Strawberry Jam with Breadmaker

 

I have tried several times to make strawberry jam. On the stovetop, I usually make strawberry sauce or strawberry concrete. At some point, I decided to give making strawberry jam in my bread maker a try. If at first you don't succeed try, try again....eh?  

It worked so well this time! I made three batches in one day and they were all perfect! 

I have a Hamilton Beach  breadmaker and I got the instructions out of the instruction manual that came with the machine. The machine had a jam setting, so it takes the guesswork out of how to set the machine. The recipe was adapted with less pectin than called for to get these results. 

Strawberry Jam in Breadmaker

Yields: 6 cups

6 cups strawberries, capped and chopped into to small pieces

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 tablespoon lemon juice (used bottled)

2 tablespoons fruit pectin (I used standard pectin and low sugar, both did well.)

In a large mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients. Pour into bread pan. Start breadmaker. Place your breadmaker on the jam function and start machine. This takes about 1 1/2 hours to cook and then let it cool for one hour in the bread pan on the counter. Then transfer into storage containers. Some of mine went into the fridge and some was frozen. Stores in the refrigerator 3 weeks and in the freezer for one year.

This jam turned out so well! I am forever hooked on making strawberry jam in the bread maker. I ended up with 18 cups of jam. While the breadmaker was cooking through the cycle I capped and chopped up the rest of the strawberries for the next batch and froze some of them for pies or desserts later. I had 35 pounds of strawberries to put up this day. 

Enjoy!

In Victory,

Sherry

Beef and Noodles

Beef and noodles is a common dinner here in the Midwest. I moved here over thirty years ago, and when I got here there was much excitement when someone was having beef and noodles. When I first tried it, I was very underwhelmed. I never saw what the big deal was about beef and noodles. Then I, for some reason I am not sure why, just made my own version of it one day, and then everyone that tried it was very excited about my beef and noodles. I still don't see what the big deal is, but it is a comfort food, and comforting it is.

I never saw a recipe just like mine until I came upon this cookbook online. This is The Lily Wallace New American Cookbook printed, in 1944, at the height of World War II. If ever the whole world needed a comfort food, it was then. Lily, in her infinite wisdom, wrote several cookbooks. This one is a jewel. Lily was British and became an American. She brought with her many of the thrifty bits of wisdom that the British came to use on a regular basis during the times they endured during the war. This cookbook uses whatever you have on hand and makes a very adequate meal out of it.  

I won't go into a full cookbook review, but it has menus for a liberal diet (one where you have resources), a moderate-cost adequate diet, a minimum-cost adequate diet, and a restricted diet for emergency use only. The implications of having this knowledge are a really useful way to keep you and your family resilient. It was this information that made me dive into this cookbook, and then I found it: my way of making beef and noodles.

 In this recipe book Lily calls it creamed noodles. It is basically a white sauce poured over noodles.

I make a beef gravy and pour it over the noodles and beef. There are versions of this, often with a can of cream of mushroom soup in it. Mine is just beef gravy, beef, and noodles. One other change I made is that I use fettuccine noodles, because I am not a fan of the Amish-style egg noodles.

Beef and Noodles (Creamed Noodles)

Serves 4

Ingredients

8 ounces of dried fettuccine, cooked and drained 

2 quarts of water, to boil noodles

1 cup or more of shredded beef roast, leftovers will work. 

1/2 can Keystone beef roast is usually how I make it.

Sauce: 

I make a thicker sauce, so I use more butter and flour than a thin sauce.

4 tablespoons butter

4 tablespoons flour

2 cups of beef broth

Method:

Put the fettuccine into a 2 quarts of boiling water to cook. When noodles return to a boil after you have added them to water, cook for 12 minutes. About half way through the cooking (6 minutes) add the beef roast to your noodles, so it can warm and incorporate into the dish.

While noodles are cooking, make your beef gravy sauce.

Use a separate medium saucepan and melt your butter into it. Add the flour and whisk this roux for 2 minutes. Slowly pour in your beef broth. You can add a cup and then later another cup or all at once and it will eventually thicken into your gravy. Stir continuously until you have the desired consistency, I make mine thick.

Drain the water off of the noodles and the shredded roast. Pour the beef gravy sauce into the noodles and stir until all noodles are coated in the gravy.

Serve hot. 

There you have it! Beef and noodles with a WWII spin as creamed noodles. It is my favorite way to make them. I have never written this recipe down; I always make it from memory. All the children I feed love them, and they are easy to make; best of all you can use leftover beef roast. I have even used leftover beef and beef broth from French dips to make this, and it all turns out good.

In Victory,

Sherry

Autumn Spiced Chicken Pot Pie

 
I never roast a whole chicken without taking the carcass and making another meal out of it. It could be chicken noodle soup or this chicken pot pie. I got this recipe out of the fall Williams and Sonoma catalog.

So, after I cooked the honey roasted autumn spiced chicken and we had a meal with it. I saved the whole chicken in a container in the fridge. I pulled it out two days later and put it in the Instant Pot for 30 minutes on manual with 2 cups of filtered water. I let that cool till I can handle it and I then salvage all of the chicken meat off of the bone and reserve the broth. I then throw all of the rest of the chicken away.

Autumn Spiced Chicken Pot Pie with Puff Pastry

serves 6

2 cups of cooked chicken meat (from honey roasted autumn spiced chicken recipe) 

4 cups chicken stock in total (half reserved from cooking carcass) 

1 tablespoon chicken bullion

8 tablespoons butter

1/8 teaspoon onion powder

1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

salt and pepper

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves

1/4 cup heavy cream

1 lb. potatoes, peeled, cubed, and parboiled

3/4 cup frozen peas

frozen puff pastry, 1 box set out to thaw

1 egg, beaten

1 teaspoon water

flaky sea salt

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Chop your leftover chicken from your honey roasted autumn spiced chicken recipe after you have used the instant pot to get it easily falling off the bone as described in the above paragraph and set aside. In a large saucepan (I use an 11-inch sauté pan) melt 8 tablespoons butter. Add in the onion, garlic powder, and season with some salt and pepper. Sprinkle in the flour and whisk till you have a roux paste, cook about one minute. Slowly pour in the warm chicken stock-bullion mixture, stirring to incorporate. stir in the thyme leaves, and 1/4 cup heavy cream, stirring continuously until thickened. (about 2 minutes). Add in chicken, potatoes (make sure you parboiled them), and peas. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Keep on low while you prepare the baking dishes. I used 4 mini pie pans and one two person pie pan. It was just what I had. You could also make in 6 cocottes or 6 mini pie pans. 

Divide the filling among the 6 dishes. Cut your thawed frozen puff pastry the size of the dishes and place over the dishes crimping the edges. Brush the top of the puff pastry with the beaten egg mixed with the teaspoon of water. Sprinkle the top of the puff pastry with the flaky sea salt. 

Place the baking dishes on a baking sheet and bake about 30 minutes. Cool 5 minutes on a cooling rack and then serve. 

Recipe adapted from: Williams and Sonoma Test Kitchen. 

I haven't ever cooked a lot with the puff pastry. It is so pretty after baking. I am smitten with it. 

Enjoy!

In Victory,

Sherry

Fall in the Cottage

Fall in the cottage this year may include much cooking. I have really gardened a lot this year, and I love spending time outdoors and enjoying nature, but I have been missing the kitchen.

I got started on my baking right away this week with a blueberry muffin recipe out of a vintage cookbook.

I have been tweaking the cottage corner also. I am thinking the more I play around here, I almost have a functioning kitchen.

This recipe book was from 1944, and it is a jewel. The recipes are simple and to the point. You can make almost anything with this cookbook with a working pantry. It was published during WWII, and food rations and nutrition were of key importance. I find that really enjoyable to read; maybe I am kind of weird, but I can read a cookbook like any other book and enjoy it. 

The first recipe I tried out of this cookbook was Blueberry Tea Muffins. 

The recipe was heavy on baking powder because the author wrote cookbooks for Rumford Baking Powder, so the muffins were a little dry. I found that with a few adjustments you could make these similar to some famous blueberry muffin recipe, like the Jordan Marsh Blueberry Muffin Recipe, and that would have made them more moist. The techniques for mixing and baking were the same. 

I am going to talk more about this cookbook in a later post. I have my own recipe for beef and noodles, and I found that this cookbook was as close to my recipe as I have ever found. I really value a recipe book that can make a wonderful meal out of such meager ingredients. This type of cooking was really the backbone of the meal times in the 1940s.

In Victory,

Sherry 

My Favorite Way to Roast a Whole Chicken

I have tried roasting a whole chicken many different ways, but until I tried doing it like Jill Winger from The Prairie Homestead Cookbook. I could not get a chicken roasted to perfection. She has a technique of roasting it with the lid on in a dutch oven and then roasting it without the lid. 

I won't give away her recipe, but I did find a lady who shows you the technique of roasting and flipping on this Youtube channel. I am not associated with The Prairie Homestead Cookbook, but it is one of my favorite cookbooks. 

The recipe roasts the chicken to perfection every time! It is very tender and moist. We are dining with Peter Rabbit here and having the roast chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes, and sautéed apples with cinnamon. 

Why so much comfort food? Because it is snowing again and, it is a wintery wonderland outside.

In Victory,

Sherry

Comfort Food Sides

I can't believe I haven't posted some of the most basic food on this blog in the 15 years I have been blogging, but I have missed a few essentials and I have have been looking at what we eat lately and asking myself, have I ever posted this? I have not posted these three sides ever. We eat the mashed potatoes and green beans with every Sunday dinner type meal I serve. The corn is more of a summery side, best with fresh corn from a local farm.

Basic Mashed Potatoes (Instant Pot)

1 1/2 -2 pounds of potatoes of choice (usually for us it is russet)

1/2 cup -3/4 cup whole milk 

(sometimes, like on special meals I have been know to use heavy whipping cream instead.)

3-4 tablespoons of real butter

salt and pepper to taste

 

Instructions:

Peel and cut in half your potatoes, placing them directly in the instant pot. When they are ready pour in 1 1/2-2 cups of water. Lock the Instant Pot and cook on Manual for 6 minutes. When finished you can quick release or wait till they have depressurized and pour the water off into a colander. Place the potatoes back in the pot and pour in your milk, add butter, and seasonings. Whip with a hand held mixer till creamy. If more milk is needed add it slowly not to make them soupy. I always add an extra tablespoon of butter on top of finished potatoes to melt. It is not called comfort food for nothing! 

Green Beans

1 pound of fresh green beans, washed and trimmed

enough water to cover the beans 

salt and pepper to taste

2 tablespoons butter

Instructions

Place your green beans into a medium saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer to cook. How long? Now this is where it gets controversial. I like to cook my beans where they are still crisp, but a lot of people want them cooked a lot more than that. So you can cook them as little as 6 minutes or up to 30 minutes. At 30 minutes they will be falling apart but still look like a green bean. Ha! Drain off the water and season with salt pepper, and the butter.

These can also be made in the Instant Pot. Place beans in the IP and cover with water. I set the Instant Pot on Manual for 6 minutes and again some people will want them cooked longer. Drain off water when done and season with salt, pepper, and butter. Serve hot.

Southern Fried Corn

Now if you thought my green beans were controversial, you haven't seen anything yet. My grandmother made this corn and I make it like she made it. I grew up in a southern state of mind. We had southern meals all the way. The food was always fresh from the garden even in the winter because "she put food up." This would have been corn stripped off the cob and flash frozen for the freezer.  I don't grow corn but, I will start with frozen corn. It is the freshest way to get it. 

12 ounces of frozen corn

2 tablespoons of butter

1/4 cup sugar (A lot of recipes say 1 tablespoon of sugar, but I put 4 tablespoons; which equals 1/4 cup)

salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Place the butter in a 9-inch hot skillet and let it melt. Place the corn in the melted butter and stir till coated. Add salt, pepper, and sugar as desired and cook 15 minutes on simmer. Serve hot.

Comfort food should comfort you and be the foods you love most, and probably grew up eating. I am saddened to see that many people have gotten away from the hot home-cooked meal. A hot meal is comforting. You need a hot meal. 

What is your favorite comfort food?

*Disclaimer: If you have been on a certain diet. Please feel free to substitute; for example: stevia for sugar.  I would never cook this way for a person with a medical condition. I would use appropriate substitutes for the medical condition. I have cooked that way also and will continue to do so.

In Victory,

Sherry

Razzleberry Pie

The Razzelberry Pie has long been a family favorite. It is simply a mixed-berry pie. The berries in the pie are now at their peak, so I decided to make one from fresh berries. 

I have made this pie from fresh berries and fresh frozen. Either way they are incredibly juicy. So juicy in fact that the pie is swimming in juice. I have put 3 tablespoons of cornstarch in this pie and only used 1/2 cup of sugar and that seems to be the trick to lessening the juice.

 

Mixed Berry Pie (aka: Razzelberry Pie)

 

double pie crust

16 ounces of raspberries

16 ounces of blackberries

10 ounces of blueberries

1/2 cup sugar

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon salt

egg white 

1 tablespoon sugar to sprinkle on crust

Prepare the double crust recipe of your choice. Press the first layer in the 10-inch pie plate.

Prick bottom with fork. 

In a large mixing bowl place the raspberries and set aside. In another large bowl put the blackberries and blueberries with the 1/2 cup sugar and let macerate for 60-90 minutes. When the berries are finished macerating save 1/4 cup juice and discard the rest. Toss together the raspberries, the berry mixture that was macerating, 1/4 cup reserved juice, lemon juice, corn starch, and salt. 

Pour berry mixture into the pie crust. Roll out the remaining pie crust dough and make a top pie crust. Seal edges by turning under and crimping.  Be sure to cut vents into the top of the crust and then brush with egg white and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake at 425°F for 25 minutes, until top of crust begins to brown. (Here I use a silicone pie crust shield to prevent the edges of the pie from burning. You could also use aluminum to shield the edges.) Turn the oven down to 375°F and bake for  30-40 minutes more, or until the filling is bubbling and the crust is a deep golden brown. (I take the pie crust shield off about 10 minutes from the end of baking.)

Let cool for 1-2 hours.

Serve with whip cream or vanilla ice cream.

Enjoy! 

In Victory,

Sherry

Cheddar and Chive Scones

Today I am making something delicious from the herbs in my garden. I am making cheddar and chive scones.

I divided the chives, and now I have two pots of them. I didn't know how they would do, but they didn't seem to mind at all. So I went out and snipped a few for my recipe.

The book I have been using this year to get creative with my herbs has been The Herbal Yearbook.

The recipe is from the month of April. It is cheddar and herb scones. You could use any mix of herbs, and I went with chives.

Making the scones.

Preparing them for the oven.

Flakey and golden brown, just like pictured in the book.

They were reported to be delicious. I served them with chili because it was a cold day. 

Cheddar and Chive Scones

Makes 9-10

200 grams self-rising white flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

pinch of salt

3 1/2 tablespoons butter

3 ounces cheddar cheese, grated

4 teaspoons chopped chives

1/2 cup whole milk

milk, to glaze 

Preheat oven to 425°F. Add self-rising flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Add butter using a pastry cutter, till fully incorporated. Add the cheese, chives, and milk and mix to form dough. I kneaded it in the bowl gently until the desired consistency. Roll out the dough to a thickness of 1/2 inch. and cut scones using a pastry cutter. Place on a greased baking sheet or parchment paper. Brush the tops with milk and bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.

Recipe adapted from: The Herbal Yearbook

Enjoy!

In Victory,

Sherry

Small Batch Chocolate Cupcakes

 

I have recently discovered small-batch baking. I saw this last week on a YouTube channel I follow. The lady makes all small servings for her recipes. We have fewer people in the house now, and we really don't need 24 cupcakes when we make them. 

I was really impressed with this recipe. It came out exactly like it was supposed to. The only changes I made to the recipe were that I used 1/2 teaspoon vanilla in the cupcake batter and I sifted the powdered sugar for the buttercream icing recipe. They turned out fantastic!! There are only three pictured above because one has already been eaten! 

Enjoy!

In Victory!

Sherry

Pizza Dough From Scratch

We used to buy a lot of brand-name frozen pizzas every week at the grocery store. With a house of guys we ate a lot of them, but I quit cold turkey and started to make my own pizza. It is way cheaper and so much healthier. Today, I will share with you my homemade pizza dough. Years ago, I shared this, but I have changed the recipe a lot since then, so it was time for a redo. This is a picture of the activated yeast before I mix it with the flour. 

I mix my dough in this bread bowl. I bought it years ago at a flea market. 

I have tried this recipe in the bread machine, but it seems to make the dough too tough, so I prefer to hand-knead it for around five minutes, and then it is ready to proof.

Some of the equipment I use to make pizza is a pizza stone, a pizza peel, parchment paper, a kitchen scale, a digital cooking thermometer, and an air fryer with a proof setting to proof the dough. You wouldn't have to have these things to make the pizza, but it does help to make the pizza turn out more like your favorite pizzeria. In this picture I am covering the dough to place in the proofer.

In this picture, the dough has proofed for an hour and risen nicely. 

I will now make six equal portions of the dough, and put them in a labeled baggie, and place them in the freezer or refrigerator if using therm right away.

I have tried several flours for this recipe. The best and most widely available flour that will give you

pizzeria results is bread flour. I have tried 00 flour, but it isn't absolutely necessary to go to the expense of buying that flour for that light, airy, crisp crust.

Here is the dough out of the freezer. I have put it in the microwave on defrost for 1-2 minutes, or maybe a little longer, until it is no longer frozen. 

I place it on parchment paper and roll out a 12-inch pizza. Dimple the dough with your fingers to get that airy crispy crust.

Here is the veggie pizza, ready for the oven. I bake it on a pizza stone in a preheated 485°F in a oven. 

My pizza has evolved over the years. It is getting easier to recreate a takeout pizza without the expense. I am prefecting our favorite sauce and will share that soon, as well as a recipe for cheesesticks.

Pizza Dough from Scratch                                           Yield: 6-12 inch pizzas

Ingredients:

600 gm bread flour (4 3/4 cups)

2 teaspoons salt

1 1/2 cup of water, warm (100°F)

1 teaspoon sugar placed in the water to dislove

2 teaspoons of active dry yeast

3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

Combine flour, salt, in a large bowl. Weighing the flour will be more acurate. Add the water, yeast, and the sugar to a measuring cup set in a warm place and wait to see the yeast activate. (As in the first picture above.) After the yeast is activated add the olive oil to the water and yeast mixture. Add water mixture to the flour mixture and combine till liquid is dispersed. Turn the dough onto your preferred kneading surface and knead the dough around five minutes. Cover the dough with a tea towel or plastic wrap and place in a warm area to rise for an hour or use proof setting on an air fryer. 

When fully risen cut dough into 6 equal parts and freeze or use right away. 

To cook preheat oven and pizza stone to 485°F.

Roll out dough to a 12-inch crust and top as desired. (Use only enough sauce to cover.) Bake on the hot stone 11 minutes. Remove from oven and serve hot.

Pizza at home can be made rather easily and much cheaper and healthier for you than the frozen store brands. I have not bought another store pizza since making this dough. It has been around five years now.

In Victory,

Sherry