Strawberry Nirvana

Chocolate filled strawberries were the sweetness of the day. Do you ever get a hunger to make something, then discover an ingredient is missing from your kitchen stash? The strawberry nirvana recipe requires heavy whipping cream. The heavy whipping cream gives the final product a glossy creamy texture. Heavy whipping cream was missing in my stash.

 Don't use skim milk as a substitute. I did that today.

The flavor is still good, appearance is lack luster without the cream.

 I took a photo despite the appearance. It's not the best picture, I tweaked it, just to make it look a little more appetizing. We love these. Hell, everyone loves these when I serve them.

Strawberry Nirvana

24 to 36 medium strawberries

1 cup (6 ounces) Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 cup powdered sugar



Remove the stems of strawberries and hollow out part of the berry. If you want the strawberry to sit upright then trim a small sliver from the bottom of the strawberry to make it flat. I skip this part.

Place morsels and cream in a small, microwave-safe bowl. Heat for 10 seconds and stir. Microwave at additional 10-second intervals, stirring just until morsels are melted. Let cool slightly.

Place cream cheese and powdered sugar in small mixing bowl. Beat until creamy; stir in chocolate mixture.

Place cream cheese mixture into a plastic bag (or pastry bag) with a 1/4-inch-wide opening cut at one corner. Pipe mixture into strawberry cups, filling cups completely and then mounding mixture on top of each strawberry. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Serve and eat the same day.

Read about Strawberries that are growing in the garden.

This Day

Over the weekend my travels rewarded the book shelf with 3 interesting cookbooks. I peeked through the pages just enough to know that I had to own them. Flea markets finds are the best. Cookbooks at a cheap price can be hard to find. Even local charity thrift shops are asking 3 bucks or more for a used one. Which I suppose isn't outrageous if the book is good enough. Actually, this group of books haven't quite made it to the shelf yet. They are piled in the family room, along with an afghan I have been crocheting, and a pile of photos that are in need of scrapbooking. Ahh, I'm single tasking again these days.

The vegetable garden is taking shape.The peas have popped above ground. A nice row of romaine lettuce is taking shape. And the garlic, planted last November, is looking hardy. Aside from that, the soil in the garden is mucky. I'm longing to get my hands (and toes) dirty, get outside and plant some food.
We have three rows of broccoli planted but, no sign of growth yet.

Mister and I did a stroll around the property today. Lots of perennials have returned this spring. I have luck with annuals coming back year after year as well.

The chocolate mint has taken over the herb bed beside the house. Time to pass some of the cuttings along to others, or replant elsewhere. My parsley is looking wonderfully green. Chives are up. Oregano survived. Sage is looking a little shabby, it will bounce back though. Lemon Thyme is still rocking.

The cookbooks will probably gather a little dust before I get back to them. Spring is here and the garden awaits!

I read somewhere that Yellow is the mistress to Spring. Green is the Wife and yellow the mistress. Ha. I will never look at a forsythia quite the same now!

Benne Wafers

Thomas Jefferson loved the Benne Wafers. He grew Sesame plants in his garden at Monticello. Benne Wafers are composed mostly of sesame seeds and certainly his garden provided the best seeds for the his treasured cookies. I'll be planting seeds in my garden this year that were harvested from the gardens at Monticello. I decided if I'm going to attempt growing Sesame, I needed to learn new ways to cook with them. So, tonight I made the Benne Wafers that were so loved by President Jefferson and are still loved by southerners today.

Benne Wafers

1 cup sesame seeds
3/4 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Place the sesame seeds on an ungreased baking sheet and toast for about 10 minutes, watching closely, until lightly browned. In a large mixing bowl mix the brown sugar, melted butter or margarine, egg, vanilla extract, flour, salt, baking powder and toasted sesame seeds together until blended.

Drop dough by half-teaspoonfuls onto a lightly greased baking sheet, leaving about 1 1/2 inches between cookies. Bake benne wafers in preheated 375° oven for 4 to 6 minutes, or until lightly browned. Let cookies cool for about 2 minutes on baking sheets; remove from baking sheets to a wire rack to cool completely. Store cooled sesame seed cookies in an airtight container.
Makes about 72 Cookies

I will add a few comments to the recipe and say this... I greased the cookie sheet first time around and wow did the cookies/wafers spread. Experiment and see if you need to grease before getting to deep into the baking process. Also, I threw an extra handful of flour into the mix. ( that's a real measuring technique ya know, a handful).

After all of that, the wafers turned out delicious.

I'm wondering about harvesting the Sesame seeds this summer after they have grown. A whole cup of seeds goes into this recipe. How many plants will I need to grow to harvest a cup of these teeny tiny seeds?

Pick Pockets

In 2009 I pickled cucumbers. Yes, homemade pickles. Homemade isn't cheaper than store bought. Just tastier, and I know exactly what is in them. Check out the post from August 2009 to learn how to make your own pickles too.

This cookbook has sat around for a year. I never really read it. I almost slipped it into the going to the Goodwill pile. Instead, I used this recipe to make Pick Pockets today. The book will stick around for a little while longer. There are some off the wall concoctions in it.

Just to be safe... I only made 1/4 of the recipe. My skepticism insisted that I not waste the last precious jar of homemade pickles on something that might suck. The Pick Pockets didn't suck. The recipe instructs to wrap the pickles in the dough. I actually molded the dough around the pickle as if working with clay.

Next time, I plan to use the dough but, skip the pickle part and insert cauliflower. I love deep fried cauliflower. This looks like a healthy baked option for vegetables.

Interesting enough.

Lemon Thyme Grilled Chicken

Lemon Thyme Grilled Chicken

2 Tablespoons stone ground mustard

1/4 cup coarsely chopped lemon thyme

1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice

1 Tablespoon brown sugar

3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

This is enough marinade to cover a 3-4 pound chicken.

In a large mixing bowl stir together ingredients and add desired chicken pieces. Make sure the marinade well covers all of the pieces and keep refrigerated for two hours. Fire up the grill and cook the chicken until it is done.

Chicken chilling in the marinade

This recipe is really good.

It's been adapted from The Herbfarm Cookbook by Jerry Traunfeld.

Lemon Thyme

I have yet to remove the dried leaves and natural debris around the Lemon Thyme growing in the small herb bed. The calendar tells me that it's spring, I know better.
Snow and or freezing weather will be lingering for a few weeks.
The warm weather when it finally arrives will intensify the flavor of this herb. My plant wintered well and seems to be ready to thrive for another year.
To wash this tender herb, I place them in a bowl of water, swish them around, and the herbs float to the top while the dirt sinks to the bottom.
I harvested enough herb today for a marinade. The lemon smell is amazing.

Spetzla

In 1817 about 300 Germans came to America and started a commune. The English Quakers helped finance their travels and the purchase of 5000 acres of land in Ohio. This land became known as Zoar. From Field To Table by Hilda Dischinger Morhart is a collection of original Zoar recipes. This is a small 52 page paperback that is spiral bound.

I chose to make the Spetzla from this book.

Spetzla

2 cups flour
1 egg
1 tsp. salt
water

Mix flour, egg and salt with enough cold water to make a very stiff batter. Beat until very smooth. Drop by teaspoonsfuls into boiling water and boil until they come to the top, about two minutes. Drain well.

The Spetzla can be added to soups.

My approach was to brown 1/2 stick of real butter in a skillet to a golden perfection and drizzle over the well drained Spetzla. Pretty good.

Here is the most interesting part of it all.

The Zoarites women had laundry days on Monday. Spatzlies were made for the afternoon meal on Monday. The water in which the Spetzla was cooked would be saved and then used to starch the clothing before hanging it out to dry.

This communal people paid off their debt of $15,000 to the Quaker community, by earning money digging the 7 miles of the Ohio Erie Canal that ran through their land.

Until 1898 this group survived with agriculture being their main task.

I enjoyed this cookbook for the educational side of it. The Zoar community didn't share my view on many facets of life. They loved to garden and cook. The group shared these two things in common with me. I don't think I would have faired well in the commune religious lifestyle.

The Sky Is Falling

Living a frugal lifestyle matters for most people alive today. Having a high income level, no matter how significant, is not a license to be wasteful. I'm not insinuating that Mister and I have a high income. We get by. Our world has everything we need to lead happy, healthy, normal lives. The needs of our home are met and our wants are honored within reason. Usually our wants tend to be practical items. We are average independent business owners who work and live our business. If we don't make it happen for ourselves then it doesn't happen. Still our world spins at the pace we set for ourselves and does not revolve around the rest of the species.

I have noticed frugality popping up on the faces of the 20something crowd these days. My confidence is fairly high for our mankind's future based on this observation. There will always be those pretentious up -and- coming pukes that will over spend and under achieve.  But, then there are a few smart ones. The up-and-coming generation of artists, thinkers, and dreamers that are the soul of our country. This crowd knows frugality.

If I hear one more gloom and doom story about the economy, crisis, our country and it's politics I might have to write a very long rant on my blog about it. Oh, wait, I am.

I seek out the frugal. The women who raised their children during the Great Depression understood how to make do. That generation is all but gone. Reading through the pages of a cookbook from that time period is very much a history lesson.

Should the doom sayers of our world have their wish and doom us into some cataclysmic collapse, then you had better believe, the survivors will be the artists, thinkers and dreamers. Because they know how to "get by" and "make do."

Carrots



Seeds sealed inside of a strip of paper. Brilliant ?

Five hundred and seventy carrot seeds, measured with precision for me. This is my luxury seed purchase this year. The thrill of growing a garden is part due to the experimental process. Ya never know. My 2011 carrot crop should be pretty little even rows (or not) if the planting strips are a success. After the two years prior of growing carrots this seems like a worthwhile adventure. For all I know these have been around for years. They are new to me and I'm curious.







2009

 



Two years ago I learned the lesson of proper thinning of my carrot crop. As you can see by the photo, each carrot did not have proper room to develop. Delicious though.

2010

Rainbow carrots were the whim of 2010. I thinned the plants better and came out with a fuller vegetable. The purple carrots were swell with purple cabbage in coleslaw. The red carrots were stunning too.

Will the planting strips of carrot seeds be a lazy man's way, or is it better living through new methods?

Either way, I will be making carrot cake this Autumn with fresh, grown in my yard, carrots.

Sunflower Breakfast Scones

Sunflower Breakfast Scones

A produce stand was having a going out of business sale over the weekend and I landed 4 lbs. of sunflower seeds for $1.00.

Four 1 lb. bags of sunflower seeds for $1.00. Bargain!!

I have never made scones. The point was to find a new use for the Sunflower seeds. I went straight to a sunflower website in hopes of finding a good recipe.
These are very interesting with nutmeg, mandarin oranges, and sunflower seeds. Actually, until tonight, I've never eaten a scone.
I think these were good. I'm not an official scone taste tester though! Try this recipe for Sunflower Breakfast Scones.

I love how beautiful my sunflowers were a few years ago. I grow them for their beauty and for the birds to snack on over the winter months. *Look*


I hope to find more unique recipes for my sunflower seed booty. If you have one that you think highly of, please share it with me!

Dinner plate in the photo is a vintage Crooksville China Company plate. The Carnation Delight pattern. I believe it is early 1930's. My love for pottery, and china lead me to buy this. Pink, isn't it lovely?

 Sunflower Breakfast Scones

2 cups all purpose flour 1/2 cup quick or old-fashioned oats, uncooked 3 tablespoons granulated sugar 1 tablespoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg 1/2 teaspoon salt Grated rind of 1 orange or lemon (optional) 5 tablespoons cold butter 1/3 cup toasted sunflower kernels 1 can (11 ounce) mandarin oranges, well-drained 1/2 cup milk

Preheat over to 425 degrees and begin to drain the mandarin oranges. Set the oranges aside. In medium bowl, combine flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, salt, and orange rind. Mix well with a wire whisk. Slice cold butter into about 10 pieces and cut into flour with a pastry cutter until mixture is crumbly. Stir in the sunflower kernels. Add the mandarin oranges and the milk to the dry ingredients. Working quickly, stir your mixture lightly to form a rough dough ball. Dough will seem dry but will moisten as you knead the dough. Knead quickly and gently about 10 turns. Divide dough in half. Pat out each piece into a 6-inch circle and place onto an ungreased baking sheet. Using a knife, cut each circle, making each circle of dough into 6 wedges and separate slightly. Beat 1 egg white with cold water. Brush each wedge with the egg white wash and sprinkle with granulated sugar. Bake 18 to 20 minutes until golden brown on top and bottom. For a tender inside, do not overbake. Place on wire rack to cool. Separate wedges and serve.