It's TOMATO Time Again - Gardening & Canning

These poor little tomato plants sat indoors on my desk for 5 weeks waiting for the weather to make up its mind so I guess it's no wonder that they took off the instant I set them free.  Here's a LINK to the best general growing information that I've found - including what NOT to do.

Here are some links for additional growing tips like using ASPIRIN or planting tomatoes with EGGSHELLS.

I generally start with a fairly well blended soil and add EPSOM SALTS from time to time to help prevent blossom end rot.  So far, as long as the weather has cooperated, I've had very good luck.

I'm hoping for a bumper crop this year so I can get some additional canning done.  I've been far too stingy with my home canned tomatoes from the past couple of seasons.  This year, I intend to re-process the tomatoes from those jars, turning the previously canned tomatoes into tomato sauce or ketchup or something else...haven't quite decided on that yet.  

 In the meantime, here is a LINK to easy, step-by-step tomato canning instructions.

Tie Dye Easter Eggs & Other Ideas

Ideas for egg decorating and for candy making...even a recipe for the world's best Sour Cream Pound Cake.  Just keep on scrolling down.

 There's never a need to spend a cent when you can use the things you have on hand.

Vinegar (white or apple cider), standard food coloring, a few rubber bands and a wrinkled plastic bag are all that's needed. Oh, and a few hard boiled eggs!

Wrap rubber bands around some of your hard boiled eggs. Pour a small amount of vinegar into a little bowl. With your finger, moisten the surface of one egg at a time with the vinegar. Lightly touch the tip of a food coloring bottle to the moist egg. Quickly, pat the wet color surface with the crumpled plastic bag or hold the bag in your hands and roll the egg between them. If you want to use more than one color, leave a portion of the egg white and add the new color directly from the bottle, patting with the bag as you go. Try not to overlap more than two colors or they will blend into a yukky brownish color.

Unless you are fond of colored fingers, it is a good idea to wear plastic gloves. If you forget or, like me, don't care, a little bleach will bring you back to normal.

Sit the eggs aside to dry. After they have dried, remove the rubber bands and rub the surface with a drop or two of olive oil for a porcelain looking surface.

To see an earlier post about drawing silly faces with a Sharpie on plain white eggs and growing green hair atop the eggheads, click HERE.

Chocolate/Peanut Butter Eggs

It's difficult to break away from traditions like baskets full of Easter goodies even when the budget is groaning. But I remembered a long ago spring in West Virginia when a group of wonderful, farming mothers taught me to make candy and thought I'd give it another go.

The recipe is incredibly simple: equal amounts of smooth peanut butter and powdered sugar. 1/2 cup of each made these eight eggs. The mixture will be very stiff and if you can work in a little extra sugar, all the better. "Flour" your hands with powdered sugar and roll into egg shapes. Leave the eggs to sit on waxed paper for several hours to dry as much as the humidity will allow.

Melt about 1/2 square of Almond Bark. Put a dabs of melted Bark on waxed paper and top with each egg as you go. Dust your hands with powdered sugar if needed for easy handling. Allow the Bark to harden completely before handling further. These "bases" will give you something to grasp while dipping the tops of the eggs. If the base spreads out as it hardens, cut off the excess with kitchen scissors to maintain the 'egg' shape.

Once the Bark base is hardened, melt 1 1/2 squares of Almond Bark and stir in 1/2 tsp SOLID shortening - NOT oil or butter. Holding the eggs by their bark bases, dip into the melted Bark and place on a wire rack to harden.

Your eggs will likely come out much smoother and prettier than mine. I was using a mixture of new almond Bark along with some that I had saved from a previous use and the old Bark did not melt completely so I got lumps. Know what? The kids will never notice. Aren't they wonderful? The kids that is.

Anyway, enjoy your eggs. They take a little time but are certainly easy and cost next to nothing to make. Sure beats a dollar a piece at the grocery store and we can actually pronounce all of these ingredients.

Easy to Make Chocolate/Marshmallow Eggs

Saving on things like Easter candy is not as hard as it might seem. One of my favorites has been the chocolate covered marshmallow eggs. Once upon a time, they were inexpensive. These days there is less money left over for fun stuff and the prices just aren't what they used to be.

Yesterday, I stumbled upon marshmallows at the grocery store. I noticed them because they were not on the candy aisle or on the baking/goody-making aisle but turned up on the juice aisle tucked below the endless rainbow of bottles and mixes. In addition to the regular marshmallows and the minis, I was surprised to find colored ones, flat ones, stacked ones and gigantic ones. No wonder shopping has become stressful. But that's another story and don't get me started on cereal variations.Anyway, and probably because I had just made the chocolate covered peanut butter eggs, I thought I might try coating a few marshmallows. But, by the time I got home, just dunking the marshmallows in chocolate had lost its appeal. "If they were only shaped like eggs", I thought. Hummm. Not as easy as my mental image. Even with the scissors dusted with powdered sugar, they still gathered goo and had to be scraped clean with a knife from time to time. My egg shapes were far from perfect but close enough. I tossed the trimmed marshmallows in a bag with a little powdered sugar and it kept them from sticking together perfectly. My hands were tired from trimming with the sticking scissors after a bakers dozen, and since this was a trial endeavor, I stopped there.

With so few to coat, I microwave-melted only a single square each of chocolate and vanilla Almond Bark and added solid shortening for thinning, according to the package directions. Dipping was easier than ever because I stabbed the marshmallows with a small skewer (even a toothpick would work). Then, just spooned the coating over. One thing I did discover was the need to tap off as much of the extra powdered sugar as possible. Anyway, the entire project was super simple and incredibly inexpensive. It would be a fun activity with children regardless of the season.

One of these days, when I have endless hours to search, I'll try to find my old West Virginia recipe for making the real chocolate coating which, as I recall, included paraffin. In the meantime, the Almond Bark works great and nothing could be easier.

Silly Easter Eggs & Pound Cake

Uh Oh! Did we do that?I've seen these silly egg faces in email forwards over the years. Usually they've been arranged in clever photo still-life's with eggs broken in a puddle of innards or screaming beside a skillet containing one of their friends. Though I get a kick out of the professional photos, I guess I'm not that motivated. But I did remember that I made faces and stands years ago for grandchildren who are now expecting children of their own. On that long ago occasion, I planted Alfalfa to grow as hair. Here in my corner of the Florida panhandle, where the late 20th century is yet to arrive, Alfalfa seed is unavailable for sprouting as a food source. So, I've had to make do with Bermuda Grass seed and will post a photo as soon as these characters develop "hair".

The process is incredibly simple. Try to crack your eggs above the center line so you have more "face" space. Rinse and set aside until enough are accumulated for your project. Make stands or "necks" by rolling cardboard into tubes about the diameter of a quarter and an inch or so tall. Wrap the tube "necks" with white paper and decorate with whatever scrap materials you may have on hand: bits of ribbon, lace, gimp or buttons or simply draw a collar with colored markers or fabric paint. If using fabric paint, remember that it needs quite a bit of time to dry. I forgot.

Fill the egg shells with potting soil and water carefully. I use an eye dropper for watering.

Sprinkle the soil surface with seeds, cover them with a tiny bit more soil, water again and place them in a sunny window...watering daily.

If you are only making a few, it might be fun to make a cartoon conversation "balloon" to display a caption. My captions are: Bottom Left - "Uh oh! Did we do that?" Top Left - "I got red paint on your Easter Dress!" Top Right - "Don't lick your face. Use a napkin." Bottom Right - "Good Grief!"
HERE ARE SOME FACE IDEAS TO GET YOU STARTED
If you need an excuse to crack a bunch of eggs, give this Pound Cake a try. It's a family recipe handed down by my step mother, is "no fail" and unbelievably moist and delicious.

Lora's Sour Cream Pound Cake

• 3 c. Sugar
• 1 c. sour Cream
• 6 Eggs - separated
• 2 sticks Butter - (do NOT substitute)
• 3 c. Plain Flour
• 1/4 tsp Baking Soda
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Preheat oven to 300. Cream butter and sugar together until very creamy. Add egg yolks, one at a time while beating well after each addition. Sift flour 3 times. Add soda to sour cream and stir well. Add flour and sour cream to butter-sugar-egg mixture. Beat well. Add Vanilla and fold in egg whites. pour into well greased, lightly floured tube pan. Bake at 300 for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Cool on rack.

*****
EGG "HAIR" UPDATE
After almost 2 weeks, there is finally some "green" up top. I don't know what I was thinking time-wise, other than I expected to be tying pony tails and trimming flat-tops by now. But there's still more than a week before Easter. Sure wish I could have used alfalfa seed.

Easter Egg Ideas

Photos will be posted in time for Easter 2011.

Eggheads with Green Hair
Cut an inch or so from a paper towel or toilet tissue tube to use as a stand for your egghead. Attach a paper collar to the tube or use a piece of ruffled lace for a collar. Fill an empty half egg shell with dirt and plant it with barley grass or alfalfa seeds, water enough to dampen soil completely and carefully dry the shell. Draw a face on the shell with a Sharpie and place it on the tube collar in a sunny window sill. Add a drop or two of water each day and wait for the "hair" to grow.
Simply Silly Hard Boiled Eggs
Not every egg needs to be colored to please a child...or an adult. Even if you're not an artist, grab a Sharpie and get creative drawing faces on plain, white, boiled eggs. Check the funny papers for facial expressions and let your imagination work overtime. Snuggle 2 Sweetheart face eggs together. Tuck one with an exaggerated expression of surprise into a child's lunch box. Nest a few together with cracks drawn on some and two wide eyes peering from a darkened crack in one.

Try an Easter Egg Tree
Make a beautiful, delicate centerpiece or decoration for a side table. Select a branch with many little twigs while on a nature walk. Spray it white and prop it in a vase or set it in plaster of paris in a small flower pot. Tie pastel ribbons into bows randomly along the branches and hang blown and colored eggs with pieces of ribbon.

Day 125 - Sourdough Success in a Jiffy

My first loaves of Sourdough Bread with the new Starter turned out perfectly, just as the ones made for years in Alaska.  But I've past the age or enjoying endless time in the kitchen and have dedicated myself, instead, to figuring as many ways as possible to get out of there as quickly as I can.

Perfect Texture (but cutting should wait until cool)

To that end, I've adjusted my favorite Rustic Bread recipe to accommodate the sourdough.  This is the result and I couldn't be more pleased.  The aroma is incredible, the texture perfect and the best part is that there was no "punching down", no kneading, no second rising; in fact, my kitchen time was reduced to about 5 minutes - the night before and again the morning after.

RUSTIC SOURDOUGH BREAD

(Link for making sourdough 'starter' and sourdough 'batter')

Into a very large glass or plastic container, (pre-warmed with HOT water)...

2 cups Warm Water, 1 pkg Dry Yeast (= 2 Tbsp) and 1 Tbsp Sugar.  

Wait 2 minutes for yeast to "bloom".  

Stir in 1 heaping Tbsp Salt and 1 1/2 cups Sourdough "BATTER".  ADD 6 cups All Purpose Unbleached Flour ALL AT ONCE.

After mixing, this rose almost to the top before beginning to collapse.  Photo shows "morning after" and ready for making loaves.

MIX WELL - Use your hands, if needed, to incorporate dry with wet.

COVER - Use loose fitting lid or plate so dough can "breathe".

LET STAND - At room temperature for 2 to 5 hours until dough has risen and begins to collapse.

REFRIGERATE - Overnight or at least 3 hours.

Cornmeal on baking sheet.

PREP FOR BAKING - DO NOT KNEAD!!!

1-  Liberally sprinkle Corn Meal over baking stone, iron skillet or baking sheet.

2-  Turn refrigerated dough onto floured surface.  Divide in half using serrated knife.

3-  With floured hands, form each half into a ball and "cloak" the dough (Cloaking is gently stretching the top surface of the dough around to the bottom, tucking it under and turning it 1/4 turn as you go.  The correctly shaped final product should be smooth and cohesive.  This process should take only 30 to 60 seconds.)

NEXT:  Set the shaped loaves on the cornmeal-prepared surface and let "rest" for 40 minutes.  

Place empty broiler pan on the oven rack just below the center rack and preheat to oven to 450 degrees.

When loaves have rested and risen, dust the surfaces lightly with flour and slash 1/4" deep with a serrated knife.  

Loaves set to rise for 40 minutes.

Move loaves to center rack of oven and add 10-12 oz. of water to heated broiler pan.  Close door immediately to trap steam.  Bake 30 minutes.  Cool on wire rack.
TIP

To easily gather excess flour from surface, use a paper plate - cut in half.

Simple Stuffed Mushrooms

I've always said I'd rather have the appetizer than the meal.

Today, I couldn't think of a single thing that sounded good for lunch.  Sandwiches seemed too heavy with the bread and I'd overdone on soup during the past couple weeks.  A salad sounded healthy and even met some of my flavor needs but it's cold outside and a cold salad just didn't hit the mark.  But when I thought of salad ingredients and remembered I had fresh mushrooms, something clicked.

These are the ingredients I gathered for my hot stuffed mushrooms:  10 Mushrooms, 10 Crackers, 3 Tbsp Parmesan Cheese, 2 Tbsp Mayonnaise.  At the last minute, I tossed in a good sprinkling of Parsley.

Mince the Mushroom Stems and mix everything together.  Stuff.  Pile on top and bake at 300 degrees for 15 minutes.  Warm and satisfying.  Add a can of tiny shrimp or some precooked sausage and increase the quantity and having appetizers for a crowd is just as easy.

Garlic Shrimp & Sugar Snap Peas in 5 Minutes

Today we discovered that someone had stolen our little "pond" boat and dealing with photographs and the Sheriff ran me right past dinnertime.  Fortunately my freezer generally holds things that are quick to fix.  

Tonight I put some frozen shrimp in a bowl of water to thaw while I thawed 2 frozen servings of rice in the microwave and buttered some French bread for the broiler.  Putting it all together is so simple.  Butter in a skillet with some garlic.  When it's good and hot, the drained, and patted dry shrimp was added.  I put the thawed rice in a bowl with some chopped green onions (also frozen) and put the bowl, covered, in the microwave for 1 minute.  Added 1/2 cup white wine to the shrimp skillet and when it began to boil, removed the shrimp and left the wine, butter and garlic mixture to reduce.  Toasted the bread.  Served the rice.  Added a couple handfuls of sugar snap peas to the reduction and returned the shrimp to the skillet just before serving.  5 minutes - beginning to end and it was delicious!

Scratch Biscuits without the Bother

If you're like me and dread the task of homemade biscuits because of cutting-in the shortening and flour, try this.  

BISCUITS WITH HEAVY CREAM

With a fork, mix together: 3 1/2 cups Flour, 1 tsp Salt, and 2 Tbsp Baking Powder.  Add 1 1/2 cups Heavy Cream and mix together until just moistened.  Turn out on lightly floured surface and knead 10 times.  Roll to 3/4" thick.  Cut into biscuits and place on ungreased baking sheet.  Bake in 450 degree oven for 12 minutes or until golden.  

It's almost as easy as opening a package.

With raw, wild honey, yummy!

Warm, Sticky Cinnamon Buns - Yum

...or not.  Not all of my endeavors are successful.  This was one of them.

Remembering the huge, light cinnamon buns that I used to crank out almost every morning when we lived 10,500 feet up a Colorado mountain might have triggered my impulse to get creative with the new Sour Dough starter resting in the refrigerator but sea level adjustments never crossed my mind.

These buns look delicious and they they do taste great but the dough is dense and chewy and a huge disappointment.  Still, the technique is quite simple and worth passing along. 

With a 'proper' (sea level appropriate) dough, sufficiently risen, the rest is easy.  

Just 4 ingredients and that we probably have on hand.

Roll the dough into a rectangle about 8" or 9" wide, and as long as you are able, to a thickness of 1/2".  Spread the surface liberally with softened, room temperature butter.  Top the butter with a substantial layer of Brown Sugar.  Sprinkle the sugar with Ground Cinnamon.  Add a liberal sprinkling of chopped Pecans or Walnuts.

With all of these things piling up on the dough, be sure to leave an inch or so without butter or toppings, at one long edge.

Carefully lift and roll and tuck, beginning at the long edge that does have the toppings.  When the roll reaches the long edge that has been left bare, pinch the edge onto the dough roll to seal it.

Cut the roll into separate buns of about 1 1/2" thickness using scissors.  Place rolls about an inch apart in a pan that has been prepared with 1/4 stick melted butter in the bottom and sprinkled lightly with brown sugar.  Cover with a dish cloth and allow dough to rise until double or about 1 1/2 hours.

Risen and ready to bake.

Bake in a 400 degree oven for 12 to 15 minutes or until sugar is bubbly and dough is slightly browned.

When done, remove from oven and immediately and turn upside down to release the buns.  Do NOT cool in pan.   The sugar and butter in the bottom of the pan will have caramelized and make the most wonderful, gooey topping for the upside-down buns.

Homemade cinnamon buns top anything a store has to offer so I hope you'll find a dough recipe that works for you and give it a try.  Sourdough is not necessary.  I just liked the thought but need to work on the recipe.

Sourdough

Shortly after arriving in Alaska. a friend gave me a bit of Sourdough Starter that had been kept active since the late 1800's and I baked bread with it all the time including on camping trips.  Unfortunately, my starter didn't survive the move to Florida. 

Last week, in a moment of serious nostalgia, I mixed up a 'Starter' recipe I found in a 1959 Farm Journal cookbook:

SOURDOUGH STARTER

In a stone crock, glass or pottery bowl, mix together  1/2 pkg Dry Yeast (1 1/4 tsp),  2 cups sifted Flour, 2 Tbsp Sugar, and 2 1/2 cups Water.  Beat well.  Cover with cheesecloth and let stand 2 days in a warm place.

After just a couple of hours, the volume began to increase.

Above is my well-worn, personal page of Starter Handling instructions that I kept with my bread making things in Alaska.

It is the Sourdough Starter that gives the rich flavor to the bread.  This new starter of mine doesn't have quite the heft that the old Alaska starter did but I'm hoping that it will develop more over time.  Once there is starter in the kitchen, there is no end to the possibilities.  Recipes are all over the internet.  Today, I'm making Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls.