Easter Egg Dye

Okay, so this year, I wanted to dye easter eggs with my kids, just like every year, but I did not want to haul them all to the store just to buy that little egg dye kit thing.  I mean, I already have eggs in my fridge and I have vinegar too, so I wanted to know, is there a way to make your own egg dye that actually works.

Well, I'm here to tell you there is.  I found this recipe on Food.com and it works really well.  I'm so glad too, because I would much rather pull the food coloring out of my cabinet than go down to the store with all 4 of my girls to buy 1 egg dye kit.

And, the bonus is that this dye is just as easy as the kit is to use.  Piece of cake (or should I say egg shell).  Follow the link here for the recipe and enjoy the endless color possibilities you can make from your own pantry.

Good Luck!

Kristin

Cream Of Wheat

When I was a kid, we didn't eat Cream Of Wheat around my house.  I had it a few times at friends' houses, and to be completely honest, I thought it was completely disgusting.

Then I went to college.  I was student teaching in a Pre-K program, and was asked to sit at one of the meal tables for breakfast with about six 4-5 year olds.  When you sit at the table with them, you eat with them, modeling appropriate table manners, conversation, and how to try new things.  That day, I had to eat "Hot Cereal" or Cream Of Wheat, and I knew already that I didn't like it, but my job was to model that we can taste something each time it's put in front of us, and after tasting, if we don't like it we don't have to eat it.  So, I had to try it.  Bummer.

To my surprise, it was the most delicious breakfast cereal I'd ever had.  So, while going about my clean-up duties, and returning the dishes to the kitchen to be washed after breakfast, I had the opportunity to ask the school's cook what she put in the Cream Of Wheat to make it so delicious.

While she wouldn't give me the actual recipe she used, she did say that she put vanilla and almond extract in the cereal to give it more flavor.  So, I went home and started experimenting.  After much trial and error, I've been making this recipe for about 5 years now.  I just had some for breakfast  this morning, and after some curiosity about what exactly wheat farina is, I found that my ingredients in cooking Cream Of Wheat may not be known to the entire world, so I wanted to share them with you.

*This recipe is for 1 serving

Start by following the recipe on the box, but instead of using water, use milk, and don't add the salt.  While the milk is heating, add about 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract and about 3/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract. (I just "eyeball" it) Also add about a palmful of brown sugar.  Whisk all this "stuff" together, then follow the directions on the side of the box to complete the recipe.

Not too difficult, right?  It's actually really easy and it'll make your breakfast taste a million times better.  Also, I add fresh, canned, or frozen (thawed) fruit to the cereal after serving it up into each individual bowl, and my girls love it.  I hope you love it too.

Home Food Preservation, Part 2

So, I love applesauce.  Not the kind you get out of the TreeTop container (that's baby food), but the kind you'd want with pork chops or ribs.  You know, chunky, with cinnamon and nutmeg.  Um, yum! 

I hinted in my last post about sharing a recipe with you for my homemade applesauce.  This recipe can be hot water bath canned, or you can eat it fresh off the stove top.  My favorite way to do this is to make a double recipe (I'll give you the single recipe) and can it, and just save some for dinner that night, because once you've smelled it, you can't possibly not have some.  Here's the recipe:
4 medium Red Delicious apples
4 medium Granny Smith apples
1 cup (8oz.) apple juice or cider
A few good shakes ground cinnamon
2-3 palmfuls Brown Sugar
2 shakes Ground Ginger
1-2 shakes ground Nutmeg

Peel and core apples and cut into bite sized chunks.  Combine everything in a large pot.  Cook over medium high heat until apples are soft enough to mash with a fork or potato masher. 

If you're going to can them, you may want to add a little extra juice, then fill jars and follow canning instructions for applesauce.  I use the instructions in my Ball Blue Book (which came with my water bath canner.)

If you're going to eat them fresh, allow the applesauce to simmer until the sauce thickens a bit, then serve hot.

*This recipe will make about 2-3 pints of applesauce.

I hope you love this recipe as much as I do.  It's easy and always a family pleaser in my house.  So, here's the deal.  I need to preserve enough applesauce for my family to last through the year.  For us, that's a minimum of 52 pints, but if I do 52 quarts, we can have applesauce with more than one meal each week.  Which means I need a ton of apples.

And, as a few of my friends know, I love to share.  I have a tendency to give away bottles of homemade applesauce on occasion, which means, I will need to hoard my applesauce or make more than enough for my family.  So, as soon as I can start canning in my kitchen in my new home, I'll be heading out to the farm stand to purchase boxes of apples, hopefully at a discounted price, because frankly, I like to know where my food comes from and I like to support local people and farms (okay, and mostly, because I'm cheap and it's cheaper to do this than go to the grocery store.)

If you're interested in canning, this is one of the easiest things to start with.  I started canning my own applesauce 2 years ago, while we were still living in Wyoming.  My mom bought me a complete canning kit thing from walmart.com and had it shipped to me so I could start preserving my own food.  Thanks mom, I love it!

If you live near me, I know that over at Bi-Mart they're having a big sale on all the supplies you'll need for preserving your own food and they're also having a sale at Wilco.  If you don't live around the Eugene/Springfield area, check your local farm and ranch supplier, or if you have to, check walmart.com or another large internet retailer.

Good Luck!

Home Food Preservation

Recently, I got some crazy hairbrained idea to purchase 88 pounds of pears directly from the grower.  Sounds really crazy right.  Well, it was, but it was also one of the greatest things I've done for my family, and here's why.

It sounds like purchasing all those pears wouldn't really matter to my family, but it has more to do with the way I feed my family.  I purchased 88 pounds of pears strictly for the purpose of canning them at home, so we could have them to eat all winter, instead of purchasing the canned ones from the store.  It turns out that with the help of my mom and my oldest daughter, we managed to bottle 47 jars of pears.  That's a lot.

You see, for those of you out there that are like me, I don't like to give my kids a whole bunch of extra sugar, but when you run out of fresh fruit and your next shopping day isn't for another 3 or 4 days and the budget is tight, it's nice to be able to pull a can of fruit out of the pantry to balance out your meal.  But, along with a can of fruit from the store comes things that are not so great, like high-fructose corn syrup, preservatives and extra sodium (sodium, can you believe it?) and since I didn't make it myself, I don't even know what else.

So this year, I decided pears would be a good jumping off point.  I didn't want to load myself up too much my first year, but I'm thinking about preserving apples (homemade spiced chunky applesauce anyone?) and pears, and maybe doing some vegetables next year and possibly also some jam, now that I know how to do this kind of stuff and all.

I don't have some secret special recipe (except to say that I will share my applesauce recipe at a later date), but I did use the instructions in my Ball Blue Book (which came with my water bath canner btw).  It has all sorts of recipes for canning and freezing all sorts of different kinds of produce.  Oh, but be careful with the syrup for fruit.  You can cut the sugar in the light syrup down by at least half, if not more, and be just fine.  If you don't, you might find your syrup way too sugary.

I'm telling you, everyone should try this if they've got the time.  I am left with a sense of pride in myself for putting up my own fruit, the way all our ancestors used to do, and I'm feeling more self-sufficient as well.  Thirdly, I know my family will eat some seriously yummy canned fruit this winter (way better than the stuff from the store). 

My pears...yum-O!

I also know that bottling my own fruit is helping to protect the environment.  I can reuse my glass jars and my metal rings each year, and the only thing I need to purchase again are the seals (which are recyclable) and the fruit, of course.  But, think of all the packaging material I've saved, and the cost of trucking the fruit, cans and lables to the factory, and then trucking the fruit in the cans with the labels on them from the factory to my local store.  In the long run, self-suffiency is Eco-Friendly, health smart, and economically more sustainable for my family.

Oh, and one more thing.  The best store I've found around here for all the supplies I needed this first year was Wilco.  They have a huge display this time of year for all your canning and freezing needs.  I would imagine that most larger farm and ranch suppliers would carry similar products this time of year, due to the fact that many farmers and ranchers do this kind of stuff too, so if you don't have a Wilco near you, check out your nearest Farm and Ranch supply store, or head to the internet for your supplies.

Good luck!

Make It Monday

I went to my favorite grocery store on Saturday night.  I didn't have a list, or really anything I knew for sure I needed to get.  All I knew was that I needed stuff to make dinners.  So, while at Trader Joe's, I came up with this idea, and it worked out well.  So here's the menu from our Sunday dinner.  I didn't have any complaints and you probably won't either.

4 Cheese Ravioli with Italian Sausage and Alfredo Sauce

Ingredients:

• 2 packages Fresh 4 Cheese Ravioli (I prefer the TJ's stuff, but if you like a different brand better, go with that)
• 5 links Chicken Sweet Italian Sausage
• 2 Cups Half and Half
• 2 Tbsp. Butter or Margarine
• 2 Tbsp. Flour
• 1 Cup Shaved Parmesan, Romano, Asiago Blend Cheese
• Fresh Cracked Pepper
• Green Salad
• Sourdough Boule

Start by boiling sausage in a medium saucepan for 10-12 minutes.  Drain.  Set aside on a cutting board to rest 1-2 minutes.  Then cut into bite sized pieces, and set aside on cutting board until needed.

Boil Ravioli according to package directions, drain, set aside in serving dish.

Melt butter on low heat in a medium saucepan.  Whisk in flour. 

Increase heat to medium, then  add half & half all at once, stirring continuously. Add pepper to taste. 

Whisk sauce until it is slightly runnier than gravy.  Then add cheese.  Whisk until melted.

Remove from heat.  Stir in Sausage, then pour sauce mixture over Ravioli.

Serve with green salad, and fresh bread (I bought sourdough and warmed it in the oven while I was cooking).

We also had Trader Joe's Peach Halves in White Grape Juice.  Oh, amazing!  You've gotta try 'em!

Preparation Time: about 30 minutes total

Servings: 8 + large servings.  (If you need to you can cut this recipe in half.  I just cook for a big family so I have to make a lot of food.)

Happy Creating!

Make It Monday

It's Make It Monday!

Today, I'm spotlighting the most amazing English Trifle recipe ever.

If you've never made trifle, you may think it's something fancy and difficult to make, but I can tell you it's a piece of cake.  It sounds fancy and may look fancy, but in all reality, it's cake, pudding, fruit, and whipped cream.  No Big Deal.

So try this recipe submitted by teri on allrecipes.com.  It's one of my very favorite recipes ever.  I LOVE IT!!!