Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Christmas Decorations

I was going to hang some decorations up for xmas and lo' if I can even find them! I have a lot of greenery for porch rails etc., it was supposed to be in the attic and granted we haven't drug it out in some five years or so but who knows where it's at? I found one tiny bit of greenery, not near enough to do the porch.

Off to search some more.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

This weekends canning short list


First up can the remaining unsalted butter and then start in on the salted butter - in half pints.
I have five heads of green cabbage that need to be canned up as cole slaw and then if I have any time or energy left I'm going to try my hand at canning a batch of carmalized onions.

A picture of the neighbors crabapple tree, the squirrels like this tree better than ours, the neighbors crabapples are sweeter.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Pepper in a Box

I couldn't resist taking this picture of Pepper.

Cinnamon Rolls


I made homemade cinnamon rolls last night, from fresh ground wheat berries, that was half the dough batch. I also make a loaf of bread the oven decided to cooperate which is good because I've given up on my bread machine! The rolls were yummy even if I did screw up the recipe, apparently your supposed to use brown sugar with the cinnamon and butter, I used white! They still tasted heavenly.

Cranberry Applesauce




Or saucy applesauce as we like to call it, unforutnately it didn't come out nearly as chunky as we like it, frustrated with the sauce sticking to the bottom of the pan I buckled under and used the stick blender to break the sauce down even further. Well... you know what they say about good intentions right. So it's mostly very creamy sauce, it tastes wonderful and looks beautiful but...

I also fell short on the cranberries, the sauce really needed about four more pounds of cranberries to give it that tart flavor we like and so well. I have one jar that didn't seal for some reason I guess we will have to make the ultimate sacrifice and eat that jar of sauce now!!! As you can see I enjoyed a cinnamon roll with some sauce.

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Lentil Chili




Lentil Chili

3/4 cup dry lentils, cleaned
2 cups chicken broth or vegetable broth or beef broth
1 (16 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
1 medium green bell pepper, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2-3 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tablespoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 (16 ounce) can tomato sauce
2 cups whole kernel corn


Combine everything (except tomato sauce and corn) in 2 1/2 quart pot and boil over high heat. Reduce to low, cover, and simmer for 25- 30 minutes. Stir in tomato sauce and corn. Simmer for 10- 15 minutes. Serve hot! Great garnished with lowfat sour cream.