The Hillbilly Housewife, and some of her elves’s, are hosting a virtual Christmas Cookie Exchange. If you have a family favorite, you may want to ‘gift’ it this Christmas to the virtual world.

I can’t wait to see all of the wonderful recipes and try some out. My tummy is growling already…………..

Here is our family’s seasonal favorite, Norwegian Fatigman (fot – ee – mon) I have in the recipe to cut into triangles, you can make them that way, the tradition is a diamond shape, like this:

…. and Santa’s favorite, especially when made with Ghiradelli Chocolate Chips added,

Sylvia DeBaar’s recipe for Old-Fashioned Peanut Butter Cookies.

I found two great web sites created by one great individual, Maggie!

Hillbilly Housewife
and
An Old-Fashioned Education

Check them out…. There are great recipes, things to make you smile and lots of support – and best of all – Maggie shares (ALOT)!

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What else is in the family news:

The not-so-good news:

Our middle child’s goldfish, Nemo, passed away last week. For four years + he has lived faithfully on our kitchen counter. He was character and is missed greatly by all! His body was interned beneath our son’s cherry tree where he will create beautiful blossoms in the spring, just as his wife, Lucy, does for our roses.

Our garden – sad little tomatoes from the drought created a 2 inch diameter Brandywine (and it ripened on the vine – go figure)
Rust has taken over the Kentucky Wonder Beans. We bought sulphur in time to spray – brought it home – loaded the sprayer – and the sprayer that worked last week – suddenly doesn’t work this week.

The good news:

We just received two days of really nice rain and now the weather is absolutely wonderful to go out in during the hottest part of the day!

We’ve just about finished completely rearranging the house. The kids (I’m still in shock) acting of their own accord, decided to donate 3/4′s of their toys to help get rid of clutter. They have been such a great help re-arranging. They move clutter so fast – it’s actually a pleasure to move things now! I love these boys!!!!

I spent yesterday remaking 27 jars of muscadine jelly that didn’t set. Humf… Really glad that’s over – now just say your prayers for me that it sets…. please?

After just 3 hours sleep, we went to the Farmer’s Markets locally and the state’s. (Yes, we bit the bullet – I needed tomatoes and apples to complete the years storage plans. The drought has literally dried up our local market). The local market ended today *sniff*. I’ll miss going there, but it signals time for the craft shows to begin in October and November. That will be fun!

At the local market we purchased 2 dozen free-range eggs for 3 $ a dozen (one dozen had two turquoise eggs from Easter Chickens, that was really neat), a lb. of Italian Sweet Peppers for 2$, 2$ for a head of lettuce and 3 peacock feathers for the boys to play with for 2$. For the first time, we found pork and chicken there. We bought soup bones at a $1 a pound (this included 5 lbs. of meaty chicken wings), 1″ thick center cut pork chops for $6 per lb., The prices for the veggies weren’t better than a supermarket, but everything is local and organically grown which is wonderful, especially for canning! The meat we bought was from Gum Creek Farms in Roopville, GA. She said they were going to be delivering meat to our area once a month and we can reserve some. I’ll start saving now! I was very relieved to find a source for fresh meats. Our local super markets carry rancid horrible meats alot of the time. I wish that I had remembered the lady’s name we dealt with, but she reminds me of family. A strong woman with blonde hair and the most beautiful blue eyes like my sisters’ eyes. Talking with her made me remember for an instant, my father’s mother. They were the same strong woman with the most gently eyes! Of course, she was much younger – probably younger than me. Have you ever gotten the feeling tho, sometimes, when you meet certain people, it’s an ancestor or someone special looking back at you? That’s what I felt. Just me tho. Maybe because it’s fall and I get too romantic (or crazy) at this time of year….. lol.

The State Market had actually really great deals this time. And more American vendors, albeit only a few more. But, hey, I sure was glad to see them! Possibly getting there a few hours earlier helped or the fact it’s bloated with produce right now. We were able to get 3 cases of Romas for 4.00 a case, 2 cases of Better Boys for 9.00 a case, 2 cases of Rome Apples and 2 cases of Granny Smith apples for 17.00 a box, 5 lbs. of Pecans for 15.00. The apple season has all but dried up in Georgia, the ones we purchased were from North Carolina. Still the first of the season. I can taste apple butter already – yummy!

I started making the Spaghetti Sauce for canning when we got home (about 4pm). Now at 1:42 am, the sauce has finally shows signs of reducing to a level that might put me in bed by 3. lol. It’s cool outside tonight also for the first time in months! The house smells wonderful, the back doors are open, nighttime sounds creep in between the dryer going and the stove creaking under the heat. All in all it has been a very wonderful day! Fall is definitely in the air……and tomorrow we are off to see the civil war get re-enacted at the New Manchester Textile Mill ruin. That will be alot fun for the kids. We’ve hiked there and geo-cached there several times, so it will be fun to see the place alive as if walking back in time 200 years.

Slobo has pics of the tomatoes and Spaghetti Sauce up at his site.

I hope you are enjoying the fruits of your labors and the beautiful fall God gave as much as we are…

I leave you with my favorite quote from hillbilly housewife’s site: “Going to church every Sunday no more makes you a Christian as standing in the garage makes you a car!”.

Sorry for the lack of posting this week. The kids and I have been sick all week. In spite of it, tho, I’ve managed to get some more canning done. This is probably the first August in Georgia it has felt good to work in a steamy kitchen.

I’ve canned 4 more lbs of pinto beans, but Slobo is making refried beans from them as fast as I can can them! I’m glad he likes them and I’m even more glad with the sickness, I don’t have a sense of smell! In addition to those beans, I’ve canned 15 pints of Boston baked beans, 24 1/2 pints + 5 pints Muscadine Jelly, 5 quarts of Grape Jelly, 8 pints + 5 qts Peaches, 8 pints + 5 qts Pears and 7 quarts of assorted Kidney Beans for chili this winter. Slobo cleaned out an underground basement closet for me and we have filled one bookshelf, so I need to scrounge more shelving as soon as we are well enough. With all of the freezing and canning, payday came and went, and the cupboards were still full except for meat. That was really nice! Now, If I only knew a butcher!

Notice the wierd looking tomatoes? The brandywines have gone from really big during the rainy week, to really strange looking shapes during the hot dry weather. They are as much fun to grow for their sculptural habit as for their taste! I’ve eaten so many tomato sandwiches that I think I’ve turned another shade of red. Just looking at that big one tho, makes me want another one!

Before we got sick, I made the kids some “Old Fashioned Peanut Butter Cookies” using a recipe from a cookbook. They were just awful! The kids liked them, but they were small and puffed. Fatiqued from the medicine, I sat in bed one night and went through my recipe drawer and lo and behold, found my favorite peanut butter cookie recipe! It’s from a lady named Sylvia DeBaar and I believe it came from my first husband’s mother, which would date it between 1930 – 1950. Here’s a pic of the original recipe. I doubled the batch and made it with 1 c. vegetable oil and 1 c. melted butter. It made 4 1/2 dozen large cookies (approx. 2″ balls). I also added a bag of Ghiradelli Chocolate Chips because Slobo was craving them. They sure are good and smell heavenly! I’ve made this in the past with just chunky peanut butter. A tried and trusted recipe for sure!

If you make them, please let me know how you liked them. Thank you Sylvia, wherever you are!

While at Barnes and Nobles last week, I couldn’t resist the July/August 2007 issue of Cooking With Paula Deen. Who knew she had a magazine? I love that woman!

I made her Carne Asada pizza with the Traditional crust and also the Whole Wheat Crust tonight (for a 6 cheese pizza). I also made her sauce – using it on the cheese pizza. The kids weren’t too crazy over the cheese pizza because “it tastes like Lasagna mom… and we don’t like Lasagna”. I love Lasagna, on the other hand – and I loved her sauce, but yes, it does taste like the Lasagna sauce and using 6 cheeses made it shout Lasagna. I’ll just have to save that one for me and Slo. Lesson learned kids -
I’ll stick to just mozarella for you finicky fingery eaters! On the upside – they all loved the Carne Asada pizza. Even my two ‘not so crazy about meat’ pizza lovers.

I HIGHLY recommend her pizza pages! Here’s the Traditional Crust and Carne Asada recipes.

These are also available on her website (discovered after Slobo typed it all in… oh well mom…lol)

Paula’s Traditional Pizza Crust

Ingredients:

1 (1/4-ounce) envelope active dry yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
1-1/4 cups warm water (105°-115°)
3-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
Cornmeal

In a 2-cup liquid measuring cup, combine yeast, sugar, and water; let stand for 5 minutes. In the work bowl of a food processor, combine the flour and salt. Pulse several times to combine. With processor running slowly add the yeast mixture and oil. Continue running food processor until the mixture is combined and forms a ball.

On a lightly floured surface, turn the dough out and knead for 5 minutes. Place in a lightly greased bowl, turning to grease the top. Cover and let rise in a warm place (85 degrees), free from drafts, for 1 hour or until doubled in bulk. Preheat oven to 450°.

On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out into an 18-inch circle. Sprinkle a pizza stone evenly with cornmeal. Place the dough round on top of the stone, folding the edges over to form a crust. Prick dough with a fork. Top with the topping recipe below and bake for 15-20 minutes.

Note: Having no pizza stone, I always use the metal pans with a bowl of hot water on the bottom of the oven. Being that my oven is electric, I think it helps the temp stay a little more even. The cooking times was accurate to the recipe.

Also, the pizza dough is beautiful but cooks very thick (about 1″ thick) It was definitely bubbly and had a beautiful crumb – but I think I could easily divide the dough in half and use a jelly roll pan the next time for each half. Altho, I must say, the thick bubbly crust was the favorite part for my two ‘not too much meat and veggie’ eaters.

Paula’s Carne Asada Pizza Topping

Ingredients:

3/4 cup chopped cilantro
3 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons oilive oil
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1-1/2 pounds top sirloin, cut into thin strips
1 cup mozarella cheese
2 poblano peppers, seeded, roasted, and chopped
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 Roma tomato, thinly sliced
1 cup Monterey Jack cheese

In the container of an electic blender, combine the cilantro, garlic, oil, and lime juice. Pulse untol pureed; set aside. In a large skillet, cook sirloin over medium-high heat until browned, for about 4 minutes; set aside.

Spread cilantro mixture over prepared crust (from above); sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Top evenly with sirloin, peppers, onion, and tomato. Sprinkle with Monterey Jack cheese.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the crust is lightly browned.

This pizza tastes just like and smells just like the Carne Asada we order at our favorite El Jalapeno (or as our 6yr. old used to call it, El Happenin’ El Nino). I used round steak instead of sirloin, just because that’s what I had. I sliced it as thin as I could get it, about 1/4 inch strips after a great deal of fat and ligament removal. Even after trimming, it was more than enough! I cooked it at about med-to med high heat, searing it first, in a cast iron pan (doused with a little olive oil). The flavor was really good.

The only thing I’ll do next time is make sure I’ve got some fresh guacamole and sour cream on hand next time! I loved this pizza, and from what Slobo wrote on his recipe site, Bits of Dust, he liked it too! Warning: If you go to his site – he has a typical ‘guy booby cleavage’ image!

The cost to make this dinner? approx. 7$ per pizza:
Cheeses (Mozarella, 6 cheese pre grated pkg, Monterey Jack: 8$
Pizza Sauce: 3$
Flour, Yeast, Salt: 1$
Tomato: Fresh from the garden $0
Lime: 30 cents
Cilantro: 60 cents
Garlic: 25 cents (The sauce and pizza)
Pablano Peppers: 60 cents
Onions: 25 cents

Total: 14.00 for two pizzas. Enough to feed about 8-10 adults.

One round XL pizza (the Carne Asada) and One rectangular Jelly Roll Pan cheese pizza.

Not a bad deal for a pizza 100 times better than anything PaPa John’s has to offer!

Oh Yes! I forgot to mention, from glazing the cast iron pan with some water after cooking the trimmings from the meat, I’ve now got 1 qt. of frozen beef broth for that vegetable stew I want to make on the next rainy day! Not too shabby, eh?

Bravo Paula!!!!!!

Technorati Tags: Paula Deen, Carne Asada, Pizza

We traditionally make this (I should say, Slobo and the kids make this) during an all day weekend event. Freezing about 40 at a time for later use. The last batch they made, included fresh chopped parsley from the garden. It was so very good. He’s used roasted garlic also in the past, which is awesome in just about anything!!

Perogie Dough

* I have a note on the recipe card – “Ichef.com Elizabeth Baird” so that is probably where Slobo got the dough recipe.

Yield: 30 perogies

3 cups flour (all purpose – we like unbleached)
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg
3/4 cup water (approximate)
4 tsp. vegetable oil (Slobo says he uses Olive Oil)

Combine flour and salt in one bowl.
Another bowl, beat together egg, water and oil.
Stir into flour mixture to make a soft and Not – Sticky dough. Just til it holds together in a ball.
If needed, add 1tsp. water at a time to get to that state.
Turn out onto lightly floured surface.
Knead about 10 times or until smooth.
Halve the dough. Cover with plastic wrap or damp cloth.
Let rest for 20 minutes. (Hint – when making dough – you let it rest to give the gluten a chance to relax. If you don’t it will fight you the entire time you are trying to shape it or work with it. It’s like a child – If it fights you – Let it rest!)

Perogie Filling and Cooking

Yield: enough to fill the 30 perogies

Note: This is where the creative cooks in our house go wild. Just about anything that would go with a potato – they’ve tried it! I’m sure there are some who fill it with just about anything else – like I would love some cream cheese and crab! Yum! Slobo – you listening??? Polish Crab Rangoon?

1 tbsp. butter + 1/3 cup finely chopped onion

Heat butter and cook onion, med. heat @ 3-5 minutes ’til tender.

Transfer to a bowl and add:

1 cup cold mashed potatoes (Use the real thing – not flaked You can use leftover, but we like to boil or bake a
couple of extras and refrigerate for this use later. You can even leave skin on if baked and chop that in too!)
3/4 cup cheddar cheese; shredded
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper

Working with one portion of dough
Roll out on floured surface (lightly floured) to 1/16″ thickness. (We use a pasta machine – from 1 to 5 – now. Tho we have rolled it in the past. Just takes more time.)
Using 3″ round cutter – cut dough into rounds. (We use a small glass cup lightly dusted with flour)
Place 1 tsp. filling made above on each round (This is the kids’ job)
LIghtly moisten the edge of 1/2 of the round with water on your fingertip, fold over, and pinch edges closed. Crimp with a fork and Make Sure the edges are sealed tightly!!!
(If you don’t it will boil out in the next steps – the kids do this part too. They are really good at it! All that playdough experience!)

Place each folded and crimped perogie on a covered plate and repeat until the dough is gone.

Cooking the Perogies
In large pot of salted boiling water, cook perogies in bathes for 1-1/2 to 2 minutes util they float to the top – Stirring gently to make sure they don’t stick together or to the bottom of the pan. Remove to colander to drain.

At this point, they can be frozen in bags of 40-50 if used as a future main course or 20-30 as a side dish.

If frozen, thaw.

In large heavy skillet – melt 2 tbsp. butter. Cook 1 onion – sliced for about 5 minutes ’til golden.
Add perogies and toss to coat and warm through.

Note: The perogie dough can be made earlier in the day and set aside to be run through the pasta machine or rolled out later that evening. We have made it and frozen it, but it’s difficult to get it to thaw and not be sticky. The boiled, not fried, state of the perogies however make wonderful freezer additions. If you need smaller meal sizes, like there’s only one or two people that eat at your house, you can lay them out on cookie sheets and seperately freeze them. Once frozen, pop them into freezer bags and you can take out however many you need when you need them. See? No need to think you can’t cook just because you live alone!!!! Just about anything can be frozen in individual serving sizes and finish the cooking later. Lasagna works great that way too!

Happy rolling, stuffing and cooking. If you try a new filling or dough combination, let us know! We would love to hear new ideas!

Cost to make? About $3.50 to make 30 – That would leave each of us about 6. In our house, that is just a wetting of the appetite. Generally the kids have devoured all but the last plateful before Slobo and I get a chance to sit and share the last plate of them. So, we usually make 90 for a main course. Now you can see why, making any store away – has to be an all day event – and everyone has to help.

Of course, the cost goes up as you add stuff, but not very much and it still falls into the under $10.00 dinner range as a main meal. Thus far – our favorite combo is parsley in the dough, with 3-4 cloves roasted garlic and ham in the potato filling.

Helpful hint: All of our kids can be very picky eaters. One would only eat meat, the other two would only eat veggies. The perogies were our first meeting point for both sides, since we could ‘sneak in’ certain foods, they would devour them – exclaiming how much they liked them – then we could present the broccolli, ham, shrimp, etc… to them. We’ve won over a few battles the pocketed perogie way. So – make a pocket or two for your picky eater. It works!

Technorati Tags: perogies, cooking, kids

Aglia Olio with Broccoli

1 large head of broccoli
1 lb. spaghetti
1/3 c. olive oil
1/2 stick butter
4 cloves crushed garlic
1/3 c. finely grated Parmesan reggiano cheese
1 tsp. red pepper flakes
salt to taste
1/4 c. chopped basil and/or Italian parsley

Blanch broccoli in salted boiling water for 5 minutes. Put it in cold water (not ice water).

Chop stems small, but not the tops. The stems will fall apart themselves.

Put skillet on medium low, add olive oil and butter until butter melts, then add garlic.

Do not BROWN the garlic, just explode the garlic into the oil (15-20 seconds), and then toss the broccoli into the oil mixture.

Simmer on low while the pasta cooks, add 3/4 c. of the pasta water if needed. Add hot pepper flakes and salt.

10-15 minutes while the pasta boils.

Drain pasta, do not rinse it. Add mixture to the pasta and toss, with parsley and cheese.

Top with additional cheese.

*This recipe originated from Chef John over at Food Wishes.com.

Slobo modified it to use Broccoli (because that’s what we had). It originally called for 6 cloves of garlic – I prefer about 4. Slobo thinks that it would be really good with our roasted garlic the next time, so we’ll try that and let you know. Roasted garlic is really good on just about everything!

This dinner was served with some additional frozen perogies from a weekend perogie making session… That recipe will be the next entry. Perogies are wonderful either as the main course or in this case, side dishes.

Cost to make:

broccoli – abt. 1$
Birilla spaghetti – 88 cents
1/3 c. olive oil – 2$
1/2 stick butter – 38 cents
garlic – 30 cents
Parmesan / reggiano cheese – 1.50
red pepper flakes, salt – negligible
Parsley – free from the garden.

Total: 6.06 to amply feed family of five.

Plus cost of about 20 perogies shared among 5.

Technorati Tags: inexpensive meals, family, dinner

I thought about this after a friend of Slo’s thought he was being cheap because he was saying he couldn’t afford to go to Starbuck’s or to eat out. He said there is no way a family of five can eat on $10. Slobo wasn’t kidding and he’s not cheap. But it seems alot of people have forgotten the skills necessary to feed a family and make it good.

With a grocery budget of $500.00 a month for a family of five (three of which are ever-growing boys), my budget for the dinner meal is 10$. That leaves us $200 for breakfast / lunch / snack foods and healthcare, paper products, laundry detg. all that other non edible necessary stuff. As with alot of Americans, scraping by is the name of the game. It has it’s definite rewards. Better tasting, healthier food without alot of extra unnecessary ingredients is one of them and when the boys say they are hungry every 30 minutes, there is always something for them to eat.

Granted, alot of my recipes don’t fit the health food category because we love frying, drizzling, gravy making and lots of butter. But they are better than a McD’s hamburger or Olive Garden’s frozen pasta dishes anyday!

This budget makes it difficult to put up baking supplies, although it’s possible to keep some items on hand one or two at a time. Don’t want you to think for that budget that you could stock up too much. Additional income is needed for that. So, whenever I babysit, sell a garment at the Mercantile or other money comes in, I use it for that. The items I include in this ‘extra income’ budget can be found on the new ‘Pantry Page’.

I hope you find this information helpful. If you do, please leave me a comment.

Today, we went and checked out the vacant lots again and found a great deal more bushes. There were bushes for about 1/2 mile. This is what we were able to pick in about an hour.

This bowl is about 4qts. I’ll be mashing them down in a bit to make some jam, but I wanted to share the pretty picture before I do. What a wonderful find God had hidden around the neighborhood!!!

I’ve finally figured out why the last batch of jam didn’t set up as thick as it should have. It did thicken a little more after about 4 days but not to the consistency I was hoping for. In that batch, it was 4c. berries to 4c. sugar, boiled to 220. This time I’m trying the UGA’s site for liquid pectin, 4c. crushed berries, 7 c. sugar. This should work better, but the higher sugar, I’m not crazy about. The price I guess I’ll have to pay for pantry storage. At least there’s no high fructose corn syrup. As you can tell… I’m really new to this, so I’ll let you know if it works. Does anyone have a recipe for a good mint jelly? The mints are taking off like crazy too.

We just had a deluge of rain tonight, so I’m sure there will be a noticeable difference in the veggie garden in a few days. Hopefully for the better!

For a dinner desert, I decided to make Chef Tom’s Banana Nut Muffins. I left off the nuts because our budget doesn’t allow for walnuts and pecans these days and I didn’t think peanuts were going to cut it. I added about a tbsp. of lemon juice because I like the way it brings out the flavor of banana bread.

Doubling the recipe made 12 in a large muffin tin and 3 heart-shaped muffins in disposable tin foil pans. As you can see, only five were left. They were soooo good. I had made a bbq shrimp fettucine dish for dinner, so I know I blew my carbs and sugar for the day. But my tummy sure is happy and the kids loved the heart shaped muffins.

Technorati Tags: banana nut muffins, Chef Tom