Tag Archives: Cooking

Gooseberry Patch Recipe #1 – Iowa Freezer Corn

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A couple weeks ago, the readers at The Real Farmwives of America and Friends chose a cookbook from Gooseberry Patch for me to cook from. After I make 10 recipes from the cookbook, I’ll be giving a copy of the cookbook away! And the cookbook chosen was…”Dinners on a Dime!” Woohoo! What an appropriate title for me! 🙂

I took the cookbook with me to the hospital during George’s fiasco, and I had a lot of nurses asking about it! I can’t wait to share these recipes (and a chance to win the book), but I had to get home and back into the routine of things first.

So, yesterday I sent the boys off on the bus and I got to cooking…well, kinda. The first recipe I picked doesn’t take a lot of “cooking” expertise, but it’s just what I was looking for! Here we go:

Iowa Freezer Corn

You need:

  • 16 c. corn kernels, sliced from about 30 ears corn
  • 4 c. water
  • 1 c. sugar
  • 1 T. salt
  • 10 1-pint plastic freezer containers and lids, sterilized (I used 3 1-gallon freezer bags)

Corn, sugar, water, salt...yummy!

 

 

Combine all ingredients in a stockpot; stir well. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Boil 10 minutes, stirring frequently to keep from sticking or scorching. Ladle into shallow pans to cool; do not drain. Pack corn and liquid in freezer containers; freeze. To serve, simmer frozen corn with a little water until tender. Makes 10 containers.

Water, check. Corn, check.

 

 

Sugar, check. Salt, check.

 

 

My corn bags!

 

 

Now, I used freezer bags, because my freezer doesn’t have a ton of room in it. This way, I could freeze my bags flat, then stand them up in the door! They take very little room, and I could put as much as my family would eat in a meal in one bag! Super easy, super delicious, and a great way to clean up our first batch of sweet corn.

Since an economical book was selected for me, I’ll break down the money spent on each dish, so that you can see just how reasonable each meal truly is!

Recipe #1 breakdown:

Corn – free (in our garden)

Sugar – on hand

Salt – on hand

Water – from tap

Total extra cost in meal??? Nothing, nada, zip. Just two hours of my time…and that includes picking, shucking and cutting off the cob.

And the Winner is…

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Laine!

You were lucky post number 9, which was the random number selected by random.org.

Thanks, Laine, for entering and leaving a comment! Hope you enjoy the cookbook, and I certainly hope Logan enjoys the meals! 🙂 If you could just message me your address, I’ll be happy to put it in the mail for you! Enjoy!

By the way, this was so much fun, I’ll be giving away another cookbook in a few weeks! Not only that, but once I finish sharing 10 recipes from the Gooseberry Patch cookbook, I’ll be giving away a few of those as well! Sounds like a great reason to stick around and read more, eh? I thought so.

Stay tuned!

Hunk of Meat Monday – Bow Tie Hotdish

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This is my first official Hunk of Meat Monday post…but I’m hoping as summer winds down and school activities start up, I’ll have a little more time to post things like this. This summer has just been CRAZY!

But here it is…Bow Tie Hotdish! This was a new recipe for us, and it came out of the Fullerton, ND, 125th Cookbook. (And just a heads up, I’ll be giving away a copy of this book later this week…more details in a second.) Fullerton will celebrate next summer (June 29th, 30th and July 1st, to be exact), and this cookbook is a GREAT keepsake, as well as having some awesome recipes and other information.

Fullerton Cookbook, soon to a kitchen near you!

 

Let’s get to the recipe:

You need:

  • 1 1/2 lbs. hamburger, browned
  • 1 can cream of chicken soup
  • 1 box of bow-tie noodles, cooked
  • 1 jar or can of spaghetti sauce
  • shredded cheese of choice (I like the pizza blend)

    Everything needed (minus cheese)

My Hunk of Meat - hamburger!

 
 

Add soup, spaghetti sauce and browned, drained hamburger to cooked noodles in a baking dish. Top with shredded cheese and bake at 350* until the cheese is melted.

Hotdish finished, and served with garlic toast!

 
Yep, that simple…and DELICIOUS! And here’s the cool part: I will give away one copy of this cookbook to a lucky blog reader! Just comment on this post to be entered in the drawing. I will draw a winner Friday evening! Can’t wait to win a copy and want to order one of your own right now? They are $15 per book, plus $5 shipping and handling. Contact Christy Peterson at (701) 375-7261 or email spetey@drtel.net, or Tenille Ulmer at culmer@drtel.net. (They make GREAT Christmas gifts too!!!)
 
Want an extra entry? Subscribe to my blog and leave another comment saying that you did so, or follow me on Twitter at wagfarms, or our tweeting cow at Cows_Life (just leave a comment for each, saying that you’ve followed). Take care and good luck!
 
And don’t forget to head over to the Real Farmwives of America and Friends and vote for which Gooseberry Patch coookbook that I should cook from, I’ll be giving away a cookbook from there as well!
 
 
Hunk of Meat Mondays

Time to Get Cooking

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As some of you know, I am part of a group of women called The Real Farmwives of America. I’m not sure how I was blessed to be asked to join such an amazing group, but I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. And now it’s time for me to ask all of you to help with something…

The Real Farmwives of America are in the kitchen this summer with Gooseberry Patch, and it all adds up to a giveaway! So head on over to the RFOA site and vote for which cookbook I should cook from. I will share 10 recipes from that cookbook, and when I’m done with those 10 recipes, I’ll give away a cookbook!!! So cool, right?

So head on over, right now, and help pick which cookbook I should share with you. I promise, no matter which book you pick, there will be GREAT recipes in there!

King Arthur Flour meets Grandma Vivian’s Dumplings

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I’ve joined a party…and am creating history all at once!

As part of A Latte with Ott, A’s King Arthur flour Iron Chef Challenge, I decided that I would make Brandenburger family history…I would use my Grandma Vivian’s Dumpling recipe. (Mind you, this recipe has never been written down [to my knowledge] and for certain isn’t on the internet.)

This recipe isn’t something you just “throw” together for a quick lunch, but it’s a wonderfully delicious authentically German dish that is requested time and time again at my house. Especially at family gatherings!!!

First of all, you need bread dough…and this is where the King Arthur flour comes in. For those that have been reading my blog for a while, you know that our youngest son has OTC, which limits his protein intake to 10-12 grams per day. Well, it just so happens that King Arthur flour has a product  that is lower in protein! Woohoo!!! And I used this flour for our bread dough (although it’s labeled for wonderfully, delicious and super light pastries, pies, etc.). It worked beautifully!

Anyway, on with the recipe:

Grandma Vivian’s Dumplings

Ingredients –

3 cups flour (I used King Arthur Perfect Pastry flour – only 3 grams of protein per 1/4 cup!)

1 1/2 TBSP. butter

1 cup water

1/4 cup milk

1 package instant dry yeast

1 tsp. salt

1 1/2 TBSP. sugar

1 qt. chicken broth (liquid)

potatoes

2 cups heavy whipping cream (pic shows half and half, which is what I used…but Grandma always used heavy whipping cream…half and half tasted just as good!)

Everything you need!

First, we need a simple loaf of white bread dough. This is a simple, easy loaf recipe…and trust me, if I can make it, anyone can!
Mix together 2 1/2 cups flour, salt, sugar and yeast. Set aside. Then mix together water, milk and butter, heat until hot to touch, but not boiling. (I microwaved for 40 seconds.)

When making this dough, mix together dry ingredients, then mix and heat wet ingredients before combining.

Then, pour your wet ingredients into the dry and mix until a dough-ball is formed. Take the 1/2 cup flour that’s left-over and add as needed to make a smooth dough-ball that doesn’t stick to the sides of the bowl. (I ended up using just about all of the flour this time, but it will vary, depending on your humidity, etc.)

Dough - finished but not raised.

Cover the dough with a cloth for 10 minutes, to let it rest. Then shape into a ball again and let it raise for 1 hour.

Fluffy, yummy dough ball!

Now, we’re ready to make dumplings! Peel and cut your potatoes, enough to fill the bottom of your kettle (4 or 5 quart kettle or dutch oven works wonderfully!).

Enough potatoes to fill the bottom of a kettle, or maybe even a little more!

Add the chicken broth. (I use chicken broth instead of water to boil my potatoes. It adds great flavor!) You can flavor your potatoes if you’d like, with salt, pepper, onions, etc. Whatever you would normally do for boiling potatoes. You won’t be draining any of the liquid.

I use chicken broth instead of water with my potatoes. Yummy!

Heat the potatoes to a boil.

Potatoes are boiling!

Remove the kettle from heat. Punch down the dough. Tear off about quarter-sized bits of dough and layer across the kettle, on top of the water and potatoes.

Pull apart the dough, enough to fill one layer across the potatoes in the kettle.

Dough, completely covering potatoes and ready to cook!

The next part is very important: Place lid on kettle, put it back on medium heat. DO NOT REMOVE THE LID!!! In fact, if your lid does not seal well, or isn’t a very heavy lid, place something on top of your lid…such as:

If your lid isn't heavy enough to make sure there's a seal, set something heavy on top of the lid! Be creative!

Why is this important? The steam from the potatoes and water is cooking the dumplings. If the liquid in the kettle evaporates too quickly, your dough will fall and will be more solid, than light and fluffy. (Grandma would call them “klutzy” when that would happen.) Once you can hear the potatoes boiling again, turn the temp down a bit and simmer. Cook for 30-45 minutes or until the “dumplings start talking to you.” (Grandma’s terms) In cooking terms, this means to listen to the kettle and the dumplings are done when you can hear them starting to fry a little bit.
And then lift off the lid and pray…just kidding…it should look something like this:

Dumplings are done!

Next, stir up the dumplings, mixing the dough, the potatoes and whatever liquid is left. Then pour the cream on top of the dumplings and stir.

Add cream to the finished dumplings.

And finished product, all mixed up...yum!

And that, my friends, is my Grandma Vivian’s Dumplings…actually wrote down and save for all of posterity. She would have been proud of me! She was my best friend, and has been gone for almost a year now. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think of her, and wish that I would have just one more day with her. She taught me so many things about life, but the thing she cherished most was laughter…and good German food! 😉

These are authentic German dumplings...made from scratch! (And low protein!)

Grandma would normally serve this with chicken, but it goes well with any protein item of your choice: beef, lamb, pork, etc. (Not sure it would go well with fish, but go ahead and try! Life is made for rules to be broken, right???) With this particular meal, my sister and I ate these dumplings all by themselves. Just because we could.
Enjoy!
King Arthur did provide me with flour to use for this recipe contest however the opinions listed here are my own.

Photobucket

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Mother’s Day bouquet

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It’s Mother’s Day this weekend, and I was hit with an idea last week when a friend of mine (on Twitter, I’ve never met him face-to-face…funny world, eh?) tweeted about an idea of baking cupcakes in an egg shell. It piqued my curiosity. You see, I’m not a baker…and I’m not very crafty, either, although I try to pretend now and then. But these cupcakes made me itch to try it.

But instead of just making a cupcake, I though, why not a bouquet of flowers??? Easter was already over, but Mother’s Day was coming up…so:

Voila!

Awww! Pretty flowers! And yummy!

Now, let me start by telling you that (again) I don’t bake…but that’s going to be changing. But to start off, I decided to use a box cake mix. I need to get my legs under me before I try to fly! 😉

Baby steps for me...I start with a box mix.

And then, I have a dozen eggs (a box mix will give you enough for a dozen eggs and a dozen cupcakes).

These are the eggs, and this is my handy corkscrew.

I used my handy-dandy corkscrew and put a hole in the BOTTOM of the eggs. (Eggs have a pointier end and a rounder end. The rounder end is where the air pocket usually is. If you drill the hole there, then your egg will sink better in part 2.)

Once the hole was made, I peeled back enough of the shell so that you could put the tip of an icing bag in it (or, in my case, the tip of a baggie with the corner cut off!).

My version of a piping bag...it works spendidly, and the clean-up is quick!

I used a toothpick to stir the insides up (breaking the yolk) and then drained out the egg. You can use the egg for the cake mix, make scrambled eggs for the family, or bake away for the rest of the day!

A weapon of mass destruction...mostly just yolks.

I then rinsed the eggs out, and placed them in hot salt water for 30 minutes. Rinse, drain and let dry.

My egg shells, in salt water.

I used a muffin tin, with tin foil inside to help the eggs stand up.

The foil in the muffin tin helps the eggs stand up.

Mix your cake batter up, and fill the eggs about 1/2 full of batter. (Warning: they WILL overflow, but it’s not too tough to clean up, just scrape off the cake, and wipe off with a damp cloth.)

My eggs, standing at attention, awaiting filling.

Bake at 350* for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Yeah, they’re kinda messy, but FUN!

Then comes the fun part!

I took bamboo skewers and craft sticks (we call them popsicle sticks in this house!), and I stuck the eggs on them. I then took paper baking cups and flattened them out a bit. I had the boys color the white ones with bright markers, and I also used some of the colored wrappers. I placed them on the sticks, under the eggs, and presto! A flower!

Not just beautiful, but delicious as well!

You can use different sized cupcake wrappers, depending on the size of your eggs. To make a bouquet, I used a formula can, cut holes for the craft sticks, and just stuck the pointy end of the skewers in the lid. You can decorate the can all fancy-like, or, if you’re like me, you can just be amazed you made it this far and call it good.

Hey, I’m taking this whole Betty-Crocker thing one step at a time, I don’t plan on going all Martha-Stewart as well! 🙂

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