Applesauce Muffins

We made these the other day. I was looking for a recipe for applesauce muffins because I have some applesauce that I froze and I kinda need the freezer space now...it being Christmas and all when people give you so many treats and you're too kind to throw them away, but can't possibly eat them all up or you'll gain 25 lbs...Yeah. Well anyway, Curious George comes up to me while I'm looking and says, "whatcha doing?" I told him I was looking for an applesauce muffin recipe and he says, "Why don't you just use the one that came in the friend last month." I'm thinking to myself, yeah right, would he really pay attention to a recipe enough to remember that? Well he goes and gets it and sure enough, there it was! Exactly what I needed so we whipped some up and they were GOOD!!

Here's the link if you want to try them. The only changes I made were to use half whole wheat and half wonder flour instead of white flour. Made them much better in my estimation (of course I never tried the originals so what am I saying? :) One other thing I would add would be to add some walnuts (or choco chips for a treat...) to give them a little texture. But if you're a textureless kind of eater, then you'll probably think they're perfect. They're close in my opinion, but I do like texture...Enjoy!

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72-hr kit Rotation

Okay I know, I know it's been forever! Sorry to my readers. Life has gotten hectic. For example - I've had this on my to-do list for over a year and am finally getting to it - Rotating my 72-hr kits. When I opened them up I found that the last time I rotated them was 2-1/2 years ago. I had baby diapers for Jesse bear and baby food and baby clothes! Yikes! Anyway, I hope I'm more on the ball for next time.

I just wanted to post my 72-hr kit meal ideas that I'm using. I did some of these last time and we just cooked up a bunch of them and most were still good after 2 1/2 years! Not great mind you, but edible and not gaggy (except a few - but none of the ones I'm listing here). I admit we fed most of them to the chickens, because it's not exactly something you WANT to eat, but if you have to, it's not bad. Anyway here's the menu:

Day 1

Breakfast - 2 instant Oatmeal packets (I tried some homemade kinds last time and we cooked them up and they were less than pleasing so I'm sticking with the store-bought this time).

Snack - Granola Bar (I like the hard ones cause they last a lot longer)

Lunch - Peanut Butter/Animal Crackers - I get the jiffy peanut butter little bowls. They work great!

Snack - Beef Jerky

Dinner - Chicken Ramen Soup
Chicken Ramen Noodles
Canned Chicken (or packages)

Combine Raman Noodles & Chicken cover with boiling water. Put in cozy for 5 to 10 mins

What's a cozy? See below!

Dessert -Chocolate Pudding

Day 2

Breakfast - 2 Instant Oatmeal packets

Snack - Granola Bar

Lunch - Peanut Butter/Animal Crackers

Snack - Almonds & dried Apricots

Dinner - Creamy Chicken With Rice

Day 3

Breakfast - Rice Pudding:
In a quart freezer bag put:
2/3 cup instant rice

In another quart freezer bag put:
¼ C. instant dry milk
½ pckg. Instant Vanilla Pudding Mix

Add 2/3 cup boiling water to rice, seal and put in a cozy for 10-15 minutes to firm. Add 2/3-3/4 C. Water to Vanilla Pudding bag and shake vigorously. Then combine contents of both bags. It can be a bit saucy, but it is good and soothing. Serves 2 as a desert, 1 for breakfast.

Snack - Granola Bar

Lunch - Dry Ramen Noodles (Mix the seasoning package with dry noodles - a good little snack!)

Snack - Almonds & Apricots

Dinner - Trail Spaghetti

I got most of the recipes from this site - it's a backpacking/camping site with great recipe ideas. I got the term "cozy" from them. You can buy one from the site or I just use a thick pocket hot pad and it works great. Happy 72-hr kitting to you!

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Canning: Part 4 - Applesauce

Applesauce is not the easiest thing to can, but worth it if you have tons of apples. I love the fact that you can make very sweet applesauce that is so good it doesn't need any added sugar (at least I never add any). The quality of applesauce really depends on the quality of your apples and what kind you use. Some kinds are better than others. We really like Golden Delicious Apples for applesauce, but have used other kinds that are good too. Some varieties are better than others so try a couple to see what you like best - or better yet, try a mixture.

A few things to consider are:

• About 21 pounds of apples makes a 7 quart canner load. An average of 13.5 pounds makes a 9 pint canner load. A bushel weighs 48 pounds and yields 14 to 19 quarts of applesauce.
• For best results use apples that are sweet, juicy and crisp.

Here's the process for canning applesauce. The source for this is here.

Wash, peel, and core apples (with my food strainer, you don't need to peel or core them - saves a ton of time!). If desired, slice apples into water containing ascorbic acid (I use a dissolved 500 mg vitamin C tablet per gallon of water) to prevent browning.

Placed drained slices in an 8 to 10-quart pot. Add 1/2 cup water. Stirring occasionally to prevent burning, heat quickly until tender (5 to 20 minutes, depending on maturity and variety). I usually steam mine in a steamer for about 20 minutes or until very soft. Press through a sieve or food mill, or skip the pressing step if you prefer chunk-style sauce. I use the Roma food strainer:


Sometimes if the applesauce is really runny (from really juicy apples), I strain out some of the juice in the applesauce before canning with a really fine strainer and the kids love to drink it as apple cider (and the adults too).

Sauce may be packed without sugar. If desired, add 1/8 cup sugar per quart of sauce (it's really not necessary!). Taste and add more, if preferred. Reheat sauce to a rolling boil. Be careful because sauce splatters (I've got a few burns on my hands this year from splattering applesauce). Also it can burn on the bottom if heated too fast. I recommend heating it very slowly, stirring often and be very careful of the splatters. Fill jars with hot sauce, leaving 1/2-inch headspace (or more). Adjust lids and process according to times below (based on your current elevation).

Processing Times:
Hot Pints
15 min (0-1,000 ft) 20 min (1,001-3,000 ft)
20 min (3,001-6,000 ft) 25 min (Above 6,000 ft)
Hot Quarts
20 min (0-1,000 ft) 25 min (1,001-3,000 ft)
30 min (3,001-6,000 ft) 35 min (Above 6,000 ft)

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Canning: Part 3 - Peaches

Mmmh....Home Canned Peaches! Doesn't that just make your mouth water? They are so much better than those you can get in the store. The only downside is the time it takes and the sticky kitchen! :)

A few things to consider are:

• Always can ripe, mature fruit. If they taste bad fresh, they won't taste any better canned - in fact probably a lot worse.
• An average of 17-1/ pounds is needed per canner load of 7 quarts; an average of 11 pounds is needed per canner load of 9 pints. A bushel weighs 48 pounds and yields 16 to 24 quarts—an average of 2-1/2 pounds per quart.

Here's how I can peaches. You can find the source here:

Peaches - halved or sliced

Procedure: Dip fruit in boiling water for 30 to 60 seconds until skins loosen. Dip quickly in cold water and slip off skins. Cut in half, remove pits and slice if desired. To prevent darkening, keep peeled fruit in ascorbic acid solution (I use a dissolved 500 mg vitamin C tablet per gallon of water). Prepare and boil a very light, light, or medium syrup (I use 8 cups of water and 3 to 4 cups sugar) or pack peaches in water, apple juice, or white grape juice. They are not very good in water because the sugar in the peaches leaks out into the water so you are left with not very sweet peaches.

Hot pack Method: In a large saucepan place drained fruit in syrup, water, or juice and bring to boil. Fill jars with hot fruit and cooking liquid, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Place halves in layers, cut side down. Adjust lids and process according to times below (based on your current elevation).

Processing Times:
Hot Pints
20 min (0-1,000 ft) 25 min (1,001-3,000 ft)
30 min (3,001-6,000 ft) 35 min (Above 6,000 ft)
Hot Quarts
25 min (0-1,000 ft) 30 min (1,001-3,000 ft)
35 min (3,001-6,000 ft) 40 min (Above 6,000 ft)

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Canning: Part 2 - Tomatoes

Tomatoes are some of my favorite things to can. They are relatively simple and fast (although the processing time is quite lengthy). Home canned tomatoes taste wonderful in soups and sauces all year long. When I can tomatoes I usually just can them as crushed tomatoes because it's a lot faster than boiling them down to make a tomato sauce or soup. The other benefit is you can add new spices and flavors and whatever vegetables you have on hand to the tomatoes, making a new tasting sauce each time. A few things to consider are:

• Always can good quality fruit.
• You need to add acidity to tomatoes if you are canning in a water bath canner (*see note below).
• An average of 21 pounds is needed per canner load of 7 quarts; an average of
  13 pounds is needed per canner load of 9 pints.

Here's the recipe that I use; I got it here.
Crushed Tomatoes

Procedure: Wash tomatoes and dip in boiling water for 30 to 60 seconds or until skins split. Then dip in cold water, slip off skins, and remove cores. Trim off any bruised or discolored portions and quarter. Heat one-sixth of the quarters quickly in a large pot, crushing them with a wooden mallet or spoon as they are added to the pot to create juice. Continue heating remaining quartered tomatoes, stirring constantly. These remaining tomatoes do not need to be crushed. They will soften with heating and stirring. Continue until all tomatoes are added. Then boil gently 5 minutes. Add bottled lemon juice or citric acid to jars.*(see note below) Fill jars immediately with hot tomatoes, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Adjust lids and process according to times below (based on your current elevation).

Processing Times:
Pints
35 min (0-1,000 ft) 40 min (1,001-3,000 ft)
45 min (3,001-6,000 ft) 50 min (Above 6,000 ft)
Quarts
45 min ((0-1,000 ft) 50 min (1,001-3,000 ft)
55 min (3,001-6,000 ft) 60 min (Above 6,000 ft)

* Acidity (Add acid directly to jars before filling. A small amount of sugar can be added to offset acid taste, if desired):
Pints: add 1/4 teaspoon citric acid or 1 tablespoon bottled lemon juice
Quarts: add 1/2 teaspoon citric acid or 2 tablespoons bottled lemon juice

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Canning: Part 1 - Introduction

I've had a few people ask me for my canning recipes this year. I haven't ever posted them for a few different reasons, but I decided I will post them this year with a few words of caution first:

1) Home canning requires exactness or it could prove very dangerous to whomever eats the home-canned product.

2) These really aren't my recipes - You should never use a recipe for canning unless it has been tested by people who know what they are doing (a.k.a. ball blue book, your local extension service, etc). All of the basic measurements should come from them. You can usually add spices to the basic recipes, but never change the main ingredients or processing times/pressures.

3) Canning times and pressures/etc. are based on elevation where you live. Make sure you google your town and find out what elevation you're at and follow the recipe accordingly.

4) If you follow the recipes exactly according and adjust times/pressure to your own elevation, home canning is very safe, and a great way to preserve your home grown produce. It also can save money (although it does take time).

Here's a couple of great sites with recipes:

http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/can_home.html

http://extension.usu.edu/htm/publications/by=category/category=319

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Fresh Homemade Salsa

We love growing our own tomatoes every summer and one of the best parts of homegrown tomatoes is homemade salsa! I've used this basic recipe for a couple of years now, but this year I added the freshly squeezed lime juice. The recipe immediately went from okay to excellent. Enjoy!

Fresh Salsa

6 tomatoes (go ahead and leave skins on. More or less is okay - for less runny salsa use Roma Tomatoes)
1 med. onion (pick your favorite kind - purple, Spanish, yellow, sweet, etc)
3 cloves fresh garlic (it must be fresh)
1/2 green pepper
1/2 red pepper
2 T. fresh squeezed lime juice (about 1 lime's worth)
2 tsp. sugar
1 jalapeno
bunch of cilantro (how much depends on your liking to it)
salt and pepper to taste

I always hand chop the tomatoes because food processors make them too mushy. Everything else I chop with a food processor (onion, garlic, peppers & cilantro). Mix it all together and dig in! Great with chips or on Mexican food.


Try different varieties of peppers - banana, Anaheim, Chile peppers, whatever you like. For very mild salsa leave out the jalapeno or take out the seeds first. For hotter salsa add more hot peppers. If you don't like chunky salsa, blend it all in a blender until smooth. As you can see from the picture, we like very chunky salsa. :)

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Fresh Peach Jam

I know it's been forever since I've posted. Between our vacations, Curious George starting school, gardening, canning, Soccer starting, Jesse Bear breaking his arm, etc, we have had quite a month!

It's peach season here where we live! mmmh! We love peaches. We have 10 ripe peaches on our tree this year (or we er...had ten :). They were delicious. I bought a bunch more at an orchard near our house. Here's the recipe for a delicious fresh peach jam that I got out of the friend magazine a few years ago.

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In Honor of Summer...

I'm gonna post this one again. We made it tonight for family night and it tasted soooo good in the middle of all this heat!

This is an awesomely delicious chocolate milkshake. It tastes a lot like Wendy's Frosties. My favorite thing about it is that I don't have to run to the store to get any special ingredients. I have them all in my pantry. It uses a ton of powdered milk so if you're trying to use your food storage, this is a good way to do it! You might find that you need to halve the recipe to fit in your blender (if you have a relatively small blender like mine).

You can find the recipe here:

http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/magicmilkshakes.htm

Enjoy on a hot summer day when you're out of ice cream! :)

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Whole Wheat French Bread

Sorry I've been kind of bad about posting on here lately. I have so many other priorities right now that this blog is kind of been put on the back burner. But here's my latest experiment with healthy cookin':
Whole-wheat french bread! YUM! Here's what I've learned:

1. You have to use more flour for a free-standing loaf of bread than you do with bread that you put into bread pans. The dough needs to be a little stiffer otherwise when it rises it kind of just flops on the pan instead of making a nice formed loaf.
2. To get a crunchy outer crust, spray or brush water on the bread dough after it has risen (a lot of water). This makes the oven humid, which gives a nice crunch to the outer crust when it is fresh.

Here's the recipe I use at the moment. I'm still in the modification process, but I'll post any changes when I get it how I like it!

Whole-Wheat French Bread

1-1/2 C. water, microwaved until very warm (I do about 1 1/2 mins.)
smash 1 Vitamin C tablet in the water (don't ask why cause I don't know - does anyone? It was just part of my recipe and I haven't experimented with why you do this)
2 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 tsp. salt
3 C. freshly ground white wheat flour
1/2-1 C. Gluten flour
1 Tbsp. quick acting yeast

In a bosh mixer, add water, sugar, vegetable oil, salt, gluten flour, half of the wheat flour and yeast on top. Mix adding the rest of the wheat flour as it mixes. Then let bosch mix for 6 minutes. Leave bread dough in bosch and mix every ten minutes for 5 times (50 minutes total). This adds air into the bread, giving it the french bread texture inside.

Roll dough into a rectangle (about 8 to 14 inches) then roll it up like a jelly roll and seal the edges with a few drops of water. Score top. Brush with egg wash (1 egg mixed with 2 Tbsp. water). Sprinkle with sesame seeds if desired. Place on a greased cookie sheet and let rise until doubled in size (not just up but all around).

Bake at 400 for 20-30 minutes (I'm not sure on the exact time yet). Tap to see if it sounds hollow.

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A lot going on!

Well I think it's finally summer here! It's been the strangest spring - unusually cold and wet, so I'm excited that things are finally warming up. We've been picking peas this week - today I pick a huge bucket full! Fresh peas, yum! Here's some pics of our garden right now:

This shows the corn - we planted 3 rows at first and then 3 more rows two weeks later. We staggered it so we don't have all of our corn coming on all at once.


Everything is growing nicely!

We built a little fenced-in yard for the chickens:
They just fly right over the fence and come poop on our porch. The black and orange one should be called "Houdini" - it even manages to get out of the coop when the door is latched and everything! I haven't seen how it does it yet. I think I'm about ready to clip their wings.

I don't think I've ever posted a picture of our new orchard that we planted:
Some of the trees are bigger than others. The 3 larger trees near the brown fence we planted 3 years ago. The other 5 trees we planted in November of last year. We have a total of 4 peach trees, 3 pear trees and 2 apples (there is another pear tree planted up near the front yard). We have about 6-8 peaches on the largest tree that you see in the picture! We're excited to get a few peaches this year!

I spent the day yesterday canning beans:


What a job! But they are yummy! And it's nice having several bottles on hand for when I need a "quick meal!"

Our flowers are beautiful right now - This is our Clematis - isn't it gorgeous?Our rose bushes have never looked better - they loved the extra rain they got this year and I fed them a little better as well!
And finally here is the newest member of our family - meet Cheep-y! Curious George named it - it is a sweet little fellow.
It's good to have another little pet for the boys to love!

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Garden!

I'm cooking up the last spaghetti squash from last year's garden for dinner tonight. The spaghetti squash meal that I like to make is so yummy, I can't wait. Isn't it amazing that we are eating a vegetable from our garden that we harvested over 6 months ago? Now that is cool! Make sure you plant some winter squash in your garden this year! It will pay off in the months to come.

We finished planting most of our garden on Saturday. It was a big project, but the whole family pitched in and it was tons of fun. I think gardening is the perfect way to teach children to work and to make it fun by working together as a family! The boys of course are too young to be able to "help" a lot, but we find little things for them to do to keep them busy. C.G was in charge of watering all the seeds and seedlings after we planted them. J.B. "helped us" by putting the seedlings in the ground. And the best news of all - we only lost one in the process!! :)

Unfortunately my seedlings that I started in February didn't make it this year, with everything going on...They grew fine, but I didn't baby them quite as closely and with all the weird weather we've been having, I wasn't able to get them outside enough so they died...so we gave our local greenhouse some business. Usually I plant peppers and tomatoes from seedlings and everything else from seeds. I'm trying basil this year from a seedling because I've never had much luck when I try to plant the seeds...I hope I get some. I love cooking with fresh herbs! Brandon planted some thyme seeds indoors this year - they popped up just fine so we're hoping they'll grow. Fresh thyme is the best thing for Italian spaghetti sauce! Mmmh.

Anyway, here's some pics of our garden thus far. Cross your fingers that it will grow. We do the chicken wire and tomato cages over everything until it gets big because of the deer problem. We keep the cages around the tomatoes and peppers, but take off the chicken wire when the plants grow big enough.










Here's our peas - they are growing pretty nicely. They and the onions are the only thing, really growing out of our spring garden. I CAN'T WAIT FOR FRESH PEAS!!

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Gardening Series: Post 3

Planting

After tilling up the soil really well, we plant our vegetables on raised beds with furrows for walking between the beds. It's important to not walk on the beds because it compacts the soil, making it hard for the plants to grow.

We plant them on different sizes of beds depending on the type of vegetable. Usually a 2-3 foot bed is sufficient for the vegetables in category #1 in Gardening Series: post 1. All of these vegetables can be planted on either side of the raised bed (2 rows/bed but Broccoli/Cauliflower you will want to stagger down the row). We've even done three row for carrots and been successful as long as you pick the middle row when they are young and tender and let the two outer rows grow for a later harvest. Peppers can also be planted on either side of a 2-3 foot bed - we usually alternate where they are on the bed so that no pepper is directly across from another, rather they are staggered like a zig-zag. Beans can also be planted on either side of a 2-3 foot bed. Zucchini and yellow squash like a lot of room to grow so we usually try to plant them on a 4-5 foot bed at least. Even then they sprawl all over the place making it hard to walk in the furrows, so we like to put them in a corner of our garden so it's easier to pick the fruit. For tomatoes it really depends on how you grow them. An ideal way would be to give the indeterminate types a lot of room (like 5 feet) and let them just sprawl all over the black plastic (not staking them or using cages or anything). We tried that one year, however, and because we have a deer problem it just ended up being a treat for them and we didn't get many tomatoes off our plants that year. So now we plant them on a 3-4 foot bed inside a cage. When they are really small we put chicken wire all around the cage so the deer can't eat them and then take it off when the plants get stronger. Winter squash like a lot of room to grow so we plant them in the center of a 4-5 foot bed. Smaller melons like cantaloupe we plant in the center of a 3-4 foot bed. Larger melons like watermelon need more space. We plant corn on either side of a 3 foot bed. Those are just a few of the main crops that we plant. If you have any more that you are wondering about the size of bed, just ask.

It's important to plant good seed. After spending all the effort to till and plant and weed and water a garden, the last thing you want is your vegetables to be less than desirable because the seed you planted was not very good. We usually buy our seed from a reputable seed company. They generally have better varieties than garden stores or nurseries and a bigger selection. Here is a list of the crops we planted in our garden last year. We follow the planting instructions on the back of the packets for the most part, but there are a few changes that I'll talk about in a future post.

Watering

We use a drip system to water most of our vegetables. We got drip tubing (the pre-marked kind is good) and bought some pressure regulated emitters that regulate water at 2 gal/hour. we put the emitters on the drip tubing spaced every foot down the tubing. You can also use soaker hoses, but we've found that they do not last as long and are not as easy to regulate how deep your water is going with the drip system.

The cool season crops or leaf and root crops (the vegetables in category #1 in Gardening Series: post 1) generally have shallow root systems that extend about 3 feet below the soil's surface. The warm season crops or seed and fruit crops (the vegetables and fruits in category #3 in Gardening Series: post 1) generally have much deeper root systems often extending below the soil's surface 8 feet or more. Because of this difference, these different crops need to be watered differently. In order for the plants not to wither between waterings, you need to water deeper for the deep-rooted crops than the shallow-rooted crops. With the drip system we have in place we water the crops in category #1 in Gardening Series: post 1 about 30-45 minutes twice a week. We water the crops in category #2 in Gardening Series: post 1 about 1-2 hours once a week. And we water the crops in category #3 in Gardening Series: post 1 about 3-4 hours every 2 weeks (or 10 days in the very hottest months).

In addition to that, we put black plastic on the ground for some of the crops to keep out the weeds and to keep the water in the soil better. We do the black plastic for tomatoes, melons (cantelope, watermelon, etc) and have done it for peppers too. Be careful with when they are small because you don't want to kill the plants if the plastic covers them. We usually put rocks all around the plastic so the wind doesn't blow it up over the plants. We re-use the plastic for a couple of years. You don't want to use it for winter squash because the plant spreads and re-roots itself in the ground, making the plant stronger.

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Gardening Series: Post 2

Fertilizing
I learned that you need to be very scientific about the fertilizer you put in your soil. If you put on too much it will burn up the plants because it actually takes water out of your plants and makes them wither. The three main elements a plant needs are Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (Ph), and Pottash (Pot). So you want to make sure you buy a complete fertilizer that has all three of those essential elements. The best mix for the soil in our areas is 16-16-8 with 4% iron (the numbers are N-Ph-Pot respectively). You have to till the fertilizer pellets into the soil (not just spread on top) because the Ph and Pot are not soluble (they do not dissolve in water). You can buy some soluble fertilizers (like miracle grow) that you can "water" over the soil for those areas that you can't till up (like perennials, etc).

We use a mixture of 3/4 of the 16-16-8 fertlizer and 1/4 of Ironite. You need to add iron into our soils because they have a lot of limestone in it. Not enough iron in the soil causes a yellowing of the leaves with dark inner veins called chlorosis. We put this mixture on in the following way:

We use a quart bottle and fill it up 3/4 of the way with 16-16-8 and the rest of the way with ironite. We shake it to mix together. That quart should cover about 180 square feet of garden space. We sprinkle it over the soil before we till it.

In addition to that mixture we also put on sulfuric acid. The first year we added it, we put on 2 quarts for every 180 square feet. The soil in our area has an average ph (on the acid/base scale) of around 7.5. Adding the sulfuric acid reduces the ph from around 7.5 to 6.5 which is good for most garden vegetables. Every year after the first year we add about 1 quart for every 180 square feet in our garden to replenish the soil. Some plants need the soil more acidic than others. For those plants (such as berries) you want to add more sulfuric acid. That will make the soil more acidic.

Soil Improvement

The other thing that we do before we plant is add compost or yard waste to the soil (sometimes called humus). The humus helps improve the soil. For sandy soils the humus fills in the spaces and helps hold water in the soil. For clay soils the humus mixes with the clay and makes pores into the soil letting the water and roots grow deeper into the soil. So basically humus is good for your soil no matter what kind of soil you're planting in.

We usually buy a truckload of the yard waste (without sewage sludge) from a local solid waste plant a couple times a year and mix it into our soil.

After adding the fertilizer & compost we till the soil up really good. Then you can plant immediately after doing that (or after the last frost, depending on the type of vegetable, see post 1).

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Gardening Series: Post 1

These next few posts will be a series on gardening from information that I've gleaned both from experience as well as attending a class for gardening specifically in our area. Hopefully this information will be helpful to those who are looking to start a garden or improve their gardens for this year.

This first post will talk about the 3 main types of garden crops:

1. Leaf and Root crops - These are planted in the cool season, they are shallow rooted and should be watered twice a week. In our area you can usually plant these crops around the middle of March - as soon as the ground is thawed enough to plant. We usually till up the soil, fertilize and make rows in the fall after the harvest so that we can plant our spring garden as soon as the snow melts. This year we planted a little later - around the third week of March because we hadn't gotten around to tilling it in the fall. You can also plant a second planting of these crops for a Fall harvest (planted around the end of June/beginning of July). The leaf and root crops include: lettuce, celery, spinach, swiss chard, radishes, beets, carrots, potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and peas.

2. Immature Fruit - When they are mature these crops should be watered once a week. In our area, we plant them after the danger of the frost is over (around Mother's day). These include beans, corn, peppers, eggplant, zucchini, summer squash and cucumbers.

3. Seed and Fruit - These are the warm season, deep rooted vegetables. When they are mature they should be watered every 2 weeks (or 10 days in the very hottest weeks). In our area, we plant them after the danger of the frost is over (around Mother's day). These include tomatoes, watermelons, cantaloupes, butternut squash, hubbard squash, banana squash, other winter squash, peaches, pears, apples, plums, cherries, grapes, asparagus, peanuts, and yams. Note: the fruit trees you can plant any month that as an "r" in it - that is, September through April.

Larry Sagers wrote an article called "Vegetable-gardening-101" in the Deseret news that I noticed separates the crops a little differently. This is an excellent article and very helpful to read as well. He is more specific - grouping the items from the leaf and root crop category into hardy and semi-hardy.

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Amazingly Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies

So I mentioned that we are on the look out for more healthier treats lately. Well, I did a big search today to try to find a recipe that my kids would eat for dinner today and I ran across a really neat online column that was written by the "Sneaky Chef." I say "was" because I think she's stopped writing it, but the articles & recipes are still available and she some great ideas for how to add nutrition into meals your kids will eat. That is something that I know I am constantly battling: Do I make meals that are only "adult-friendly" and expect my kids to eat them or do I make separate meals that cater to each person. Well I'm obviously not going for the latter option because that takes way to much time especially when there are multiple children involved with their own set of tastes and "icky" food lists. So I was hoping to find a happy medium where I could make meals that everyone likes....at least in my dreams...but I ran across this column and found a lot of great ideas. So I'm happy about that and as an added bonus I found this amazing recipe for chocolate chip cookies that I tried. They were sooo good! My kids and I gobbled them up and if you look at the ingredients they are surprisingly healthy - Beans? Oats? Wheat Flour? Wheat Germ? In cookies? Wow! And they're not your normal "healthy cookies" that taste like "healthy cookies". They are actually really good. Not as sweet as a normal cookie, but that is exactly what I am looking for. Something that still satisfies a "sweet tooth" but doesn't send the kids up to the moon on a rocket ship. ;) Anyway, hope you enjoy them as much as we did.

Here's what my bean puree looked like, in case you were wondering like I was what it was supposed to be like. I used garbanzo beans because it's the only can of white beans I had and my pressure cooker was occupied at the moment. And no, there is no "bean" taste to the cookies. They taste just like cookies, imagine that! :)

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Beautiful Spring

It's officially spring according to me. I don't know how official that is, but if you need an official spring declarer, I am hereby declaring it. It's my very favorite time of the year. So much newness and freshness. We planted our spring garden this week. "We" being Brandon since I was gone. :) I can't wait to see the seedlings start to pop up through the ground. That's one of my favorite spring occurrences. And here are some more:

• Crocuses - ah! They could easily be my favorite flower simply by the fact that they are always the first living thing to bloom in my yard. I don't know that I have a favorite, but if I had to pick one they would be in my top ten list. Every year it surprises me with how beautiful they are, peeping their bright heads out of the snow. It makes me want to reach out and touch them to see if they are real or if someone tricked me by sticking fake flowers in the ground.
• People - many of us tend to hibernate in the winter. Only stepping a foot outside our warm houses to go get the mail or hop in and out of the car. Then in the spring we start to emerge from our caves and once again enjoy the beautiful world. I love seeing children playing on playgrounds and walking to school, people working in their yards or jogging down the street. It does the soul good to say hello to a neighbor as you walk by.
• Birds - I love hearing the birds singing and all the different sounds and noises they make. We had a couple of pheasants living in the forest behind our house a few years ago. It was delightful to watch them chase around and hear their loud calls. I remember thinking that it was my husband's cell phone for the longest time, till I asked him about it once.

Well i guess that's it for now. I'm sure I could think of lots more if I sat here long enough, but I must go so I will leave you to think of them yourself. What do you like best about Spring?

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Kitchen Remodel Pictures

See our other blog for this post:

http://brandonheatherfam.blogspot.com/2010/03/kitchen-remodel.html

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Mouthwatering Whole-Grain Oat Bread

I've been trying to come up with some variations on my whole-grain bread recipe to give us a little variety. This is the most recent variation. I'm keeping it here so I can refer back and make it again - it was soo delicious!! The texture was amazing, stuck together nicely with no crumbs. It stored really well - still delicious 4 days after I made it. My new favorite!

Whole-Grain Oat Bread

Printable Recipe

*Makes 3 loaves

INGREDIENTS:

3 Cups hot water, microwave on high 2-3 min or until quite warm ( >110° F)
1/3 Cup oil
1/3 Cup sugar 
1 Tbsp. salt (put in first before adding yeast)
5+ Cups freshly ground oat flour (I ground oat groats, but you can also use oatmeal ground in a blender for a few minutes)
1-½ Cups gluten flour*

1/4 Cup ground flax seed

2 Tbsp. yeast on top of flour

DIRECTIONS:

Combine above ingredients in Bosch mixer with dough hook and mix. Add more oat flour until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Then mix for an additional six minutes. Divide dough into 3 loaves (the dough will still be VERY sticky - so sticky that you won't be able to form your loaves without putting oil on your hands). Put dough in oiled pans. Let rise until double or until the bread fills the pans. While bread is rising, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. When the bread has risen, bake it at 400 deg. for 5 minutes. Then turn down the heat to 350 degrees and continue baking for 25 min or until done.

*NOTE on the gluten flour: I use Bob's Red Mill Vital Wheat Gluten Flour that I buy at WinCo foods in their bulk bins - or you can get a 25 lb. bag of it there if you order it. I think you can also get it at Walmart in smaller quantities - like 22 oz. pkgs. You only use a little bit in each batch so it lasts a long time. It allows you to make the bread with whole-grain flour and still have it light and fluffy and stick together. This really is not an optional ingredient - you can try to leave it out, but you will end up with denser bread, that is crumbly, doesn't have as long of a shelf life and really is not as enjoyable to eat. Another option (if you're looking for one) is to use a good quality, high gluten white flour instead of some of the whole-wheat flour (experiment with how much - maybe 2 cups or more to get it to a good stick-together consistency). I'd rather spend a little more for the gluten flour because you can use less of it (which means more whole-grain flour which is better for you) and still have a great textured, tasty bread.

Recipe Source: healthyfamilycookin.blogspot.com

For lunch I made scones out of the dough from one loaf. To make them fry a small piece of dough on both sides in a frying pan with oil and spread honey on top -mmmmh! They were the best tasting scones I've ever had!

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Sunshine Squash - My Favorite Squash!

Sunshine Squash has got to be the best squash that I've ever tasted! It's time to order your seed's for next year's garden - be sure to order these! They are so sweet and flavorful that you don't need butter or salt. They are the perfect size - just right for 4-6 servings. The texture is perfect, smooth, melt in your mouth. Not stringy like a lot of squash. They're easy to grow - we've grown them for 3 years now with relative ease. They store well. We ate our last one last year in March or April. We still have one or two left this year and they are still firm as can be. If you don't like squash, try these - they are easy to learn to like! Make sure you read up on the health benefits so you know how good they are for you. They have lots of vitamins and fiber that are good for your heart and help fight against cancer. We order our seeds from stokes seeds, but park seed also has them. Enjoy!

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No-Sugar Apple or Peach Puffy Oven Pancakes

I've have a thus-far unstated new year's resolution. Since goals are usually more effective when you tell someone about them, I'm going to tell you. I want to eat less sugar. And I want to feed my family less sugary treats. That's very nonspecific I know, but that's the goal.

So here was my attempt at it this morning. My family loves this recipe - it's one of those recipes that our son asks for for his birthday breakfast every year (it's that good!). I modified it this morning to be a no-sugar breakfast by substituting agave for the brown sugar. It turned out delicious - if I hadn't told them they wouldn't have even guessed the difference.

Apple or Peach Puffy Oven Pancake
2 Tbsp. butter
2 large eggs
½ C. Wonder flour
½ C. Milk
¼ tsp. salt

Heat oven to 400 F. Melt butter in pie plate 9x1-1/4”, in oven; brush margarine on side of pie plate. Beat eggs slightly in medium bowl with wire whisk or hand beater. Beat in remaining ingredients just until mixed (do not over beat). Sprinkle 1 Tbsp. agave nectar (original recipe called for 2 Tbsp. packed brown sugar) and ¼ tsp. cinnamon evenly over melted butter in pie plate. Arrange 1 C. thinly sliced peeled baking apple (1 med) or sliced peaches over sugar (I usually use canned apples or peaches). Pour batter over apple. Bake 30 to 35 min. Immediately loosen edge of pancake and turn upside down onto heatproof serving plate. Serves 2.

To make Gluten Free, just use gluten free wonder flour: see chef brad's website for recipe.

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Homemade Whole-Grain Bagels

I've been wanting to make some whole-grain Bagels for a while and today I finally did! It's really not as hard as it sounds. First I made this bread recipe for the dough (it's whole-grain and we like it!)

Then I rolled the dough out into 19 balls (I wished I had done 18 later because they didn't fit nicely on my parchment paper like I wanted them to).

Meanwhile I boiled a big pot full of water (at least a gallon) with 1/3 C. Karo Syrup in it. While that was starting to boil I formed the balls into bagels - sticking my thumb in the middle of the ball and rolling it around until it formed a bagel-shape. Then I put those on parchment paper to rise for about 10 minutes. (Here's a sneak preview to our beautiful newly sanded down cabinets in the kitchen - more pics to come when we finish the tile!!)
When the water was boiling good I put 3 bagels in at a time for 30 seconds on each side. This boiling process gives the bagels their bagel-like texture.

Remove the bagels from the water with a slotted spatula. Before cooking, I brushed the bagels with an egg wash (1 egg and 2 Tbsp. water) to make them shiny. I cooked the bagels on parchment paper on a pizza stone at 400 F for 20 minutes. Mmmh! They were good! And really not all that hard! Hope you enjoy!

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Wonder Rolls

I've been experimenting with roll recipes this week. I wanted to create a recipe that is a whole-grain (close to 100%) roll that is still light and fluffy. And I think I finally found it! We loved these rolls! They have a wonderful texture. And the flavor is delicious. We'll be making these a lot! Hope you enjoy.

Wonder Rolls

Printable Recipe

*Makes 2 dozen rolls

INGREDIENTS:

2 Cups Milk (or 2 Cups water and 1/4 Cup Non-fat dry milk)

1/2 Cup butter
1/2 Cup sugar
2 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1/2 Cup Gluten Flour
1-1/2 Cups unbleached white flour
4-5 Cups Wonder flour, divided

2 Tbsp. yeast

DIRECTIONS:

Heat milk in microwave for about 2 minutes on high or until milk is at least 110° F. In bosh mixer add milk, butter, eggs, sugar, salt, gluten flour, unbleached white flour and 2 cups wonder flour. Add yeast on top of the flour. Mix until smooth. Add the rest of the wonder flour a ½ cup at a time while mixing until dough barely cleans bowl. You may not need to use all of the flour. Leaving dough slightly sticky, makes the rolls lighter. Mix 6 minutes.

Shape into 24 rolls and place in greased pan, barely touching each other. Let rise for 2-3 hours or until double. Bake 350 F for 20-25 minutes.

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Butternut Squash Soup

We went over to a friend's house for dinner a few weeks ago and he cooked up this mouth-watering amazing butternut squash soup. I loved it so much. I thought for sure when I tasted it that it was full of cream and other fatty-no-good-for-you-stuff. I was shocked when I saw the recipe - simple, healthy ingredients. I made it last week for dinner - mmmh! The red pepper puree adds a wonderful little zip that is sooo yummy! This recipe's going down in my book of favorites - especially in fall and winter. We have so many squash still down in our basement that I'm sure I'll be making it again soon. Next time maybe I'll try it with a different kind of squash...

Butternut Squash Soup with Roasted Red Pepper Purée

Printable Recipe

Butternut Squash Soup

*This Soup can be made a day ahead. Cool slightly. Cover and chill. Re-warm before serving, thinning with more broth if desired.

INGREDIENTS:

2 Tbsp. olive oil

2¼ Cups chopped onions

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 2½-pound butternut squash, peeled, seeded, cut into 1-inch pieces

5½ Cups (or more) chicken or vegetable broth

3 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme

½ teaspoon grated orange peel (or 1/4 cup of orange juice)

DIRECTIONS:

Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add onions and sauté until tender, about 12 minutes. Add garlic and cook, stirring 1 minute. Add squash and 5 ½ cups broth; bring to boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer until squash is soft, about 40 minutes. Cool slightly.

Working in batches, puree soup in blender until smooth. Return puree to pot. Add 1 teaspoon thyme and orange peel. Thin soup with more broth if desired. Simmer 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

When ready to serve, ladle soup into bowls. Swirl 1 tablespoon Roasted Red Pepper Puree (see recipe below) into soup in each bowl. Sprinkle with remaining 2 teaspoons thyme and serve.

Roasted Red Pepper Purée

*This red pepper puree can be made a day ahead. Cover; chill. Bring to room temperature before using.

INGREDIENTS:

1 Cup coarsely chopped drained roasted red peppers from jar (or roast fresh red peppers to use)

1 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil

2 garlic cloves, chopped

¼ teaspoon dried crushed red pepper

Salt and Pepper, to taste

DIRECTIONS:

Puree all ingredients in processor until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Recipe Source: Adapted from a recipe given to me by my friend Colin

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Winter: Time to dream...

We've had a fairly mild winter so far where we live for which I am grateful! Probably only a handful of snowstorms so far, but winter's not over yet...

A few things that have helped me get through the winter are...

1. Flowers...My Cyclamen indoor houseplant always blooms about this time. I love it! It always brings me a breath of fresh air when I watch the flowers burst forth right in the dead of winter.

2. Dreaming...January is a great time to start thinking about next year's garden. I usually start my seedlings indoors around the end of January or first of February. There's something therapeutic about pouring through seed catalogs on a cold wintry day.

3. Windows...I'm a window kind of a person. Our front rooms are south facing - our kitchen has a beautiful bay window and our living room window is almost as large as the room itself. I love basking in the sun on an afternoon winter day. We pull out pillows and blankets and gather the sunlight as it streams in. It does the body and soul good to feel the natural warmth of the sun.

4. Winter Night Walks...It's only been in the last few years that I've discovered this winter-therapy treatment. If you've never gone on one before, you are missing out! We bundle up after dinner on a clear winter night (including the kids) - in snowpants and coats, hats and gloves and blankets. And walk. There's something beautiful about the silence of a winter night that you don't discover anytime else. Most of the world is bundled up inside their houses...and that leaves you and the world - the crisp, beautiful world. We like to walk up to a hill that overlooks the town near our house and enjoy the skyline and the stars and the beauty of the snow-covered valley. Then we come home and drink hot chocolate and warm up in front of the heater. I always look forward to these walks and they help me appreciate the beauty of winter.

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Applesauce Bread

A neighbor gave us a bunch of apples this fall and we still have 2 boxes of them in our basement. They are a red variety and have lost some of their crispness, but still good for baking. I've been trying to come up with creative uses for the apples so this year we made some applesauce bread to give to some of our neighbors for Christmas. It actually tasted like more of a cake (it was quite sweet), but very good. I think if I was to make it again I would probably experiment with eliminating some of the sugar.

Here's the recipe:

Applesauce Bread

1 cup wonder flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon allspice
2 sticks butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 cup granulated sugar, packed
1 egg
2 cups chunky applesauce
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray 2 bread pans with nonstick spray.

Combine dry ingredients. Combine butter and both sugars in a separate bowl. Beat in egg then stir in applesauce. Stir in flour mixture until it is fully incorporated. Fold in pecans.

Pour into bread pans and bake 60 to 70 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean from center.

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Back again

I feel like I've disappeared off the face of the earth - I guess I have as far as the blog world goes. I'm back, but will be here only sparsely for a while - we are redoing our kitchen and another million projects so blogging has moved to the back burner for while. I'm still trying trying to cook healthy, but am not doing 100% what I did before my kitchen exploded. I did make a really yummy dinner tonight that I'll share. I think it's going to be one of my new favorite recipes!

Polynesian Skillet
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/4" strips
1 tablespoon oil
1 medium onion, sliced
1 green pepper, chopped
1 15-0z. can pineapple chunks
2 teaspoons, or two cubes of chicken bouillon granules
1 cup water
1/4 cup vinegar, any type
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 11-oz. can mandarin oranges, drained

In a large skillet, saute chicken in oil until chicken is lightly browned. If you prefer not to use oil, just spray some cooking spray on the skillet and use the chicken's natural juices to cook.
Add onion and green pepper. Stir fry until vegetables are tender.
Add 1/2 cup pineapple juice from the can of pineapple chunks, bouillon, water, vinegar and brown sugar to the skillet and stir.
In a small bowl, off to the side, combine soy sauce and cornstarch. Mix well to smooth out any clumps. Stir the cornstarch mixture into the chicken, vegetables and sauce in the skillet.
Simmer until mixture thickens, stirring constantly. This should take about 5 to 10 minutes, and the mixture will turn more transparent as it thickens.
Add pineapple and mandarin oranges.
Serve over rice (brown rice is delicious). Serves 6-8.

Yes this is gluten free and is very, very good! I served mine with just plain baby spinach - yum! Enjoy!

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