increase in heat at the very end may be helpful. The mix is ready when a wooden or plastic spoon stands up on its own in the mixture.

Did you think I was kidding?

Once the mixture is fully cooked, pour into loaf pans and cool at least a full day (2 is better). Scrapple handles best when frozen and sliced. Fry it up - Thin and Crispy or Thick and Squishy - you decide.

Cooking: Homemade Mayo

We are a mayonnaise family. When I was a kid, I couldn't put my finger on what it was about my aunt's macaroni salad that made it so much better than my mother's until I found that she made it with mayo- not, well, you know.

I always knew mayo was made with eggs and oil, and we have had chickens for years now. I have been avoiding making my own, however, because I kept reading horror stories about stiff arms for days and mayo that wouldn't set or would separate within minutes of coming out of the fridge. In short, I was chicken. Then one magic day I found that you can make mayonnaise in the blender! It is super easy! Even with full-price (not on sale, no coupons) vegetable oil, making your own mayo is about a third of the price of buying it. I will soon start buying my oil by the case for even bigger savings.

Look how easy:


In a blender, thoroughly blend:
1 egg
1 tsp ground mustard
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
dash hot paprika
1/4 c oil

With blender still running, remove cover and add:

1/2 c oil

Once that is completely combined add:

3 tablespoons lemon juice

Let it blend and then:

1/2 c oil

That's it! I find the easiest way to get it out of the blender is to take off the blades, put the bottom into a wide-mouthed jar, and push the mayo into the jar with a rubber spatula. Now that wasn't so bad, was it?

NOTES: Yes, you can double the recipe, if you have a good strong blender. It will almost fill a standard mayonnaise jar if you do. You may need to use your spatula to help keep the blades running effectively, however. If you have a modern, $29.95 model blender (like one of mine is), you should probably stick to the small batches.

Substitutions:

You can substitute vinegar for the lemon juice. I tried this and Mr. Farmer preferred the lemon.
You can use any red pepper of your choice for the paprika. Cayenne, Old Bay, etc. all work great.

Add-ins:

Make your own gourmet mayo! Add a teaspoon of garlic powder, dried dill, or horseradish at the beginning of the recipe.

Cooking: The Cake

Little Miss Farmer turned thirteen on July 19, 2011. When I asked her what kind of cake she wanted, she said she wanted a "Portal Cake". I knew what Portal was: it is what I consider one of the better video games available these days. You have to make your way through puzzles by creating portals with a gun that shoots virtual holes for you to pass through. Your motivation to proceed to the end of the game is cake. The children shout that "The Cake Is A Lie" over and over because apparently, if you get to the cake in the game, any attempt to retrieve it results in death of your character. Such an epic story could only end with a spectacular cake (and MY cakes tend to be delicious, not beautiful), so imagine my relief when I looked up a screenshot of the cake online and found this:

The Cake, as Seen in the Game "Portal"

Oh yeah. I got this. Further research showed that the cake was 3 layers and chocolate. So I made my famous chocolate cake from scratch (recipe below) twice, so that I would have 4 layers. We snacked on the extra layer while we waited for the final product to be ready. Once the layers were baked and cooled, I cut the tops off so they would be nice and flat like the cake from the game.



Tops Sliced Off

Then, since I needed to make white icing for the blobs on top, and since the only pictures of the inside of the cake are black and white so it is hard to tell what color the filling is, I stacked up the 3 layers with white buttercream icing between (recipe also below). Did I mention that I love buttercream icing? It is so easy to make and amazingly delicious.

  



At This Point I was Wondering
If the Glass Dome Would Fit.
It Didn't.

Next I frosted the outside with dark chocolate icing (you guessed it, recipe below).

  

Chocolate Icing Added

A closer look at the screenshot shows that the cake has some texture to the outside. It is unclear as to what causes that texture. I have seen chocolate shavings and cookie crumbs used for that purpose, but I went with chocolate chips.

  

Encrusted with Chocolate Chips

Then I added the final decoration: the white icing blobs and cherries. All done! (Four Hours Later!)

  

How Did I Do?

I am pleased with the result. Of course I have made this cake as a simple two-layer, extra-chocolaty deal on a number of occasions, usually just sprinkled with a little this or that as appropriate for the occasion. I have filled it with strawberry preserves or whipped peanut butter. The cake itself is easy and I have been accused of buying it or using a box on more than one occasion. But seriously, this cake (in its basic form, not the craziness I did with it for Little Miss Farmer's birthday), is a piece of cake to make (pun intended!).

The Cake

Ingredients

2 cups sugar
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened Cocoa powder (Dark is best)
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup hot coffee

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.

2. Sift together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes (or by hand until smooth). Stir in hot coffee (batter will be strangely thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.

3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks (Or clean towels). Cool completely before frosting.

The Chocolate Icing

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter
2/3 cup cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Melt butter in the microwave or in a small pan on the stove. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla.

Makes about 2 cups frosting.

The ButterCream Icing

Ingredients:
 
1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter (softened)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (approximately 1 lb.)
2 tablespoons milk

 
Directions:

 In large bowl, cream shortening and butter with electric mixer. Add vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use.

 

Cooking: Corn Meal Mush

This family loves anything that can be called comfort food or peasant food. Foods that are cheap and filling, or maybe foods that bring back fond memories, are sometimes the best food there is. Sometimes we even elevate poor people food to the next level, and to our kids it feels like a real treat. Recently we discovered the joy that is corn meal mush.

My mother seldom, if ever, made cornbread when I was a kid. When she was young, her father (my grandfather) was laid off and the family of 5 had to go on welfare. One of the staples that was provided by the government food programs was corn meal, and it was given in far more abundance than white flour. So my grandmother dutifully fed her family corn bread and corn mush on a nearly daily basis for many months. My mother soon grew tired of this, and she vowed never to eat corn meal again - if she could help it. To her, eating corn meal was a sign of hard times.

We always have corn meal in the house. Mr. Farmer bakes bread frequently, and he dusts the bottom of the loaves with corn meal to keep them from sticking. More recently, we purchased quite a bit more for making scrapple. We love cornbread with our chili. We even use it to fry fish sometimes. Somehow, however, we never thought to make breakfast mush out of it.

Mr. Farmer made some as a midnight snack and it was amazing! Hot cereal isn't all that exciting as a rule, but corn mush has a saltiness that oatmeal can't deliver, and the texture is just slightly heavier than farina (which I really don't care for because of the sliminess). I went to bed that night with a full belly and a satisfied- but not overwhelmed- sweet tooth. I have the leftovers in the fridge chilling to try as fried patties. I can't wait!

The Recipe:

3 cups hot water
1 tsp salt
1 cup corn meal
1 cup cool water

Sugar & Butter (or milk)

Boil the hot water and salt in a large pan. Mix the corn meal into the cool water. Slowly add the cornmeal water into the boiling water and cook, stirring constantly for 5 minutes and reducing the heat as you go. Cover and cook on low for an additional 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve hot with butter or milk and sugar.

Cooking: Refrigerator Cookies

I have been making these cookies for so long that I don't even remember where I got the recipe. They have become a tradition, as they are almost the only cookies that I make. Almost.

1 c sugar (measure, then sift)
1/2 c butter (room temperature)
1 beaten egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 c sifted all purpose flour (sifted, then measured)
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder

Beat 1/2 cup butter until soft.
Reduce mixer speed, put 1 cup sugar into sifter and add gradually to butter.
Add 1 beaten egg and 1 teaspoon vanilla to mixer.

Add 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder to the already sifted flour and sift again.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet gradually until completely combined.

*** Now for the fun part! ***

This basic dough can be used a number of ways, but all of them need to be refrigerated or frozen to work. It can be colored and/or additional flavors can be added, but if you do, you may need to add an extra tablespoon of flour at the end to take up the extra moisture.

CUTOUTS: Roll dough between 2 sheets of plastic wrap and chill. After 15 minutes, remove the plastic, place on a floured surface, cut with shaped cutters, decorate and bake quickly.

DROPS: Chill entire dough ball for 15 minutes. Just before cooking, roll into small balls and place on cookie sheet. Drops will spread into perfect rounds.

BASIC SLICES: On a floured work surface, roll the dough into a tube shape that is slightly smaller in diameter than you want your finished cookies to be (they spread). Place the dough on a piece of plastic wrap, wrap and refrigerate 15 minutes or freeze. Moments before baking, unwrap and slice for round cookies.

SQUARE SLICES: Use the same process as above, only flatten the tube (after wrapping in plastic for ease) into an elongated box. When you slice them, they will be squares.

PINWHEELS: Make two batches of dough, one plain and one colored (or two different colors). Roll each batch between 2 sheets of plastic wrap and chill. After 15 minutes, remove one sheet of plastic from each and stack one on top of the other. Then remove another sheet of plastic from the outside and roll the 2 sheets into one log. Re-wrap in the plastic, chill again, then slice and bake.

The 2010 Christmas Cookie Box
Drops, Pinwheels, & Cutouts

STRIPED SQUARES: Make as many batches of dough as you want colors on each cookie. Roll flat sheets of dough as described above, chill, and stack. Cut the dough in half lengthwise and stack again until height and width are even and you have a square tube. Chill again, then slice and bake. (I wish I had a picture. These look so cool!)

*** Bake ***

Bake 8-10 minutes at 400 degrees. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheet, then use a spatula to carefully remove and transfer to paper to completely cool.

Cooking: German Ring Bologna

5 lb ground meat
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp #1 prague powder
6 tbsp brown sugar
8 tsp ground coriander
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp granulated onion
4 oz ice water
8 oz red wine

Mix meat and spices and pack into hog casings.

Allow to rest in refrigerator until completely cool and dry.

Smoke at 225 F until internal temperature reaches 165 F.

Dip in boiling water to shrink casings.

Air dry at room temperature, and package.

Bologna Resting In Fridge Before Smoking

Cooking: Kielbasa

We made this recipe with equal parts venison and pork meat/fatback. The result was excellent! It is my understanding, however, that it can also be made with pork and beef or chicken and beef with similar results.

5 lb ground meat (part red meat, part white)
2 tbsp garlic powder
2 tbsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp black pepper
1 tsp white pepper
2 tbsp paprika
1 tsp marjoram
1 tsp #1 prague powder
1 cup cold red wine

Mix the meat and spices and pack into pork casings.

Air dry in refrigerator or in cool smoke 90-100 degrees F (never over 100).

Smoke 160-165 degrees F until internal temperature is 152 F.

Rinse with cool water until 120 F below (to prevent shrinkage).

Age 2-3 hours at room temperature to dry (and allow for color to bloom), then pack.

Kielbasa

Cooking: Hot Italian Sausage

You didn't think I was going to leave you with the Sweet Sausage recipe and not give you the Hot, did you? Of course not. This hot recipe is mild enough for even my sensitive palate and that of Little Miss Farmer, but it has the heat that the boys love and is packed with flavor.

Weighing Spices

Hot Sausage Variation:

25 lb ground pork
1/2 plain table salt (non-iodized)
5 tbsp ground black pepper
1/4 c + 2 tbsp cracked fennel seeds
2 1/2 tbsp coriander
5 tbsp hot hungarian paprika
5 tbsp dried red hot pepper flakes
1 c sugar
2 1/2 c water
2 1/2 tbsp oregano
2 1/2 tbsp garlic powder
1 tsp granulated onion
1 tsp winter savory


Once again, we mixed these by hand. Gloves are a good idea with all the hot ingredients.

These are especially good on the grill with nice sweet onions... is it summer yet?

Cooking: Sweet Italian Sausage

Mr. Farmer had a great idea this year: making an entire pig into sausage. Little Miss Farmer would probably name Sweet Italian Sausage as her favorite homemade food (she's 12, so if you ask for her favorite food, she will most likely say, "pizza"). We made 75 pounds of Italian Sausage so far this week in 25 pound batches. Fifty pounds were sweet, and 25 pounds were hot.

In Case You Were Wondering What 50 Pounds of Sausage Looks Like...

Here's the Super-Secret (Nah!) Recipe:

25 lb ground pork
1/2 c plain table salt (not iodized)
5 tbsp ground black pepper
1/4 c + 2 tbsp cracked fennel seeds
2 1/2 tbsp coriander
1 1/4 c sugar
2 1/2 c water
2 1/2 tbsp oregano
2 1/2 tbsp garlic powder
1 tsp granulated onion
1 tsp winter savory


We mixed these ingredients by hand, adding one or two at a time and spreading them out over the meat to try to keep it as even as possible. Then we put it through the sausage stuffer into casings. Of course it would be just as delicious as patties or rolls.

NOTE ON SUGAR: We reduced the amount of sugar from last year's recipe, and it is still pretty sweet. If you are using this recipe and are considering adding any other sweet ingredients (fresh green/red bell peppers, fresh sweet onions, sweet paprika), it would be a good idea to decrease the sugar to just 1 cup. This is truly sweet sausage.

NOTE ON SALT: As a habit, we use a reduced amount of salt in our cooking. After all, there is salt on the table, and it can be added later, if needed.

Cooking: Easy Venison Dinner

This dinner was so pretty, I just had to take a picture!

Venison can be very delicious if prepared properly. Since it is red game meat, it can be a bit of a challenge unless you know how to handle it. Here are a few basics when dealing with white-tail deer meat:

• Allow the meat to rest before butchering. If you can let the field-dressed deer hang for a few days before skinning and butchering, the flavor and texture will be greatly improved.
• Brine or marinate. A soak overnight in salt water or a quick soak in salt, water, lemon juice, and garlic will make your meat far easier to deal with.
• Remove connective tissue. Silver skin, tendons, etc. are not tasty and no cooking technique will make them edible.
• Add fat. Venison is notoriously lean, and fat = flavor. Adding fat to a venison dish will make it a real palate pleaser!

The last time I prepared a venison backstrap (tenderloin in the beef/pork worlds), I noticed that its strong iron flavor was similar to a calf's liver. So, as an experiment, I prepared it similarly to the way Mr. Farmer prepares liver.

Venison Dinner

1    pound venison backstrap
1    large onion
1/2 pound bacon
Salt & Pepper

White or Yellow Rice (I used a mix)
Frozen Green Beans

To make everything finish at the same time, start the rice first. I find that yellow saffron rice takes longer than the package recommends, but that may be due to my altitude. Boil the water, add the rice, stir, cover, and reduce the heat to low.

Cut the bacon into small pieces.  I used what I call the ugly ends of a homemade bacon (the point end or where the skewer was inserted for hanging during the smoke process), but store bacon would be OK, too. Fry the bacon until good and crisp.

While the bacon fries, cut the onion into strings by cutting it in quarters, then into thin slices. Once the bacon is crispy, add the onions and cook in the bacon grease.

Remove all connective tissue and "silver skin" from the backstrap. Cut into medallions by slicing at a slight angle to make nice thin rounds. Add to pan and cook until just done. Be careful not to overcook! It will get tough!

Remove the pan from the heat, cover, and allow to rest. About 5-7 minutes before you expect your rice to be finished (about 15 minutes into simmering), stir the frozen green beans into the rice, recover, and return to the heat.

When you are satisfied with the doneness of the beans and the rice, transfer to a serving dish and top with your meat and onions. Young Master Farmer called this "Pure Comfort Food"!

Cooking: Irish Soda Bread

*The Tradition*

For several years, Mr. Farmer has been baking bread for the various covered dish dinners that we attend. It started with a Thanksgiving-themed meal, for which he baked white bread. The following Thanksgiving he was asked to bring bread again. When the following dinner was a St. Patty's-themed corned beef and cabbage dinner (with all the fixin's brought by the attendees), he decided to bake something appropriate for the occasion: Irish Soda Bread. It has always been a hit and a source of controversy. The weekend nearest to St. Patrick's Day always falls during Lent, so the annual argument over whether or not Soda Bread is "sweets" is inevitable. I'm not Catholic, but if I was, I would argue that this quick bread is more of a biscuit than a cake, and therefore is no stumbling block to those who are foregoing sweets for Lent.

**Part One: The Buttermilk Hunt**

The search for a store that carries buttermilk is becoming part of the tradition. The recipe calls for it, but it just isn't something that is common in this area. Fortunately, we found out 2 years ago that one local chain (whose headquarters is in Amish Country) carries their own house brand of buttermilk. Up until a month ago, there were 3 stores of that chain within convenient driving distance, and only one of them carries the precious stuff. This year I made the foolhardy assumption that the largest store in the area would have the best selection. But, alas, while they carried no less than a half-dozen varieties of soy milk (including chocolate!) and lactose-reduced milk, there was no buttermilk to be found. So I made a special trip to that one and only store to get it, and I was not disappointed (except about the fact that I had to go out of my way for it).

***Part Two: The Baking***

Baking anything for a covered dish is an experience. The entire kitchen must be perfectly clean before we can begin. After all, it takes a lot of space (which we do not have) to work on a project that is going to require nearly every dish and utensil in the house and also cover every surface with flour. The previous statement may be an exaggeration, but boy does it feel that way! Most family members must assist in some way. Whether it is by cleaning up dishes, wiping counters, or mopping the floor ahead of time, fetching or combining ingredients during the process, or laying out towels for cooling and wrapping and transporting the finished product, we all have our duties.  In the end, we hold our warm loaves close, like treasured secrets, as we rush to the covered dish dinner... inevitably at the very last minute.

****Part Three: The Recipe****

3 cups      flour
1/4 cups   sugar
1 tbsp       baking powder
1 tsp         baking soda
1/2 tsp      salt
4 tbsp       butter (1/4 cup)
1 cup        raisins (or currants, or both - we use both)
1 1/4 cup   buttermilk
1              egg

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

In a large bowl, combine first 5 ingredients and mix well.

Add butter and mix until butter disappears into dry ingredients.

Stir in raisins and currants.

In a separate bowl, whisk together buttermilk and eggs. Mix into dry ingredients.

Turn dough onto a floured work table and turn into itself several time, then shape into a round loaf. Place loaf on baking pan and cut a cross in the top.

NOTE: Loaf will increase in size by about a 3rd. Keep this in mind when choosing a pan.

Bake 15 minutes at 400 then reduce heat to 350 and cook 15 to 20 minutes more. It is cooked when very brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Irish Soda Bread, as baked by Mr. Farmer on 3/12/2011

Cooking: Gravy

Three Ways to Make Gravy. One Post. What could be more efficient? I'm going to arrange the 3 gravies in order by effort level and the order I learned to make them. Coincidentally, those orders are the same. Also please note that these are not recipes, per se, but techniques. Cooking is an art, not a science, remember?

*** Sausage/Cream/Mushroom Gravy ***

This is my mother's gravy. Cheap, quick, and easy for a super fast (30 minutes!) dinner that is pure comfort food.

In a large skillet, place Sweet Italian Sausage and enough water to half cover it. Bring to a boil, then reduce to medium heat. When the liquid is almost gone, prick the sausage, allow it to brown, and turn it over. Allow the 2nd side to brown, and remove from the pan. There should be a little brown smudge on the bottom of your pan if you did it right. Add a few tablespoons of water to the pan and stir to bring up the yummy goodness. If you like, now would be the time to add a quartered, thinly sliced onion and just a little bit of oil. Cook the onions until soft. Finally, add a can of condensed cream of mushroom soup to the pan. Thin with a little milk if it is too thick, and cook until smooth and yummy.

Serve with the sausage, rice or noodles, and the veggie of your preference (we like corn with this).

*** Quick (But Occasionally Lumpy) Gravy ***

This is also my mother's gravy. While I have only seen her make it for Thanksgiving, I have tried it myself and find that it works well for chicken and pork as well as turkey.

Over low heat, in a small saucepan, warm meat drippings if they have cooled. In a separate bowl, cup, or whatever (I like my big Pyrex measuring cup, because it has a spout. You'll see why in a minute.), mix a few tablespoons of flour with about a cup of cold water, milk, or a combination of both, depending on if you want a gravy-gravy or a cream-gravy. Stir it up as well as you can, scraping the bottom. It should be thin and watery. Pour (see why a spout helps?) the slurry into the pan with the drippings slowly. I like to pour it through a sieve, slotted spoon, or tines of a dinner fork to catch any lumps. The chance of lumps increases as you get to the bottom of the liquid. Raise the heat under the saucepan to medium and bring almost to a boil. The gravy will thicken as it cooks. If it gets too thick, you can thin it out again. A little salt and pepper to taste, and you're done!

*** Never-Lumpy Gravy ***

This is Mr. Farmer's gravy. It starts out with a roux (pronounced "roo"), which is a fancy French word that means "fat and flour". Yeah, we're making elementary school paste, and then we're eating it. It is delicious.

You make the roux by mixing equal parts fat and flour in a saucepan over medium heat until completely combined. Then you add liquid (water, stock, or milk) a few tablespoons at a time, and keep stirring to combine. It is a LOT of stirring. Each time you add more liquid, you increase the temperature slightly. Do not add the next bit of liquid or increase the temperature again until the entire mass is the same consistency. Never stop stirring, and do not turn your back on it! Repeat until your gravy is just slightly thinner than you want your final product to be. Turn the heat back to Low. Add salt, pepper, and spices to taste, and keep stirring until desired thickness is achieved. Remove from heat immediately.

Leftover gravy of this type will thicken as it cools, but probably will NOT need thinning as it will become thinner when you reheat it. And it won't have lumps if you keep stirring and don't add the liquid too quickly. I promise.

The 2010 Christmas Smoked Turkey
But wait... there's more...

*** Bonus Cheese Sauce ***

If you use the directions above, and the fat is butter, and the liquid is milk and/or cream, you can make an amazing cream sauce. Season with a touch of garlic and add Parmesan cheese at the end and you have Alfredo sauce! With a bit of horseradish, it becomes a great cream sauce for veggies. And of course, with Colby, Cheddar, or Monterrey Jack cheese you get a topping for baked mac and cheese that is to die for.





 

Cooking: Pork Shoulder and Sauerkraut

The traditional New Year's Day Feast in my home is Pork and Sauerkraut. I love a picnic shoulder roast any time, and when pigs are in short supply, the price at the grocery store is generally quite low for pork roasts at New Year's. One day I will do a full post about New Year's Traditions and Superstitions, but I can sum up most of them as this: Whatever happens on January 1 will foreshadow the year ahead. So, in this case, the idea is that you should eat well on the first of the year, and eat rich, fatty foods, to ensure you will not starve in the coming year. Personally, I'll take any excuse to make a pork shoulder...

PREPARE:

About half an hour before cooking, preheat the oven to 450. Do not skip this step. It makes he difference between a nice roast and a so-so roast.

Rinse the shoulder in cool water, pat dry, and place in baking dish or pan, at least 2 inches deep. (Optional) Rub all over with salt, garlic powder, parsley, and rosemary (fresh, if possible). Allow roast to rest until nearly room temperature.

COOK:

Place skin side up on middle rack of the oven. Close the oven door and immediately turn down to 325. NO PEEKING FOR AT LEAST AN HOUR! Cook 40 minutes per pound.

FINISH:

At the beginning of the last hour, remove the roast from the oven and drain off the fat. Reserve it for gravy or au jus. Add sauerkraut to the dish and return to the oven for the final hour.

REST AND SERVE:

Once the internal temperature is 170, remove from the oven and allow to rest at least 15 minutes. This keeps the juices in. Serve with potatoes, or bread and butter. Or BOTH.

2010 Roast Pork Shoulder with Sauerkraut

Cooking: Pickled Eggs and Beets Has Been Updated

See Referenced Post (now edited): HERE 

My father loves pickled eggs with beets. He has enjoyed them my whole life, and I have seen his eyes light up on many occasions when he was presented with a jar. So once I secured permission from my mother (apparently his current diet restrictions are for sugar, not cholesterol), I prepared a jar just for him at Thanksgiving.

Unfortunately, I have also observed my father storing his prized pickled eggs on top of the piano for months and months, not in the refrigerator. I have never encountered any recipe that states that they are shelf stable after opening, so I decided to take measures. To help protect my father's health (and quite frankly my reputation as a cook), I increased the amount of vinegar in the recipe. In fact, I doubled it. That particular batch had a 1/1 ratio of water and vinegar, which should help slow down bacteria growth. I also put the jar in my parents' refrigerator myself, rather than presenting the jar and giving him a choice of where to store it. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner, as always, and returned to our respective homes.

About a week later, I received a nearly unprecedented phone call. My father was not calling to give me some family news, but instead to tell me that he had just enjoyed the best pickled egg he had ever tasted! After what I estimate to probably be about 50 years of pickled egg tasting experience, I can safely consider him a connoisseur. Therefore, I am permanently altering my recipe to the 1/1 water/vinegar ratio that pleased my father so much.

Christmas Pickled Eggs
(Left: Beets & Right: Italian with Green Dye Added)

Cooking: Pickled Eggs - Italian Style

Pickled eggs are the stuff of legend. Some call them bar food. Some call them Amish/PA Dutch food. But almost everyone who has tried one has a strong opinion on them one way or the other. For those like myself who don't care for the pink, rubbery, beet variety, a friend of our ours recommended a variation something like this:

• 18 Hard Boiled Eggs, Peeled
• 1 Small Onion, quartered and sliced thinly
• 1/2 cup Vinegar
• 1/4 cup White Sugar
• 1 cup Water
• 1 tbsp Salt
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 tbsp dried oregano
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and scored
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp whole peppercorns

Place 18 peeled, hard-boiled eggs in a 1/2 gallon jar (I keep old pickle jars). IMPORTANT UPDATE: ONLY USE GLASS JARS! TRUST ME! Add sliced onion.

In a pot, place vinegar, sugar, water, salt, spices, and garlic. Bring to a boil and allow to boil for a full minute, stirring at least occasionally, until the salt and sugar are dissolved.

Pour hot liquid over eggs until half full. Shake the jar to mix, then top off with the rest of the hot liquid and cap.

Allow the jar to cool to room temperature, then refrigerate for at least 3 days.

Now- Isn't that much better than those freakish pink-purple eggs?

Pickled Egg Options

Cooking: Pickled Eggs and Beets

This was my first try at making pickled eggs with beets. This is my own recipe, based on a few others I have seen, as well as some conversations with friends who said I should put in "a dash of this and a swig of that". They came out perfect!

• 18 Hard Boiled Eggs, Peeled
• 1 cup Vinegar
• 1/4 cup White Sugar
• 1 cup Water
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Pickling Spice
• 1 Can (15 oz) Beets, drained (save juice!)
• 1 Small Onion, quartered and sliced thinly

Place 18 peeled, hard-boiled eggs in a 1/2 gallon jar (I keep old pickle jars). IMPORTANT UPDATE: ONLY USE GLASS JARS! TRUST ME! Add sliced onion and the beets (but not the juice).

In a pot, place vinegar, sugar, water, salt, pickling spice, and the juice from the beets. Bring to a boil and allow to boil for a full minute, stirring at least occasionally.

Pour hot liquid over eggs until half full. Shake the jar to mix, then top off with the rest of the hot liquid and cap.

Allow the jar to cool to room temperature, then refrigerate for at least 3 days.

YUM YUM YUM! (If you're into that sort of thing...)

UPDATED 12/19/10 - Full Details HERE

Cooking: Smoked Hard-Boiled Eggs

You can smoke lots of things to make them yummy. When we heard smoked hard-boiled eggs were an option, we just HAD to try it! You can't taste them on a blog, I'm afraid. But if you like snacking on eggs, then you would like these. The smoke flavor is subtle, not overwhelming.

We partially boiled the eggs before we smoked them. Basically we covered them with water, brought the water to a boil, and instead of boiling for 10-12 minutes, we took the boiling pot off the heat and let it stand for 12 minutes. Then we drained and rinsed the eggs in cool water, broke the shells (to let the smoke in better), and placed them into a nylon stocking to hang in the smokehouse. We hot-smoked them for about 2 hours (though I have heard that as little as 45 minutes is plenty).

The result was fully cooked, slightly smoky eggs for snacking, deviled eggs, or egg salad. Yum!

Eggs - Sharing the smoker with the chickens