Walnuts!

A neighbor gave us some walnuts. We had an interesting experience with walnuts last year. You can read about it here and here. Anyway, we've learned our lesson and they are sitting down in our basement unhusked, where we will wait till they dry out to unhusk them (with gloves on of course). The other mistake we made last year was leaving them in boxes instead of spreading them flat. Several of them were moldy after being left in the boxes and unedible. So here's where they are now:And we still have lots of tomatoes - we've been eating lots of fresh tomato sauces lately. Here's a picture of them (sorry it's blurry):
Getting the walnuts reminded us that we want to plant an edible nut tree of some kind (any ideas?) and a few more fruit trees as well - probably a golden delicious apple, another pear (of some sort) and a peach or two. We have a deer problem where we live so we're thinking it will be better to plant them next spring - if we plant now the deer will probably eat them all winter, like they did the ones we planted 2 years ago. They are still alive - but 2 are in pretty bad shape (the peach and pear). The other peach was tall enough that the dear couldn't reach the upper branches - we've just kept it nice and tall (and we'll probably regret it!) but at least it keeps the dear from chomping it.

It's getting colder, winter's coming- - - I'm not much of a winter gal. I think the thing I love most about winter is that you get to dream of spring... :)

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Gourmet Chicken Noodle Soup

I've been fighting a cold the last few days - it wants to be there, but I'm not letting it. Brandon has been taking good care of me. He made me drink a red raspberry tea yesterday - it was disgusting - I really don't like the stuff, but it really helped. He had me take some vitamin C and garlic capsules yesterday - the garlic is good for killing infection. And today I woke up and he had put the ingredients for chicken noodle soup in the crock pot. We had it for dinner and oh my - it was delicious! I have to share with you this recipe because I don't think there is anything more delicious in the whole world (okay perhaps I'm exaggerating a little, but this is really really good!). Here's the story of the recipe:

Right after I had J.B several ladies in our neighborhood brought us dinner. One lady brought us turkey soup and another one brought chicken noodle. They were both delicious and I asked both of them for their recipes. Well we combined the two recipes and modified them a bit (most of the new ingredients were discovered by Brandon of course) and came up with our current recipe. And not to brag or anything, but this really is gourmet! The pumpkin puree is a secret ingredient that makes this soup a heart-warming comfort food. As I was eating it tonight I wondered if I had step into heaven for a few minutes. :) And I don't have any evidence or anything but it really does help to eat chicken soup when you're sick! Enjoy!

Gourmet Chicken Soup
Printable Recipe

*Note: The secret ingredient in this recipe is the pureed squash. You can cook and puree any winter squash the same way I've demonstrated here with pumpkin or you can use canned pumpkin.

*Serves 6-8

6 Cups water

3 tsp. instant chicken bouillon

1 tsp. celery seed

1 tsp. onion salt

Parsley (as much as desired)

1 tsp. pepper

2-3 chicken breasts (boneless or not), leg quarters or leftover turkey meat

1-2 Cups chopped onions

2 Cups diced carrots

2 Cups diced celery

2 Cups cooked, pureed Hubbard Squash (or other winter squash - pumpkin, butternut, banana, etc) 

Egg Noodles or cooked rice (we like the wide or narrow egg noodles of the Country Pasta brand or you can make your own)

2 Cans Cream of Chicken or Mushroom Soup (or thicken it with ultra jel)

Salt & Pepper to taste

Combine all the ingredients except the egg noodles and cream soups in a crock pot and cook for 5-6 hours or until chicken is soft. Then remove chicken carefully, discard bones, and chop meat. Return chopped chicken to pot and add 2 cans cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup (or one of each) or alternately thicken with ultra gel. Cook egg noodles (we like the wide egg noodles of the Country Pasta brand or you can make your own). You can add rice instead of the egg noodles or eat it without. Add noodles to the soup and season with salt and pepper to taste.

*Note: This recipe is delicious served with fresh, homemade bread!

Recipe Source: healthyfamilycookin.blogspot.com

Update: You can also try this recipe in the pressure cooker!

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Homemade Microwave Popcorn

I found this cool way of making microwave popcorn. Here's the instructions and it really works!

Put 1/4 C. popcorn kernels in a small paper lunch bag, add butter or oil and salt if desired (or you can just do this after). Roll the top once and staple in the middle - and no the staple doesn't spark! Microwave for 2-3 minutes or until popping slows down. Open bag carefully! Enjoy!!

This is a lot cheaper than store microwave popcorn and the taste is wonderful! Plus you can just add as much or as little butter and salt as you wish! Cool, huh?!?!

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Squash Pie

We opened up our first hubbard squash - it was kind of soft and squishy on the outside so we knew it wouldn't last very long in the basement. I cooked up a couple of squash pies with it today. Mmmmh. I wish there were some way to capture the smell of hubbard squash pie to share with you on this blog. There is nothing quite like it. To me it smells like the Fall harvest - the warm cozy smell of home in the fall. I hope to cook up several more this fall just for the smell. I'm sure that once I taste them that I'll want to cook up several more for the taste as well! YUM!! My recipe comes from a wonderful neighbor friend who taught me to make pie crust. And I am forever indebted to her. I still haven't mastered it like she has, but I'm a lot better than I used to be. I've tried to change the recipe to put whole grains in and make it healthier, but still haven't come up with a recipe that can compare to this one. So indulge yourselves and celebrate the harvest with a little white flour! :)

Pie Crust
Ingredients:
1 C. all-purpose white flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 C. ice water
1/2 C. shortening

Mix together flour and salt and place 1/4 cup of this mix in a cup and set aside.

Add 1/2 C. shortening (or butter-flavored shortening) to the remaining flour and cut into small balls with 2 knives or a pastry cutter. Do not handle this with your hands until the very last because the heat from your hands will make the dough tough.

Add the ice water to the mix you set aside and mix it to make a paste. Add this past to the flour and crisco and cut in well.

Flour your breadboard or counter and rolling pin. Form dough into a ball and place on floured cutting board or counter. Tuck the ends under to make a smooth ball. Roll out into a circle. Fold in half and place into your pie pan. Let edges hang over about 1". Cut off the excess dough. Tuck half of the edges under to make neat edges. Pinch to make the edges stand up. Makes 1 pie crust.

Squash Pie Filling

2 C. Squash or Pumpkin puree
2 eggs
3/4 C. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1 12-oz. can milk (or 1-1/2 cups)
1 9-inch pie shell

Preheat oven to 425 F.

Mix all ingredients well. Pour into a 9" uncooked pie shell. Bake 425 F for 15 mins, then 350 F for 45 mins. Insert knife between center and side. If it comes out clean it is done. Serve cold garnished with whipped cream if desired.

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Whole-Grain Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

These smell and taste like fall! I got the basic recipe here, but adapted it to be whole-grain. They are actually pretty healthy! And very soft. When they are warm, they melt in your mouth.

Whole-Grain Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

2-1/2 cups whole-grain wonder flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup canola or corn oil
1 cup pureed pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips, or any chip you like

Position a rack in the middle of the oven . Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and butter the paper (or omit parchment).

Stir the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices together in a medium bowl and set aside. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the eggs and sugar until smooth and lightened in color, about 1 minute. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed during mixing. On low speed, mix the oil, pumpkin, and vanilla until blended. Mix in the flour mixture to incorporate it. Mix in the chips.

Using an ice cream scoop with a 1/4-cup capacity, scoop mounds of the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing the cookies at least 2 1/2-inches apart. You could also simply use a 1/4-cup measuring cup if you don’t have a scoop. Use a thin metal spatula to smooth and flatten the rounds.

Bake the cookies one sheet at a time until the tops feel firm and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry, about 16 minutes. Cool them on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then use a wide metal spatula to transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Dust the cooled cookies lightly with powdered sugar. The cookies can be stored in a tightly covered container at room temperature for up to 4 days.

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The Harvest is in!

Well, the frost came. We all knew it inevitably would, but I think I still wasn't completely prepared for it. I still had hopes that the summer would last a little longer... We spent Wednesday night gathering in the harvest and it was wonderful. Here's our final harvest pictures of the year. Don't you just love the colors? Winter squash are so beautiful.The green tomatoes are down in our basement waiting for ripening. The squash are still on our counters - I read that you are supposed to leave them at room temperature for a few weeks to "cure" before you put them in the basement for the winter. We store them in cardboard boxes and will eat them all winter long. Last year we ate our last squash in May! :) I'm looking for some good recipes for green tomatoes (the smaller ones never ripen very nicely) so if you know of any, let me know!

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