Bountiful Baskets August 29th 2015

In this basket we received 5 prickly pears.  I researched how to cut and peel them and extract the syrup.  Out comes my ninja blender and off I go to extract juice.  Then the question is to use it in lemonade, or make lemon bars out of it or cupcakes or salad dressing. 

Prickly Pear Lemon Bars

Yield: The recipe says that it makes sixteen servings, but that depends on how big you cut your bars or squares. I think that you would probably want to double the recipe if you were truly serving sixteen people.

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Ingredients

Cookie base
• 1 C all-purpose flour
• 1/4 C sugar
• 1/4 finely chopped pecans
• 1/4 C butter, softened
Topping
• 2/3 C sugar
• 2 large egg whites
• 2 T all-purpose flour
• 3 T lemon juice
• 1/2 t lemon zest
• 3 T prickly pear juice (You can easily make prickly pear juice with a prickly pear and a food processor or blender. Simply Recipes has a great tutorial on how to make prickly pear juice.)
• 1/2 t baking powder
• 2 T powdered sugar (optional)

Instructions

Prepare the cookie base
1. Mix flour, sugar, pecans, and butter until crumbly.
2. Coat an 8-inch square baking dish with cooking spray or butter and press the mixture evenly on the bottom of the dish.
3. Bake at 350 F for 15 minutes.
Prepare the topping and bake
4. Beat all topping ingredients except powdered sugar. Mixture will be thin.
5. Pour over hot crust.
6. Bake at 350 F for 20 minutes or until topping is set.
7. Allow to cool before cutting.
8. If you'd like, top the bars with powered sugar.

Then I will be making blackberry butter just for fun and games. 

1. Blackberry Butter - Amish Recipe
   
   Found on thelazydaisykitchen.blogspot
   
   
   makes one pound of butter 
   Ingredients:
   
   1 pound salted butter, softened
   
   1/8 cup of honey
   
   1/2 cup blackberries
   
   Whip together butter and honey until fluffy.
   
   Add in berries and mix in short bursts until desired look is achieved. I did not want mine to be completely emulsified, so I "broke" up the berries slightly with just a few turns of the paddle attachment.
   
   If storing in jars, scoop into jar and wipe mouth clean. Cap and refrigerate.
   
   If storing in logs, place a piece of plastic wrap over a piece of aluminum foil the same size. Scoop out butter along length of wrap/foil, folding wrap over butter and rolling into consistent-sized cylinder. Roll up foil around log and twist ends. Refrigerate or freeze.
2. 
   

Lemon Blueberry Bread Recipe

http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/lemon-blueberry-bread

Lemon Blueberry Bread Recipe

Nutritional Facts

1 serving (1 slice) equals 181 calories, 7 g fat (3 g saturated fat), 38 mg cholesterol, 149 mg sodium, 27 g carbohydrate, 1 g fiber, 3 g protein.

TOTAL TIME: Prep: 15 min. Bake: 1 hour + cooling

MAKES: 16 servings

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup butter, melted
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 eggs
• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts
• 2 tablespoons grated lemon peel
• GLAZE:
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1/4 cup sugar

Directions

1. In a large bowl, beat the butter, sugar, lemon juice and eggs. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; stir into egg mixture alternately with milk, beating well after each addition. Fold in the blueberries, nuts and lemon peel.
2. Transfer to a greased 8-in. x 4-in. loaf pan. Bake at 350° for 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack.
3. Combine glaze ingredients; drizzle over warm bread. Cool completely. Yield: 1 loaf (16 slices).

Editor's Note: If using frozen blueberries, use without thawing to avoid discoloring the batter.

Originally published as Lemon Blueberry Bread in Taste of Home February/March 1995, p45

Pa's Steak Rub.

This is the Steak Rub Recipe that Pa made up that he made sure he left us the recipe for.  Ma wants me to include this in the blog so that everyone can get to it as well.  This makes basically the single serving size or at least jus the small amount.  He on the other hand used to make up a large batch at a time so that we had it.  Do as you choose.



2 TB Great American Seasoning
1 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp onion salt
2 TB salt
2 TSP black pepper
2 TB chili powder

Pickled Peaches

experimenting with a recipe that I cant find actually written down anywhere in my Grandmothers things but they were the most amazing. 

End of the Day. ... Start of a New Week

This is most of the fruits of my labor today.  Not quite all as several things I had already put in the refrigerator to be ready for the week.  Three containers of chopped lettuce to be ready for salads for my lunches this week.  The container of celery that came in my baskets is cut into sticks ready to be spread with peanut butter for snacks during the day.  A couple of the onions are chopped waiting both salad use and other meals during the week. 

The things that you can see here however are:

 Nine jars of Pasta Sauce using the zucchini, a couple of the yellow squash, some of the onions, mushrooms, celery, the basil, oregano, thyme, and rosemary that came in this weeks basket. We also added some of the rainbow carrots left from a previous add on.   The tomato sauce came from the tomatoes that a friend gave to me that were getting a little mushy so sauce just seemed right.  yes I will share with her as well if she wants some. 

This picture contains Whats For Dinner, tomorrow night.. well partly at least.  The yellow squash is going to get battered and fried, the onion chopped to be added to the ingredients in the container.  Those ingredients are shredded zucchini, shredded carrot, chopped mushrooms all to be added with the onion when I chop it up.  Those things will then be mixed in with the hamburger and ground turkey that will make the meatloaf for dinner tomorrow night.  Some of the chopped lettuce and other things that are currently in the refrigerator will make the salad that will top off the main course tomorrow night. 

 

I pitted and sliced one bag of the add on cherry box that I got and decided that dessert needed to be a cobbler!!!   This shows half of that first bag of cherries and I decided to try a patriotic theme and threw in some of the blueberries that I had left from the last basket I got as well.  I have so far resisted "tasting" it. 

 

YYYUUUMMM YYYYUUUUMMMM I hope.  This is one of the easiest recipes in the world as far as I am concerned and I would be happy to share it with anyone who wanted it.

 

And last but not least.  I tried One lone test jar of Canned Cherries.  I kind of put together two different recipes as I am looking for a particular memory. 

Once a very long time ago I remember that my Grandmother and Mother canned cherries.  To me they were absolutely "heaven on earth" when we used them as a topping over my Mothers special home made ice cream.  They never made them again and no one completely remembers them except for me.  I am almost there.. I need to tweak a couple of the ingredients and keep trying but I am almost there......

 

So tomorrow night, it will be the ears of corn, and pitting more of the cherries to can the rest for later use.  Cherry pie, Cherry cobbler,  Cherry ice cream topping, and maybe just out of the jar with a spoon.  

Then, it will be time for some more mango salsa as I am down to just 2 jars of that. 

 

I have decided that if there is a Kitchen Fairy out there anywhere who delivers presents to good little cooks, I would wish upon a star for a food processor, a new ninja, and new canning equipment.  I used to have a lot, but over the years things have gone missing or I decided I didn't need them anymore so I let them go.. but I think, I am going to be doing this for years to come. 

Someone has to keep lost arts alive, right? 

But now, its time for lights out, everyone have a wonderful night, sleep well and join me for my next adventure.

 

Today is Bountiful Basket Day!!!!

This time I ordered 2 regular baskets, 2 Italian themed add ons and a box of cherries.  I cannot wait to get home this afternoon and start deciding what I am doing with it all.  My family is hoping for home made pasta sauce being canned for the next couple of months. 

I remember a time as a child that my grandmother canned cherries that were locally grown in the mountains near here.  I was very young but it is one of my fondest summer memories of my mothers home made ice cream.  We used those cherries to pour over the ice cream.  I have no earthly idea how she made them but I think I am planning to maybe try to hopefully figure out something close to the way she did it. 

So watch for updates. 
 UPDATE NUMBER ONE>   This is a combination of things that came in the Italian add ons and and things I already had in the fridge from past shopping trips and onions from the last basket.  Add to it a bunch of tomatoes that a friend gave me.  They were a little mushy in places so I turned them in to the tomato sauce that will be the base of this round of pasta sauce.  They are cooked and cooling over night now so I am going to hit the bed early and get up early to add to it before church tomorrow. 

Well, Here I am at the end of the weekend and Im here to report what has been accomplished. 

Im off to bed after canning 7 pints of mango salsa and another jar in the refrigerator that was partly used on the dinner of baked chicken thighs. 
I couldn't find the exact recipe that I used the first time I made it so I really hope that this turns out remotely good.  Major ingredients include mangos, red onions, jalapenos, and bell peppers.

I canned the three pineapples that we had left and let me tell you, the general concensus between *M* and I is that I may not ever use canned pineapple ever again.   I am very thankful to my aunt who told me how to tell when the pineapples were ripe and then how to make sure that the juices were through out the pineapple.  I put a touch of sugar in but Im not really sure if I needed it at all or not. 

I baked chicken wrapped in fresh herbs, roasted the artichokes for dinner tomorrow night, along with roasting most of the garlic that I have around here at the moment. 

I also made English muffins for breakfasts. We will be eating those in the morning with the blackberry syrup that I made a couple months ago.

I also roasted the eggplant and the zucchini later this week. 

thanks for reading.