Dilly Beans

Fresh Dill Smells Amazing.

Ok. Clean and prep your green beans. This is about two pounds, ends clipped and cut to length.
You're going to want to leave at least a quarter of an inch of headspace in your jars, so none of your beans should be longer than that.

Here's a few seasonings.
I think the dried chiles are pretty bland, so I talked Miranda into letting me put a quarter teaspoon of cayenne pepper in as well for a touch of heat. The cayenne is variable. Just depends on how hot you like it.

Here's another shot of the prep. Each jar gets a clove of garlic, a pepper/cayenne, a head of dill, and beans.
Speaking of which, you can use either pints or quarts...
We're using quarts.

Pack the beans lengthwise into hot jars, leaving the quarter inch of headspace.
Mix and bring to a boil 2.5 cups of vinegar, 2.5 cups water, and 1/4 cup canning/pickling salt. Pour mixture over beans, leaving a quarter inch headspace.
Remove any air bubbles and cap, then process ten minutes in a boiling water bath.

Cooling on the counter.

Super Cookies

We were going to a Super Bowl party so we needed to make something to take with us. So we made cookies. The footballs are just the rice crispy treats made with cocoa crispies and shaped into football shapes, with white frosting for the lacing.




Then we made some sugar cookies too. This is rolling out the dough and cutting the helmet shapes.


Baked cookies.


And frosted cookies. Some team logos are way harder to do in frosting than other team logos. But it all tastes good, and that's what really counts.

Holiday Wreaths

First, tie a bunch of pieces of twizzler pull and peel into bows.


Then melt the butter.


Melt the marshmallows.


Add the green food coloring.


Stir in the corn flakes.

Holiday Wreaths:

1/3 cup butter or margarine
1 package (10 oz) regular marshmallows
1 teaspoon green food coloring (or more)
12 cups corn flakes
Red cinnamon candies
Twizzler pull and peel candy for bows

Melt margarine in large saucepan over low heat. Add marshmallows and stir until completely melted. Remove from heat. Stir in food coloring. Add cereal. Stir until well coated. Quickly shape warm cereal mixture using hands sprayed with cooking spray. Dot with cinnamon candies and add a bow. If they don't stick, using frosting to hold them in place.

Kleiners

We made kleiners, but didn't use Grandpa's recipe.

Separating the eggs


Adding cream


Cutting and twisting



Frying

Chris said they were too light and fluffy, but here's the recipe we used:

6 egg yolks
4 teaspoons sugar
1 tablespoon melted butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons cream
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 1/2 to 2 cups flour

Beat egg yolks well. Add sugar and mix well. Add remaining ingredients. Use just enough flour to make a soft dough. To keep dough light and fluffy, handle as little as possible. Roll out dough until thin on floured cloth and cut into diamond shapes with slit in middle. Pull one end of dough through cut in center. Fry in cooking oil at 370 degrees for 2-3 minutes or until golden. Drain on paper towel. Dust with powdered sugar if you want.

Grandpa's Recipe:

6 eggs, beaten
3 cups sugar
1 Tbsp butter, melted
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 Tbsp vanilla
1 cup evaporated milk
7 cups flour - add more to adjust consistency

Combine liquid ingredients, then dry ingredients. Mix together, roll out, cut, twist, deep fry at 350 degrees until golden brown.

Gingerbread cookies

First you find a helper who's in a good mood. Then you get out all the stuff, and bake up some cookies!



Rolled Ginger Cookies:

5 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground clove
1 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup molasses
2 tbsp vinegar

Stir together flour, soda, spices and 1/2 tsp salt. Beat shortening for 30 seconds. Add sugar, beat until fluffy. Add egg, molasses and vinegar; beat well. Add dry ingredients to beaten mixture, beating well. Cover and chill for 3 hours or overnight. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a cookie sheet. Divide dough into thirds. Roll each third to 1/4 inch thick. Cut into desired shapes and place one inch apart on greased cookie sheet. Cook for 5-6 minutes. Cool 1 minute on pan, then remove to wire rack. When completely cool you can decorate with frosting or candies or just eat them before there are none left.

Peanut Butter Blossoms

We made peanut butter blossoms tonight since I wanted cookies and the gingerbread needed to be refrigerated overnight. We were going to make kleiners but forgot to buy some ingredients at the store.


First you mix up your ingredients and roll dough balls in sugar.


Place them on your cookie sheet while waiting for the oven to heat up.


Unwrap enough dark chocolate kisses to have one per cookie. Be careful, as unattended kisses disappear before they're in the cookies.


Once the cookies are baked, immediately press a kiss into the center of each. Then transfer to a wire rack and let cool.


Enjoy the chocolatey peanut buttery goodness, but try to wait until the chocolate isn't totally melted or it's messy.

Chicken Noodle Soup

I figured that since it's been so cold, and we've got leftover rotisserie chicken in the fridge, that we could use it up... and be warmer... by making some chicken noodle soup. Completely a comfort food.

Here's the recipe straight outta the cookbook:

1 4-5lb stewing chicken, cut up
6 cups of water
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 bay leaf
1 1/2 cup dried medium noodles
1 cup chopped carrots
1 cup chopped celery
2 Tablespoons fresh parsley

And that's cool, but y'know, sometimes recipe's are kind of like guidelines. They're just a starting point. Nothing ventured, nothing gained... at least when you're making soup. I wouldn't deviate if I was baking something, but with soup like this... pretty much anything goes. As long as you're not messing with the seasonings... like adding ground cloves or something like that.

So here's what I did.

I had a lot of chicken (4 thighs -raw, plus most of the breast meat from the rotisserie). So I upped the liquid. Pretty much I used the six cups of water the recipe called for, and then added some chicken stock that David had in the freezer, probably another three/four cups of stock.

And since the stock was already salted and seasoned, I didn't change any of the seasonings from the original recipe. Sure, a lot of salt is tasty, but the health effects negate anything good you can get from it. Anyway, then I added the raw chicken, bay leaf, and onion, and simmered it for about two hours. And I was generous with the onion. As any man should be.

While the chicken simmered, I was choppin' up other ingredients...
I personally like cooked veggies, especially carrots. So I doubled the amount of chopped carrots and celery. A good dose of vegetables have never hurt anybody.

After the chicken was done simmering, I removed the thighs and pulled the meat from the bones. I also chopped up the rotisserie. Then I skimmed whatever fat off the top of the broth that I could, and returned it to a boil.

Once again at a boil, I dumped in the carrots and celery. I'm only going to let this go for about 8 minutes, so after a minute or two I also dumped in the pasta since it'll only take about 6 to 7 minutes to cook.

Now, I had no idea what kind of noodle I was supposed to use in this soup. I don't really care for pasta much, so I'm not familiar with all of the different types of this or that... so I just walked up and down the noodle isle at the grocery and picked out a good thick, wide, whole wheat noodle that I thought would be noodle-ey enough. Yes, I just said noodle-ey. It worked great.

And since no soup is really complete without some sort of dipping bread, I grabbed some potato rosemary artisan bread. Rosemary? With chicken you say? Yes. Rosemary. It was good.

After the pasta and veggies cooked, I dumped in th chicken, let it heat through... and yes. We have dinner.

And not a bad dinner (soup) at that.

Fried Razor Clams

My two crazy brothers came to visit... They shanghai'd my husband and went to the beach. Here's a pic of the Three Bearded Yahoos over on the coast.

Low tide was around 8:30, so they were diggin' in the dark.

The mythical razor clam, this is what they went for.

Crazy? Maybe... but at least they're crazy AND successful. They brought home 15 clams apiece...

Since I insisted Maggie couldn't go with them, they were happy to introduce her to her first razor clam. See how delighted she is? Crazy uncles!

Once home they had to clean the clams. David didn't realize the clams would still move as you're cleaning them... so he had to be peeled off the ceiling a couple of times.

Razor Clam Steaks.

The Three Bearded Yahoo's and their Assembly Line. The clams were first patted down in an attempt to dry them, then they were dredged in flour, dipped in egg, and then rolled in crumbs. You can just call them Flower, Egg, and Crumbs... like Snow White's three big dwarfs...

The breaded clam.

Frying up the clams. The oil must be hot!

This is the freshly fried razor clam. Very, very good.

In fact, they were so good, I even had one... and I don't eat seafood!

Black & Blue Berry Pie

My favorite type of pie is Black & Blue Berry Pie. And the blackberries are ripe now; you should all try it!

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 cups fresh blackberries
3 cups fresh blueberries
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons butter

Mix sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Stir in berries to coat. Turn filling into pastry lined pie plate. Sprinkle with lemon juice, dot with butter. Cover with top crust; cut slits. Seal and Flute. Bake at 425 degrees for 35 to 45 minutes. Cover edges with foil to prevent burning before baking, and remove them for the last 12 minutes of baking.



First you make up your pie crust.



Then you make up your filling.


Then you assemble and cook it.

Then you eat! (with or without ice cream)

Pickles

Hey, I'm looking for a good pickle recipe. The recipe we made last year was gross. And I don't like those bread & butter and sweet pickles Mom makes. So if any of you know a good, zesty dill pickle recipe let me know.

Breakfast Crepes :)

I made Miranda and David crepes for breakfast this morning!

Fresh Fruit
:)

A few crepes, fresh raspberries and blueberries, a little cool whip, powdered sugar, and a touch of fruit pie filling will get anyone going in the morning!
(not to mention the sugar rush)

I pulled my crepe recipe off of Epicurious.com...
So if anyone's interested in the actual recipe for the crepes, you can find it here. It's delicious!

Breakfast Crepes