Vintage Memories and Paleo Loaf aka Fruitcake

We used to get a box of goodies from my grandmother. I think I waxed poetic before about the fudge and date nut cookies. But I love, absolutely loved the fruitcake cookies and fruit cake. Guess that makes me a bit weird. Fruitcake is one of those things that folks either love or hate. But for me, it is all about stoking memories of  bygone times by making vintage recipes.

I am all about vintage these days as I will be starting an etsy shop sometime in the new year focused on table top arrangements designed to invoke memories of the past of whatever decade. Gotta balance out the writing with a different kind of creativity. My market will be those who love vintage and also those who want something to spark conversation and memories with relatives and friends in nursing homes or the hospital.

The picture of me and my sisters in buns inspired the search for an angel with the same hairdo. The ornament on the top of the tree is from when I was little.

 
Isn't it funny how a recipe, a picture, a statue, a scent bring the past rushing back?

Did you have one of these?

 

Or did you have these on your Christmas cupcakes at preschool?

Did you have one of the mass produced fruit cakes that was all fake corn-syrup soaked fruit at Grandma's?  Or was it just about getting a candy cane at her house?

Here is a recipe that evokes the memory of fruitcake but is better for you and good to eat in the first place. None of that corn syrup-laden almost fake fruit. (Though I do miss the glazed cherries in all their red neon glory.) So you can make a new fruitcake memory! Maybe a better one, depending on who you are!

 

Gluten Free Fruitcake (adapted from celiac.com)

Note: You can make this recipe more paleo (low carb) by deleting some of the fruit and all of the sugar. If you sub out the fruit, be sure to add in the same amount of nuts.

1/4 cup orange juice

1 cup dried cherries

1 teaspoon lemon rind (dehydrated) or 1 Tablespoon fresh lemon rind

1 teaspoon orange rind (dehydrated)

1/2 cup raisins and 1/2 cup figs and 1/2 cup chopped dates (or any combination to make 1 1/2 cup dried fruit)

1/2 cup chopped pecans and 1/2 cup chopped walnuts and 1 cup chopped almonds (or any combination to make  2 cups nuts) 

1 cup gluten free baking mix

1/2 cup sugar (or none if you want to rely on the sweetness of the fruit)

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 eggs, beaten well

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Put cherries and peel in orange juice to soak thirty minutes. Then drain, reserving liquid for later by storing in fridge.

Combine fruit, rind, and nuts.

Sift baking mix and salt.

Add to bowl and mix well.

Make sure the fruit and nuts are coated by the baking mix and looks like this!

Lightly stir in beaten eggs to moisten but don't over mix.

Spoon mixture into a buttered parchment lined large loaf pan. Drop pan on counter to get rid of air bubbles.

Bake at 300 for 1 1/4 hours to 1 1/2 hours (or longer) depending on how hot your oven runs and if you use a non-stick pan. Test with toothpick.

Immediately after taking the pan out of the oven, pour reserved orange juice over the loaf while hot.

Cool in baking pan for 30 minutes.

Transfer to wire rack and cool completely before slicing.

So what do you make this time of year that evokes a memories of Christmas or holidays long past? Have you gone paleo and are good during the holidays or do you set aside restrictions in your diet for the holidays?

Caramel Apple Butter, From Start to Finish!

Hello, everybody!! Today I'm going to make Caramel Apple Butter with the help of a vintage 'China Cap' food mill. The name comes from the shape of the strainer. The GAL saw one in an antique shop and posted a pic on facebook. I thought, "I've seen one of those!" I asked my dad and he dug around in the attic... and la voila! Edna had a great time with Cho, the China Cap Food Mill. She says that Cho is very interesting and has quite a few stories to share, mostly about 1950's housewives and their quest for perfection.

 

My friend Karina Klein saw our facebook conversation and said that she had one at her wedding... as the table decoration! She married an apple farmer and since his parents always used one for apple sauce, they decided those good memories should be part of the decoration. Clever!! She graciously allowed me to use her picture in this post. I just thought this was so sweet...

 

So, now I had the food mill. But what to do with it? My friend Mindy Postelwait swooped in to save the day by dropping off the COOLEST book of jam, jellies and preserves. (By the way, her husband Jason was in my graduating class. I have a terrible time coming up with names when I write so I asked him if I could use his. He said sure... and now he's forever immortalized in 'Leaving Liberty'. I'm not sure if it's a good character or a bad character, but his wife is still speaking to me!)

 

 

 We still have tons of apples. I thought I'd definitely try apple butter, but maybe with a twist. There was a recipe under the main one for 'caramel apple butter'. YUMMO.

 You'll need 3 cups of apple juice or cider. If I'd thought of it earlier, I would have juiced 3 cups and used that. Mmmmm..... but time was short, so I grabbed a bottle of juice from the cabinet.

 Nifty apple peeler makes short work of about 14 apples.

 Bring the apples and the juice to a boil.

 See.... Boiling.... Then turn it down to a simmer and cover. Simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring every now and then.

 I think this is the way to use it. At least, I'm assuming it is! Otherwise, the apple sauce would get all over....  Cho seemed happy to be perched over the pot so I decided that was the way it should be.

 Scoop out the softened apples and juice, dump them into the food mill. For aluminum, Cho certainly kept her cool.

 I had lots of helpers. I can't even get a picture in there... She was a bit shocked at our kitchen, overrun with small people, but Cho said she loved the feel of their tiny hands on her wooden pestle.

 Hahahaha! I love this picture of my son. "Heyyyyyy, it's way past my bedtime and we're making apple butter! This is the life!"

 After you've pushed most of the apple mix through the mill (you can dump in the rest, or leave it out if you like a smoother mixture), return to the pot. Have I mentioned that I'm in love with my new Dutch oven??? I read those comments between Missy and... someone else talking about Lodge Ware. So, I went and got myself one of these. LOVE IT.

Ok, 1/2 cup white sugar, 1 1/2 cups brown sugar, 3 tbs lemon juice, and 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon. Bring it back to a boil after mixing well.

 The house smells so good I could sell tickets.

 After it's gone to a full boil, set it to simmer with the lid OFF this time. We're going to boil off a lot of the liquid. After about 1 hour (mine took 1 1/2) fill small, sterilized jars with the apple butter.

 Leave about an inch or two of head room. Put on a fresh lid. You can re use the rings if you have them. Mindy-of-the-last-second-recipe-rescue had already given me jars and jars of blackberry jam at the end of summer. I was really hoping I didn't screw this up so I could give her back the jars with something IN THEM.

MMMMMM. Water bath canning will seal it and keep the jar fresh for a year. Here's a quick overview of that process if you haven't done it before.  water bath canning It was pretty easy!! And now I can give Mindy something when I give back her jars. SCORE.

  Edna and Cho are tucked away in the corner, giggling over my lack of an apron. I feel the need to step up my kitchen fashion. Maybe I'll pick up something pretty. But I'm not wearing make up and heels while I cook! They're just going to have to deal with a little bit of social progress.

  OK, until next time!

Peach ice cream and Edna's new friend

Hello, everybody!!

  Well, I'm glad this post isn't back-to-back with Jan's hot fudge sundae (which I'm absolutely going to try) because we'd all die of a sugar high. But since the Tex had a healthy quinoa (I love to say it- don't you?) We can go on our merry way to.... homemade ice cream!

Edna was yearning for some goodies. I caught her reading this old book. It's so old, it says 'COOKY' on the front. Heehee! We love Betty Crocker. She has very lovely hairstyles. And aprons. Ok, and the recipes are good, too.

I swapped out Eda's 'cooky' book for a few other dessert books. She was having a good old time. but what she chose wasn't from these, but rather an old recipe we have for ice cream... because we have peaches!!

The thing about having your own peach trees: they all start to ripen at once. So, two trees equals lots of peaches! We're handing them over the fences on each side, throwing twenty pounds at a time at our neighbors but still... we're barely keeping up with the peaches.

I made a few batches of mint peach compote and it was tasty. But this was the winner: vanilla bean peaches. YUMMY. (See my vintage Kerr jar? Whee!) It was out of a batch of jars my dad brought over.

Here it is before it was stuffed with peaches. Oooooo!

There were a few of these ATLAS giant jars. I mean, what am I supposed to put in these?? The glass is wavy and ancient, even has little bubbles trapped in it. Lovely!

There were lots of those blue Ball jars so I sent them to facebook friends across the US last week. They got jars and I got the peace of mind that my kids would not be destroying those babies. So pretty! I sent Julie a Presto jar... but it came back to me. Can you believe I sent a package to her that didn't even have her street address? Ugh. My brain.

 Ok, so Edna wanted to make some ice cream, the old fashioned way.
NOTE: I doubled this recipe so the pictures will look like a lot more than the recipe should be. :) The amounts I give are for a single batch.
3/4 cup sugar

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1/8 teaspoon table salt

2 cups milk                               

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1 egg yolk                               

Click to see savings

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla     

 So, let's start on the base. Mix sugar, corn starch and salt in a pan and whisk together. Pour in the milk and cream, whisking constantly. Heat until thickened, stirring constantly over medium heat. After it's thickened, set aside to cool for about ten minutes.

Separate one egg. Beat the yolk.

 Pour one cup of the cooled milk mixture into the eggs, stirring constantly. Add the egg/milk mix back to the pan and heat again until a pudding-like consistency.

 Oh, our grapes are ready! Seedless sweet grapes... Except for the multitude of spiders, we're in heaven over here!

So that's the recipe for plain vanilla. Most of the kids just wanted vanilla, so that was fine. but we had all these peaches! And I found this awesome recipe for peach and pecan ice cream!                      

1 cup peeled and coarsely chopped peaches                                                              

1 1/2 tablespoons butter                               

1 cup coarsely chopped pecans

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

 Here is some of the vanilla bean peaches, mashed. Mmmmmmmm.

 Add the butter, salt, and pecans to a pan and toast on medium for about 8-9 minutes.

 I split the vanilla ice cream into two bowls, so I could add what I wanted to the parents' batch.

 Stir in mashed peaches, about 1 cup. (This looks like more, and it was. And it was delicious. but the recipe says one cup.)

 Add toasted pecans. Later, I thought these tasted more like walnuts. Oh well. They were still good.

 Put the vanilla into the deep freeze to solidify. (Oh, see? Pecans in the background! I knew there were some... Hey, and rhubarb, too!)

 While it was chilling, I noticed Edna had struck up a conversation with this strange, leather box. He seemed sort of old and musty. I wasn't really excited about looking inside. But she was whirring and making little happy noises, so...

 There were all sorts of little leather packages inside. My favorite had its own retractable tape measure... and lenses!

 Once I figured out how to open it, the flat metal camera opened to this! How handsome is this guy?? He and Edna had a great time talking about the height of investigative journalism in the fifties and sixties. Walter (or Wally, as the kids called him) smelled faintly of cigars and vermouth.

 He'd spent a lot of his time taking Polaroid snaps of celebrities at boring cocktail parties, but his heart was in the newspapers. Sadly, he'd been in that box quite a while because they didn't even make film for Walter anymore.

Plus, he'd never seen the internet. Of course, right after the VMA's, he decided it wasn't worth trying to follow celebrities anymore. He's going to be very happy as a showpiece. Retirement might not be that bad, after all.

 Peach ice cream... melllllllting!! It was delicious!

This was definitely the hands down winner. Crunchy sweet/salty pecans with tart/sweet peaches were the perfect combination. You can tell how hot it is in my kitchen because it was slushy within minutes of hitting the bowl. But it was still GOOD.

 

 

 Ok, everybody! Have a wonderful week. We're headed off on vacation in a few days and I just found out that our place at the lake has no electricity. (Um, WHAT???) Now, how am I supposed to write without a plug in for the laptop?! Maybe it will be a real vacation after all!
Or maybe I'll go nutty.
Until next Wednesday!

P.S. I also have Tina Russo Radcliffe over on my blog today, talking about her new book The Rosetti Curse! Pop on by and chat! She's giving away free e-books to any that are interested in giving it a try and leaving a review.

Cardboard box treasures and yard sale finds

Hello, everybody!

 The Fresh Pioneer is back and I'm hoping everybody's having an awesome summer! We've been... Weird, I can't seem to think of anything really amazing we've been doing. Every day feels packed and full and we're exhausted at the end (and some of us are usually covered with ice cream and dirt) but there's not much to really point to as 'big projects'.

 

 

So, I was going through some boxes of jars I'd been given (they were going to be donated) I saw some interesting jars. Lots of wide mouth, zinc lidded, half gallon, Ball and Kerr, vintage stuff. I was sort of looking for blue glass, but no luck. But in one box, I saw some nice pint jam jars for a friend. And with the jars I saw:

I knew they were old. But... what were they exactly?

Edna was very interested as I brought them into the kitchen. She needed a closer look so I washed a few and brought them for inspection. She declared them to be vintage jelly jars but it was hard to tell from what era. The angel and crown imprint on the bottom is indented. Edna said it makes a nice mold detail for aspic that could be set on a plate at the table.

 

 

 On Food Network I found a great article about glass and canning and vintage stuff.

This here's a hand made  jar which you can tell by the pontil mark on the bottom, which made me think of all those hand-made marbles we have somewhere and then I wondered where they were and if they were in a box or if the kids had rolled them under the couch and the Edna whirred her beaters and I remember... CANNING JARS. Yes, back to what we were doing.

"Purple jars (the color is the result of sun exposure to the manganese dioxide in the glass) were made prior to World War I because during the war manganese dioxide, which was scarce, was replaced by selenium."

 

 These are the precursor to the two-part lids. Hm. Definitely old. It's even sideways.

 This was a very COOL nifty little time line for Ball jar marks. I didn't see one for Kerr, but it did help me sort a bunch of jars from the ten boxes and set them aside. They can be shown off instead of ending up holding nails in hubby's shed.

"Thumb Screw Clamp  During the Civil War and later some manufacturers used a clamp and glass lid design. The jar has a cast metal wire that clamps down on a glass lid and holds it tightly in the neck of the jar. These were used with round gaskets to create the seal. "

 

I have to say, if I saw jars like this I would pass out. That's some OLD STUFF.

 Ok, so now that we knew WHAT they were, we decided to make some jelly! So, pectin (by the Ball company, don't tell the Kerr glass we were using).

 And then I thought, wouldn't it be neat if those extra lids fit on one of my Fireking teacups??

 Oooooo! Perfect! Now, usually there would be a layer of wax of the jam, but we're just going to eat it (like in a day or two) so I didn't bother worrying about keeping it sealed. If I was going to give this away, I would definitely do the wax step. Maybe I'll hand some out next time. *Remember to buy wax!!

 Blueberries from the store that really don't taste like blueberries so they've been sitting in the fridge. Three cups of blueberries. 1 cup sugar. I know that's a lot of sugar. It's TASTY. A few TBs of lemon juice.

 I turned around to see the vintage percolator had joined the party. They were all have a great time reminiscing over breakfast brunches from the forties. Mr. Perky had been used for a camp coffee maker for a while. He told a roaring tale about nosy bears drinking from his spout which had Edna shrieking with laughter and poor Kerr jelly jars shivering under their lids. The Fireking teacup was cheerfully enjoying the tale, as always.

 Before boiling the fruit, I stirred in 3 TBs of pectin. When it cooled, some of the jam went into the teacup.

 Two jams, and one jelly, for the child that prefers no chunks on her toast.

 I think these lids are so elegant. There were about 5 extras and I'm wondering what to do with them. *Must search internet late at night for crafting ideas when I should be writing!

And a jaunty bow, because the jelly jar had been in storage for (according to the donor) about 25 years. After that long in a cardboard box in the attic with the spiders, Edna declared sweet little jelly jar deserved some pretty in her life. When I tied it on, I think she blushed a bit and was feeling quite special!

 So, until next time my dears!