Christmas cookies start..... NOW!

 

 

 

Hi everybody! The Fresh Pioneer is back and I thought I'd try a different kind of cookie. I heard from a friend that 'horn cookies' were delicious. Okay, I'm game! And Edna's been languishing in the corner so it was perfect timing to start our sampling of Christmas cookies. (No, it's not too early! We're RESEARCHING.)

 Almonds. Fresh, unsalted, raw. YUMMY. Try not to eat them by the handful. For the recipe it calls for:
1/2 lb almonds
3/4 unsalted butter
3/4 powdered sugar
3 cups flour
1 tsp vanilla

(Again, the pictures show a lot more because... well.... six kids... and me and hungry hubby and neighbors and friends and people dropping by and... You get the idea.)

 Tiny nut grinder is hardly equipped for the job but we're going to do it in batches.

 Nut grinder is very loud! Poor kid. I see two things when I look at this picture.
One: we've been very sick and my poor four year old looks exhausted, pale, and has bags under his eyes.
Two: I should not be allowed to cut my children's hair.

 Almonds are ground and sitting prettily in their bowl...

 Putting in the butter. Edna is SOOOOOOO excited! (Again, the haircut.)

 OK, so, this was a bit of a job for her. In fact, it seems like a lot of things have gotten harder and harder for dear Edna. But she powers on...
And starts to smoke.
But she's still going, burning hot, when I turn the knob.

"But... we're not... DONE!" she wheezes.

"I know, Edna, but let's take a break." I get a cool cloth and lay it over her drive shaft. She was burning hot. And not in a good way.

I waved hubby over and gave him 'the look'. You know, the one that says, "Help me keep Edna from feeling like she's failing!"

 And being his intuitive self, he grabbed her bowl and started mixing by hand. By hand meaning WITH HIS HANDS. Edna was very quiet from her place over in the corner... Maybe she was resting. Maybe she was pouting. I was afraid to look.

 This is my child who hates his picture taken. That is all. I pretended I was taking a picture of the wall. Apparently, that made sense to his 3 year old self and he calmly waited while I snapped a photo of the blank wall behind him.
*sigh* Someone needs to hide the scissors when I saw I'm going to give everybody a haircut.

 Once we'd added all the ingredients, we were supposed to roll the dough into balls, then shape it like small crescents. Here is one child's version. I started to say, 'good job', thinking he really had tried and I was a supportive mom and all that.... but he pointed at it and said, "I made POOP!" *eye roll*

 Here is a batch of cookies before they head into the oven. I peeked over at Edna and she was still quiet, perhaps napping under her cool cloth. Her base was spattered with butter and sugar and nut dust. I had a sinking feeling that this wasn't going to end well.

The first batch came out! So delicious! But.... I swear they tasted just like the Mexican Wedding Cookies I made last year. Huh. I looked into the horn cookies and I guess they're also called Hungarian Horn Cookies and Italian Wedding Cookies! Same circus, different clowns. Still tasty.

Anyway, I came back to wipe down dear Edna and she whirred her beaters, as if to get my attention. I could feel tears welling in my eyes. I knew what she was going to say.

"I think it's time for me to retire," she said.

"No! You have lots of life left in you! It was one bad day, and those cookies were really too dry and the recipe called for way too many nuts and I always double the recipe when I shouldn't... Please, Edna, I need you. I'll have to go back to buying store bought cookies without your help. " I couldn't think of anything more to say and sniffed loudly into the silence.

"I'm not leaving. I'll stay right over there in the corner and live the good life of frostings and meringues." Her voice wasn't unkind. And she didn't seem sad.

OH! I wiped my eyes. "So... we should be shopping for another mixer?"

"Absolutely. But promise me one thing."

"Anything!" I was so happy. It was the best case scenario. Edna was staying and we would add to our little kitchen family with a heavy duty mixer that could handle all sorts of menial jobs.

"Let me choose, okay?" Her chrome twinkled in the sunlight.

And I was happy to agree. So, maybe by next week there will be another friend to introduce. Will it be

something like this?

Or this?

Or, since we have so many kids, should we go this route?

And then a friend sent me this picture from a shop near her house.

"Oooooh," Edna said. "Is that a retirement community?"

So, we'll see what she chooses and I'm excited to be baking with BOTH of them in the Christmas season! Until next time!

SEASON OF HOPE is now available!! Check it out here...

Falling for Fall

Yes, friends, fall has officially arrived in Texas. While you folks up north are watching the leaves fall fast and furious, we're finally beginning to see some color here in Texas. The temps have been A-MAZING. We might not even hit 70 this week. Whoo-hoo!

 

And now that the calendar has turned to November, that means the holidays are right around the corner. So much to do, so little time.

 

This weekend, while my men were deer hunting, I was reveling in my yearly round of pumpkin bread baking. (you can find that recipe here)

 

Each little loaf has been carefully wrapped now and is nestled safely in the freezer for gift giving.

 

Have you noticed how Christmas stuff started showing up really early in the stores this year? Some folks don't like it, but I don't mind. I like to spread things out, so I'll buy a little here and there. Some gifts, some decorations. And if there's a particular item I know I'm going to need, I watch for it to go on sale.

 

Have you started your Christmas shopping yet? I'm a few items in, but I'm itching to git 'er done. Before we know it, the tree will be up and things will start to look like this.

 

 

Did any of you happen to see how late Thanksgiving is this year? There's not even a full month between Thanksgiving and Christmas. So I'll be knocking out much of my holiday baking ahead of time and filling the freezer with things like my peanut butter balls. (recipe here)

 

And the oh-so-yummy (not to mention easy) peanut clusters. (recipe here)

 

Now it's your turn. Are you ready for the holidays? What are you baking or looking forward to baking? What foods tell you the holidays have arrived?

 

 

German Chocolate Birthday Cake

Jan, the Mid-Westerner, here, with another birthday cake. At our house, we have birthdays in three months of the year: May, July and November. And today is my husband's birthday!

The bison at Custer State Park were enjoying the sunshine on Saturday.

We celebrated last night, since everyone was going to be at home.

I'm serious. You try getting six adults together when four of them either work two jobs or work plus go to school full time. We're rarely all in the house at the same time.

But Sunday night, after church, we're usually all here.

A Pronghorn buck - the ladies were on the other side of the hill.

Now, my husband's favorite cake is German Chocolate. He loves the blend of chocolate and coconut...and I've found the perfect recipe. I've made every year for the last five or six years.

The original recipe is from the 1980 edition of the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. My copy was a bridal shower gift from a co-worker, and every time I read the inscription I think of her.

"Many happy years of cooking and eating for both of you! Clara 5/9/82"

Do you inscribe books you give as gifts?

Anyway, I've tweeked this recipe, like I do most of the ones that have been around for a few years, and here's the current version:

German Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:
1/2 cup Ghiradelli 60% Cocoa Chocolate Chips
1/3 cup water

1 2/3 cup cake flour (Swan's Down, Wondra or Soft as Silk)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

3 eggs, separated
2/3 cup buttermilk or sour milk

Coconut Frosting - recipe follows

Making a cake from scratch is a worthwhile skill to learn. It isn't hard, but it does take time and care.

The results, however, are worth every minute you spend :)

If you've ever watched a cooking show on television, you know how the cooks always have their ingredients pre-measured before they start cooking. Don't they make it look easy?

Well, we're going to do the same thing - it's prep time!

Let's take this step-by-step:

1) Bring the butter to room temperature in the mixing bowl.

2) Melt the chocolate with 1/3 cup water - I use the microwave. Thirty seconds is usually enough. Stir until it's nice and smooth.

3) Measure the flour, baking soda and salt into a medium size bowl. Stir to combine.

4) If you don't have buttermilk, make sour milk by combining 1 teaspoon lemon juice with your 2/3 cup milk. Let sit for five minutes.

5) Prepare your cake pans. I grease them with coconut oil, then lay a piece of parchment paper on the bottom.

6) Separate your 3 eggs. Put the yolks in a small dish, and reserve the whites.

7)Preheat your oven to 350°.

Now that the preliminaries are done, it's time to start making the cake.

Cream the butter for 30 seconds, and then gradually add the sugar and vanilla. Beat until fluffy.

Add the egg yolks one at a time, beating for one minute after each addition.

Beat in the melted chocolate.

Add the dry ingredients and the milk alternately, about 1/3 of each at a time, beating well after each addition.

Now comes the part that makes a lot more dishes to wash.... You need to beat the egg whites.

In case you don't know this, egg whites and fat of any kind don't mix, so you need to use clean beaters and a clean bowl to beat them.

Transfer you cake batter to a large bowl, and wash your mixer's bowl and beaters.

(The reason my mixer looks so strange is because it's a Bosch. Don't laugh. I can make six loaves of bread at a time with this puppy! He's a workhorse. Makes great smoothies, too, with his blender attachment.)

Now that your mixer is clean, beat those egg whites until stiff peaks form. 

Fold the egg whites into your cake batter, and then pour the batter into the pans.

Bake in a 350° oven for 30-35 minutes.

If you want a refresher on the method for making a cake from scratch, there's another version - a different birthday and a different cake - here.

After the cake is baked, and while it's cooling, it's time to make the frosting. This is what makes this a German Chocolate Cake!

Coconut-Pecan Frosting

or, if you don't have Pecans - just Coconut Frosting

Ingredients:

1 egg

2/3 cup evaporated milk (a 5 1/3-ounce can)

2/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup butter

dash salt

1 1/3 cups flaked coconut

1/2 cup chopped pecans

In a saucepan, beat the egg slightly. Add the milk, sugar, butter and salt. Over medium-low heat, stir until the butter is melted. Cook and stir for twelve minutes more, or until the frosting is thickened and bubbly. Stir in the coconut and pecans. Cool thoroughly.

This is enough frosting for the tops of two 9-inch layers, or one 9"x13" pan.

We've all seen commercial German Chocolate Cakes with rich, brown frosting. Well, mine always turns out this lovely yellow color. Maybe I could add food coloring, or cook it differently so the sugar browns somewhat...but it tastes so good, I hate to mess with it.

Frost the top of one cake layer, put the second layer on and use the rest of the frosting on it. Don't frost the sides of the cake - German Chocolate Cakes don't have frosting on the side.

But, you know, this cake is so rich, you won't miss that extra frosting at all.

And it's so tasty, I wasn't able to get a picture without parts missing!

Another favorite thing for my husband on his birthday is going up into the Hills. Saturday was the perfect day. We drove up on the Iron Mountain Road and then down to the prairies in Custer State Park. 

Every corner we turn, we just say, "I love living here!"

Mt. Rushmore from an angle you don't often see.

Harney Peak, with the Black Elk Wilderness in the foreground.

The flu is coming: Stock your pantry!

Have you gotten your flu shot yet? Or do you believe the shot is worse than the flu?  See this map? 

Uh, oh. It's already gone from no reports to sporadic. The flu is coming for you.

It’s now November. The CDC is telling you it's time. Every drugstore, Target, Walmart and doctor’s office is telling you it’s time. The flu is just around the corner. Yep, those germs are lurking behind every cough, on every door handle, in the air. For goodness sake, don’t touch anything! Wash your hands. Cough into your elbow. Stop breathing!

I am one of those people who gets her flu shot every year.  I got the flu late in the 2002 season and ended up pretty much bedridden for six months.  We always hear about the number of deaths the flu causes but never about the 100,000 or so folks it affects in less permanent ways.

As a former microbiologist I LOVE reading about the most famous influenza pandemics of all time, the one that spread across the world in 1918 and 1919.  With so many books being set in that era these days, more and more authors are touching on the disease in their novels. Nothing like almost death bed confessions of love!

One of my favorite romances dealing with the outbreak in the US is Homefront Hero by Allie Pleiter.

I adore this book and not just for the pandemic. Lovely. Get the ebook here.

Speaking of love, when November rolls around I know it is time to stock up on foods that help if the flu or other respiratory illness hits.  Man O can’t run to the store for me because of the preservatives, corn sugar or wheat. The poor guy is totally flummoxed. It’s better if I just tell him where to go in the pantry or freezer.

So here is my list of go to items:

Chicken stock

Chicken stock-ed. And a big container in case a pandemic hits.

No stock with preservatives for me. I throw a picked over roaster chicken (ie, the skeleton) in a pot with 16 cups of water, an onion, a clove of fresh garlic, three tablespoons salt. (I don't add other spices until I use the stock for soup.) Heat to boiling then cover and turn down to medium. Cook over the stove for four hours, covered. Watch to make sure you don't let the pot go dry. That's where the cover comes in handy.  Place pot in an ice bath to cool and immediately put in glass containers and freeze. Make sure to follow good food sanitation. You don't want to get sick from what is supposed to make you feel better.   

English Afternoon Tea and Honey

I won't tell you how many boxes of tea are in my pantry. I am prepared for daily afternoon tea AND the flu.

Lozenges made with honey or non-corn sugars

I found the Lovely brand fruit lozenges at our local Fresh Market and the honey candy from a local honey producer.

Crackerish things

I have lovely almond crackers I make but they don't last long. Have I mentioned ManO isn't so sure about making my special recipes? So I cut him some slack and pretend all-natural potato chips or rice crackers are my saltines.  I miss saltines and Campbells chicken noodle soup. Reminds me of my childhood. Sniff.

Sparkly soda and fruit juice

I'm fortunate to be near stores with all natural sodas and organic fruit juices. But I try not to overdo these things when I get sick. All that sugar is not helpful to the body when it's trying to recover. Still, they are part of my emergency preparedness.

Are you prepared for the illnesses winter brings? What do you make sure to have on hand with folks come down with fevers, aches and chills? Do you have some home remedies that have been passed down? Or ones you've had to give up because of the ingredients?   

 

Fried Okra with The Belle!

Fried Okra

Missy Tippens

Yes, folks, you read that title right. Today you're going to have to try to make fried okra! Okay, I know some of you are thinking it's slimy and gross. But I promise you it is NOT slimy if you fry it. So please humor The Belle and give this a try!

You'll need:
FRESH okra (thank you to the McDonalds for sharing their harvest at the church office!)
Buttermilk (I didn't have any so used a little lemon juice to "sour" half & half
Buttermilk Cornbread mix (or some kind of cornbread mix--which contains cornmeal and flour)
Vegetable oil (I use canola)
salt and pepper

Heat oil in a skillet on medium to medium-high heat.

Meanwhile, rinse and dry the okra. Cut the ends off, then evenly slice into bite sized pieces.

Put buttermilk into a bowl and cornmeal mix on a plate.
Generously salt and pepper the cornmeal mix.

Dip a handful of okra into the milk.

Shake off excess.

Then toss it in the seasoned cornmeal mix.

Fling a bit of the cornmeal into the skillet to see if it's ready (it'll sizzle).

Transfer the coated okra to the hot skillet in a single layer, working quickly and in batches so you don't over-fill the skillet.

Here's batch one. Flip when it's golden to cook the other side. Or if you're not picky about how evenly it cooks, you can just kind of stir it around.

Remove with a slotted spoon to drain on a plate with paper towels.

Salt to taste.

Adjust heat as needed to prepare the second batch (Oil had gotten pretty hot, so I turned it down).

Cook batch two...

An then remove to a second layer of paper towels. Oh, and try not to eat the first batch while the second batch cooks!

Oh, you say you wouldn't have thought to do that?? Oops. I guess I'm guilty as charged! :)

YUM! Any Belle worth her salt can cook this. I challenge you to give it a try!

Missy

Visit The Belle at www.MissyTippens.com