Disclaimer: I originally posted this 11 years ago but felt the need to update it and include more information.
Whether or not you have your food storage in place or are just beginning, there is so much to learn from Wendy Dewitt (Everything Under The Sun). I always thought Wendy Dewitt had a great food storage plan on her website but it’s even better because she has video taped a few seminars based on her plan. She does love her Sun Oven (I do not have one yet) and if you choose to purchase one or any other type of alternate cooking device, I suggest you use it NOW! There is a learning curve to alternate anything (whether that’s cooking or baking with sourdough) and you do not want to be learning (and failing) when you are operating from a place of scarcity.
Despite the fact that she is Mormon (and speaking to Mormons), she is not overly religious in her presentation. I am only mentioning her religion for those who may be offended by anything religious (or not of your religion).
I have found three (2 older ones and 1 updated version of her seminar) on YouTube and the quality of them shows (the oldest one was recorded in 2008). I downloaded them, did my best to adjust the quality (there is only so much I could do with the audio), and uploaded them to my channel.
Here are the download links for the handouts for the first two videos (in English and Spanish):
I know this isn’t what I have posted for quite some time but I made Candied Orange Peels for the first time. They were not labor intensive, just time consuming. They were well worth it! My goal is to have enough candied fruit to eventually make my own Panettone. At the bottom of this page are recipes for other candied goodies!
I decided to make candied orange peels because I bought a five pound bag of oranges and no one was eating them (and eventually I want to have enough candied fruit to make panettone).
So, I pulled out the old trusty Joy of Cooking and got busy!
Candied Citrus Peel
Peel of 3 oranges, 2 grapefruits, or 6 lemons, removed in large strips
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons light corn syrup (I used honey)
3/4 cup water
1 cup sugar
Wash the oranges, then peel them (I used the meat of the oranges for marmalade).
Add water to cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Drain, cover with fresh cold water, and simmer until tender.
Drain, refresh under cold water, and remove any remaining pulp or pith by scraping it away with a spoon (now, I tried this with one of our “good” spoons and the edge wasn’t sharp enough. So, I pulled out one of the spoons I set aside for my husband to put in his lunch box).
Cut the peel into 2 X 1/4-inch strips. Combine 1 cup sugar, 3 tablespoons light corn syrup (honey) and 3/4 cup water. Stir over low heat until the sugar is dissolved. Add the fruit peel and cook very gently over low heat until most of the syrup is absorbed (if your stock pot isn’t the best, like mine, place it on top of a cast iron griddle. This works great and have never had any scorching).
After about 12 hours the orange peels absorbed most of the sugar/water mixture. I drained the peels into another pot, thinking I could use the orange syrup for something (not sure what though).
To dry the peels, I propped up an old window screen I use for drying. I lined the screen with wax paper, poured the second 1 cup of sugar on the paper, scattered the drained orange peels on the sugar, and tossed them to ensure even coverage.
I put more wax paper over the top and weighed it down. It took about a week for them to get dry enough (the recipe says to let dry one hour then place in the refrigerator. I didn’t like that, so let them completely dry).
I ended up with about a gallon and a half of candied orange peels (1 1/2 gallon sized Ziploc freezer bags). I’m storing them in the freezer (just to be safe). I reserved the orange sugar, thinking I could use it for something! 🙂 You know those orange slices by Brachs? These taste just like those, just a bit more tart. My step-daughter loves them!
Candied Ginger
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 water
1 piece fresh ginger, sliced or julienne
Peel, cut into coins or make long strips (julienne). Immerse in simple syrup (1 part sugar to 1 part water). Cook 15 minutes or till translucent. Dry on cake rack over paper until almost dry. Roll in sugar and place on parchment paper to dry.
Select prickly pear cactus (or small barrel cactus if you own this type of cactus, since it’s illegal to remove it from the desert). Remove spines and outside layer with large knife. Cut pulp across in slices one-inch thick. Soak overnight in cold water. Remove from water, cut in one-inch cubes and cook in boiling water til tender. Drain. Cook slowly in the following syrup until nearly all the syrup is absorbed. Do not scorch!
SYRUP for 2 QUARTS of CACTUS CUBES
Heat all ingredients until sugar is dissolved. Then add cactus. Remove cactus from syrup, drain and roll in granulated or powdered sugar. For colored cactus candy, any vegetable food coloring may be added to the syrup.
Coltsfoot Candy
“An enjoyable way to soothe a cough”
Yield: 4 Servings
1 liter Coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara) leaves
600 ml Water
450 g Sugar
450 g Golden syrup
50 g Butter
2 1/2 g Baking soda
Boil the washed coltsfoot leaves in the water, and drain off the liquid. Put the sugar, golden syrup and butter in a pan and add the liquid. Bring to the boil, stirring, then continue to boil until a little of the candy turns brittle when dropped into a bowl of cold water. Take off the heat and add the soda Beat the mixture very well until it is almost stiff, then pour into a shallow, oiled baking tray. Allow to set, then break up into pieces and store in a jar.
Avril Rodway’s ‘Food From The Countryside’
Peppermint Candy
4 egg whites
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
1/4 cup minced fresh peppermint leaves
green food coloring (optional)
Beat the egg whites and cream of tartar until very stiff. Add the confectioners sugar and beat until very thick. Gently fold in the peppermint. Drop by spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet and bake at 250F for approx. 35 minutes or until dry. Allow to cool. Keep stored in airtight containers.
Yesterday, I canned my first batch of potatoes. I will be canning both red potatoes and sweet potatoes. I purchased two 10 pound bags of red potatoes (I figured this was the best choice, since the only other option was russet potatoes) and two 10 pound boxes of sweet potatoes.
This was one of the easiest things to do! I left the skins on, cut them in half or quarters (depending on their size), and followed the directions here: http://jordansfarm.wordpress.com/2008/08/23/canning-potatoes/. They all sealed beautifully and only two sucked up some of the water (the jars are about half full of water) so those will be used first (miss paranoid here).
The 20 pounds of red potatoes filled 19 quart jars (with a few left over so I could enjoy them with dinner) and 20 pounds of sweet potatoes filled 14 jars (actually 16 but I did not want to pressure can 2 jars so mashed sweet potatoes were for lunch and dinner the next day).
Further down on the web page above page is instructions for canning sweet potatoes. That is how I will be doing the sweet potatoes tonight:
Sweet Potatoes canned:
Boil first for about 5 min. so as the skins will rub off.
Leave small ones whole/ or cut,
Pack into jars
Fill with water or med. syrup (med. syrup: 3 1/4 cup sugar and 5 cups water= 7 cups syrup)
I packed in syrup but a light syrup instead. I went looking around for light syrup recipes that would allow me to incorporate honey. I found this page (http://www.pickyourown.org/sugarsolution.htm), and it turns out you can replace half the sugar with honey! That’s what I did!
I love fresh sweet potatoes but after seeing how the red potatoes bleached out (no longer red) I am afraid of blah, bland sweet potatoes. I have not tried the sweet potatoes yet but last night we had corned beef hash with the canned red potatoes. I cubed them, put plenty of oil in the pan, let it brown without moving it around much, then removed them from the pan. We added them back right before the eggs were set. They tasted wonderful! They did not have that canned potato smell when we opened up the jar, and tasted just like boiled potatoes right out of the jar!
After 20 years of waiting, I have finally gotten a pressure canner! I am so excited I can hardly think straight. This was my Christmas present from my husband (in addition to loving me, I think it was mostly to get me to stop bugging him about it). It’s a Presto 16 quart.
The third day, I was re-canning some of my #10 cans of food. I never wanted to open the cans because I did not want to freeze the leftovers. I processed all foods for the recommended times/pressure settings and they all turned out really nice! All except my beets. They look bleached out but one thing I noticed as I was opening up the can of pickled beets. They use high fructose corn syrup! I’ll be making my own from now on.
My first big canning project is going to be chicken. Yeah, I know. Meat first? Yup. See, we buy a lot of whole chickens and load up the freezer. Canning most of the chicken will free up that freezer space for something else.
The majority of the time, we only use whole chickens for my husband’s tacos and enchiladas. Those recipes require us to boil, then de-bone the chicken so why not cut those steps out?
So I went searching around and found this great blog:
The first bottle of Lemon Wine I made in April was opened Friday. It’s sweet … very sweet. I wasn’t even sure there was alcohol in it until about five minutes after I finished the glass. To me, it tasted like lemon syrup.
I sent a bottle up to my sister’s house so they could try it. My oldest sister had to be forced to even try it. My older sister said it tasted more like lemon liquor (suggesting mixing it with club soda), and my brother-in-law tried it over ice.
I’m glad I had them try it because I really didn’t know if I liked it or not. At least none of us keeled over dead from it! LOL!
I was gifted with approximately 10 pumpkins. A friend wasn’t expecting the vines to come up this year so we had plenty to give to co-workers, neighbors, and hold onto.
So, I was looking around online. I usually freeze my pumpkin puree but here’s a woman who cans it! I figure, using her recipe, I’ll end up with pumpkin pie filling with one quart being enough to make two pies. I am so excited!
Bretzel Rolls (adapted from Recipezaar.com) 2 hours start to finish – Makes 8 sandwich size rolls
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons instant yeast (or 2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast which will need proofing)
1 1/3 cups warm water
2 tablespoons warm milk
2 tablespoons melted butter
1/3 cup light brown sugar
2 quarts of water
1/2 cup baking soda
kosher salt
spray oil (I really like this stuff, the high heat canola is great)
Mix the flour and yeast in the bowl of a standing mixer (or a large bowl)
Melt the butter and warm the milk
Combine the butter, milk, water, and brown sugar in a separate bowl and stir until the sugar is dissolved
Add the butter mixture to the flour and stir until all the flour is hydrated and you have a firm, pliable dough ball
Using the dough hook, knead the dough for 2 minutes, or if you’re kneading by hand, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 2 minutes
Round the dough into a ball and cut it in half with a bench scraper or chef knife
Continue rounding and cutting 2 more times until you have 8 even dough balls
Arrange the balls on a lightly floured surface, cover with a damp cloth, and allow them to rest for 10 minutes
Pat the dough balls into rolls by slightly flattening them (you should have a semi-flat disc about3 to 4 inches in diameter)
Arrange the rolls on a lightly floured surface about 1 inch apart, cover them with lightly oiled plastic wrap, and allow them to rest for 30 minutes
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees, line one large 3/4 sheet pan, or two 1/2 sheets with parchment paper, spray the paper lightly with oil
In a large stockpot, bring the water to a rolling boil and add the baking soda (make sure the pot is deep enough that it doesn’t boil over when you add the baking soda, you may also want to add the baking soda slowly to lessen the chance of boil over)
Drop 2 rolls into the boiling water and boil for 30 seconds, turning once
Remove the rolls from the water with a slotted spoon, drain them, place them on the prepared sheet pans, and sprinkle lightly with salt
Once all the rolls have been boiled, bake on the upper and middle rack of the oven for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the rolls are nicely browned all over, shifting the pans from top to bottom and front to back halfway through cooking
Remove the rolls and transfer them to a wire rack
Serve warm or at room temperature
Keywords:
bretzel, pretzel, roll, dinner, bread,
These I am making now because my husband came home from work wanting a French Dip sandwich and we did not think the Pretzel Rolls would be the same:
“Simply delicious French bread rolls with a crisp crust and chewy texture.”
Ingredients
Instructions
In a large bowl, stir together warm water, yeast, and sugar. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
To the yeast mixture, add the oil, salt, and 2 cups flour. Stir in the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until the dough has pulled away from the sides of the bowl. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl, and turn to coat. Cover with a damp cloth, and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.
Deflate the dough, and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough into 16 equal pieces, and form into round balls. Place on lightly greased baking sheets at least 2 inches apart. Cover the rolls with a damp cloth, and let rise until doubled in volume, about 40 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
Bake for 18 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown.
In a large saucepan, combine the water, bouillon, pepper, garlic salt, and pepper flakes. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer uncovered for 15 – 20 minutes.
Keywords:
beef, au, jus, dip, broth
Though next time I will try making some from scratch.
Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the stew meat and brown well on all sides. When the meat is well-browned, add the onion, reduce heat to low and cook until the onions are tender and beginning to caramelize around the edges, about 10 minutes.
Add the garlic clove and tomato paste and continue cooking for 5 minutes more. Add the beef broth, Worcestershire and bay leaf, cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Remove cover, increase heat to medium and simmer for another 25 minutes or until reduced to 3 cups.
Taste broth and add as much of the remaining salt as is necessary to give a deep salty-beefy flavor. Remove bay leaf and meat, and pour into cups. Serve with French Dip Sandwiches.
I have been wanting to try my hand at making baked beans for quite a while. I just never remember to purchase navy or northern beans. They are not a staple in our house (it’s pinto beans). So, yesterday I decided to try them with pinto beans. These are still cooking, just now soft but the flavor is wonderful!
I found this recipe online but replaced pinto beans for the white beans (see below). I cooked it in my crock pot, adding a can of Guinness Draft beer after 8 hours, then more water with 1/4 cup of potato starch after 14 hours. I don’t think I let the beans soak long enough (these beans are about 1 1/2 years old and should have been kept in my long-term storage bin instead of the smaller container in the kitchen). They are still, after 24 hours in the crock pot, more firm than I like.
I served these with Evergood Pineapple Sausage and Muffins (recipe below), which my son LOVED.
Soak the beans overnight in plenty of tap water. Or, you can bring them to a boil on the stove and then turn them off, cover them and let them sit for an hour or two. The point of this is to reconstitute them some, making them easier to cook.
After the initial preparation boil your beans on the back of the stove for about half an hour. They won’t be perfectly soft, but they will be almost soft. Drain off the cooking water. In a very large casserole (4-quart) combine the semi-cooked beans, salt, dry mustard, molasses, sugar and chopped bacon. Add enough hot water to barely come to the top of the beans. Put a lid on the casserole, or tin foil. Bake the beans at 300° for about 5 to 7 hours. They will be tender, fragrant and delicious. My kids love this stuff. The cooked beans may be frozen in two cup portions to substitute for canned baked beans or canned pork’n’beans in any recipe. They make a good main dish, or a side dish for a large crowd. This recipe serves about 16. I make such a large amount so I can have plenty of leftovers to freeze.
Another way to cook this, good in the summertime, is to use a crock pot. Boil the soaked beans for half an hour, as directed above. Then, instead of combining everything in a casserole, combine them in the crock pot instead. Put the lid on the Crock Pot after you’ve mixed everything up in it, and cook it on High for about 3 or 4 hours, or on low for 6 or 8 hours. You can put a folded dish towel on top of the lid if your crock pot doesn’t get quite hot enough to cook beans normally. The dish towel helps maintain a temperature hot enough to just barely simmer the beans. Serve with Corn Casserole, Mixed Greens and Oatmeal Muffins or Whole Wheat Bread.
In a large bowl combine the oil, egg, milk, sugar and salt. Mix it very well with a fork or wire whisk. Measure in the baking powder and flour. Mix again until all of the dough particles are moistened. Do not over mix. The whole thing should take about 20 to 30 strokes. Spoon the batter into a dozen well oiled muffin cups. Bake at 400° for about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool slightly before removing from the pan.
Note
Cereal Muffins: After preparing the above recipe using 1/4-cup of sugar, add 1-cup of cooked cereal. You may add oatmeal, or grits, or rice, or farina, or whatever you have left over. This makes about 18 muffins. Rice is my favorite.
Whole Wheat Muffins: Use half or all whole wheat flour instead of the white flour called for. Use 1/3-cup brown sugar for the sweetener.
Rye Muffins: Replace 1/2-cup of white flour with Rye flour. Add 1-teaspoon caraway seeds to the batter. Use 1/4-cup of brown sugar for the sweetener.
Cornmeal Muffins: Replace 1-cup of white flour with cornmeal. Use 1/3-cup of white sugar for the sweetener.
Today was my day to deal with my sourdough starter. It had been sitting in the refrigerator for what feels like 6 months being ignored. I stored it in a gallon mason jar, and needed the room, so three days ago I took it out. I poured it all into a bowl, added 1 cup warm water and 1 cup flour. I mixed it well, let it sit, and it was still alive! I’m telling you, I love this starter!
After my starter resurrected, I began my search for recipes. I have made bread and pancakes but knew there had to be more out there for me to do with sourdough starter. In addition to these first two recipes, I made two loaves of bread, except one I kneaded 2 teaspoons of minced garlic into the dough just before the final rise.
The best website I have found for anything sourdough is King Arthur Flour. They have the largest variety of recipes (with commercial yeast and without).
Well, this is what I came up with:
The big hit of the day was this Cherry Sourdough Coffee Cake from Better Homes and Gardens “New Cook Book”:
Bring cherries to boil; reduce heat. cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in lemon juice. Combine sugar and cornstarch; add to cherry mixture. Cook and stir until bubbly. Cook and stir 2 minutes more. Cool completely.
For dough:
Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Cut in butter until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Mix Sourdough Starter, egg, and vanilla; add to flour mixture. Stir just until moistened. Spread half of the batter into greased 9X9X2-inch baking pan. Spread Cherry Filling on top. Drop remaining batter in small mounds over filling.
For topping:
Mix oats, brown sugar, nuts and flour. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs; sprinkle over batter. Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 35 to 40 minutes or until golden. Serves 9.
Next is the Sourdough Chocolate Cake. Now, I will share a recipe with you but it’s not the one I cooked. The one I cooked was not chocolate-y enough. So I searched and found this one. I won’t make it tonight…have to find someone who will eat the first one (I might have my husband take it to work…they eat anything! LOL!):
Now, for the recipes I will try. Looking around online I found some wonderful recipes. These are the ones I am dying to try, once I am finished with my baking frenzy today.
I was gifted with a lot of lemons from my neighbor’s tree last week. I didn’t realize just how many I had until I washed them all! What the heck was I going to do with all those lemons?
So far, I have started Lemon Wine. I used this recipe:
Grate all lemons and put them aside. Halve the lemons and squeeze the juice into one gallon of boiling water.
When the water boils again, cut off the heat at once. Pour the hot liquid over the sugar and stir until all the sugar is dissolved.
Cut up the raisins and add these to the liquid. Then add the lemon rind and allow the brew to cool. Sprinkle the yeast on top and stir in. Cover and ferment for 14 days after which you strain and bottle. Leave it for one to three months and enjoy (in moderation… this has quite a kick).
Note
I gave some to my sisters and they said it tastes like limoncello.
I used the canning instructions from the National Center for Home Food Preservation (.pdf link below) but this recipe.
Ingredients
Instructions
If you are using fresh squeezed lemon juice, taste it. If it is sweeter than store bought lemon juice, then add a little citric acid. Stir until the citric acid is dissolved, then taste again. If it is still too sweet, continue doing this step until you are satisfied.
Combine the sugar and lemon zest in a small bowl, stir to mix, and set aside about 30 minutes.
Heat water in the bottom pan of the double boiler until it boils gently. The water should not boil vigorously or touch the bottom of the top double boiler pan or bowl.
In the top of the double boiler, on the counter top or table, whisk the eggs. Slowly whisk in the sugar and zest, blending until well mixed and smooth. Blend in the lemon juice and then add the butter pieces to the mixture.
Place the top of the double boiler over boiling water in the bottom pan. Stir gently but continuously with a silicone spatula or spoon, to prevent the mixture from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Cook until the mixture reaches a temperature of 170 degrees F.
Remove the double boiler pan from the stove and place on a protected surface, such as a dish towel on the counter top. Continue to stir gently until the curd thickens (about 5 minutes). Strain curd through a mesh strainer into a glass or stainless steel bowl; discard collected zest.
Note
Here is the .pdf with the detailed instructions to water bath can this recipe. To download it, right-click, then choose “Save As.” Lemon_Curd .pdf
Right now, I have some Bitter Orange Marmalade (Orange-Lemon Marmalade) going in my crock pot (because my stock pot has the wine in it). Not sure if it will get hot enough to thicken, so I may have to separate and cook in batches. This recipe I got out of Stocking Up III by Carol Hupping and the staff of the Rodale Food Center. I used Mandarin Oranges, since I had a lot of those that needed to be used.
An aromatic and delicious variation of the classic.
Ingredients
Instructions
Place oranges, lemons, and water in an 8-quart stainless steel or enamel saucepan. Cover and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer 2 hours.
Remove fruit; seed and quarter. Chop fruit in food processor or by hand. Return to water.
Bring fruit mixture to a boil. Stir in honey and sugar. Return to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly, until mixture resembles a thick syrup, 15 to 30 minutes. (Keep at a full rolling boil or it will take longer to reach the gel stage.)
Pour into hot, scalded half-pint jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace, and seal. Process for 10 minutes in a boiling-water bath.
Allow the marmalade to "age" for 2 weeks before tasting or it may be too bitter.
Note
Based on the recipe from Stocking Up III by Carol Hupping and the staff of the Rodale Food Center
The next (and I hopeful final) recipe I will be making is a Lemon Meringue Pie. I’ll be making this one tonight, using a recipe out of The Joy of Cooking (which is basically this recipe by Alton Brown):
Adjust the oven rack to the middle position. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Whisk egg yolks in medium size mixing bowl and set aside.
In a medium saucepan, combine cornstarch, water, sugar, and salt. Whisk to combine. Turn heat on medium and, stirring frequently, bring mixture to a boil. Boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and gradually, 1 whisk-full at a time, add hot mixture to egg yolks and stir until you have added at least half of the mixture.
Return egg mixture to saucepan, turn heat down to low and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 more minute. Remove from heat and gently stir in butter, lemon juice, and zest until well combined. Pour mixture into pie shell and top with meringue while filling is still hot.
Meringue Topping
Place egg whites and cream of tartar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form and then gradually add sugar and continue beating until stiff peaks form, approximately 1 to 2 minutes. Use to top lemon filling.
Make sure meringue completely covers filling and that it goes right up to the edge of the crust. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until meringue is golden. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack. Make sure pie is cooled completely before slicing.
I was wrong! One more recipe, since there were just a few lemons left over. I made Lemon Extract! I remembered a wonderful Lemon Poppy-seed Bread recipe an online friend of mine gave me (I don’t have permission to post it here) and my lack of the necessary ingredient Lemon Extract. So, I made some!
