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

Black-Eyed Pea Grinder Salad

 

This is an original grinder salad that I modified based on what I had on hand today. I made it with black-eyed peas for a New Year's twist, since in the South where I grew up you always ate black-eyed peas. An original grinder salad would be Italian and made with beans, but my beans are in the pasta because it is made with chickpea pasta. 

Ingredients:

1/2 red onion, chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 bunch flat leaf parsley, minced

1 box chickpea pasta, 8 oz.

1 can black-eyed peas, 15.5 oz. can

1/4 cup pepperoncini peppers, chopped up

1/2 cup salami or pepperoni, whatever you have chopped in half or quarters

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1/2 cup good olive oil

2 tsp. oregano

2 tablespoons of lemon juice or juice of one lemon

Instructions:

Cook the box of chickpea pasta according to the directions. Usually after it comes to a boil, you simmer for 8 minutes, then it is done. Drain and chill for 30 minutes to an hour in refrigerator.

Dice the red onion, thinly slice the red pepper, and mince the parsley. Chop your pepperoncini peppers and cut up your salami, or I used pepperoni (whatever Italian meat you have on hand). Rinse and drain your black-eyed peas. Add your peas, onion, peppers, pepperoncini, meat, and parsley to the bowl of cooled pasta. Add the vinegar, olive oil, oregano, and lemon juice and stir until well combined. You could add many things to this. I used the last of the marinated olives from the mezze platter we had this week to it. You could add cherry tomatoes or mozzarella balls or anything you wanted to finish up from another small meal. You can serve right away or chill in the refrigerator. The longer it sets, the better it tastes. 

Enjoy! 

In Victory,

Sherry

The Mezze Platter

At the end of this year, I went all Mediterranean with our food, so the obvious choice for a party platter was the mezze platter. Mezze is a series of small dishes served as appetizers, all originating from the Mediterranean. 

I don't know a lot about this type of food, but, I love to try new things. So, don't consider me very experienced at Mediterranean cuisine, but I have a lot of fun cooking it. The thing I noticed right away is there is more assembling rather than long, complicated recipes and techniques for cooking. I liked that. It is also fresh food and one of the most healthy diets you can eat. 

Here is what we had on our platter, and I will give you the link to the recipes. My sons loved it! I did add an American smoked cheddar cheeseball, which used to be a staple for our holidays, and no one touched it! It was funny; everyone embraced the Mediterranean-style appetizers with eagerness. Here is the link I used to create my own mezze platter. In this picture are marinated olives, crostini, and regular salted mixed nuts.

In this picture is whipped feta spread, but I subbed ricotta instead, and it came out beautifully.

This is regular hummus from the local grocery store topped with marinated chickpeas.

In this picture we have cherry tomato caprese salad. I don't know if you would find this on a true mezze platter, but it was so pretty I couldn't resist.

This is the rest of the marinated chickpeas. 

Homemade pita chips are on this also, but they are not pictured. Here are also sliced raw carrots for dipping, orange slices, and a cluster of grapes. Now I was going to round out the year with my last post in a series I was posting about using the herbs from my garden. I got this idea from the book The Herbal Yearbook. I have posted ideas from this book for the whole year, but the book is from 1994, and I thought doing something more modern would be a great way to end my herb series for this year.

So how did I use my herbs in this new style of cooking? 

The question might be better stated, how didn't I use them? The Mediterraneans are freely using lots of herbs. So, I found all sorts of uses for the herbs I had saved from the garden this year!

I used dried oregano and basil crushed into a powder.

I made bouquet garni and I had them in the freezer. So I used the frozen thyme in place of fresh.

I used some rosemary I had started in an herb propagating post and stripped some leaves of it for this mezze platter. This rosemary has doubled in size too! Just growing in a south window over the winter.

I also chopped down all of my parsley right before our first freeze. I took it off of the stem and used herb scissors, then froze it all. I had a lot of it. I used this to garnish the marinated chickpeas. 

So for 2024 I really found a lot of uses for my herbs. It was a great year of projects and learning. 

I wish everyone a wonderful 2025 and many blessings!!

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

Fresh Herb Basket

It is time again this month to do an herb project from The Herbal Yearbook. For September, I choose to make a fresh herb basket. It is for giving or for using in your own kitchen. 

Pick your herbs and gather your supplies. 

supplies:

basket

3-5 herbs of your choice

damp paper towels

parchment paper

string

recipe card (if giving)

any other items that will go with to give as gift (ex. herb stripper)

I have gathered my herbs: rosemary, marjoram, oregano, thyme, and sage. I am taking the cuttings of my herbs and wrapping the lower stem with the damp paper towel. 

After securely wrapping the stems, I place a square of parchment paper around the end of the herb. I have it folded here down in triangles on each top corner. Just like your making a paper airplane. 

I wrap the parchment paper completely around the damp paper towel and twist the bottom.

Then I flip the twisted part up and behind and then tie with twine.

When finished, it looked like this. My grandmother showed me how to do this when I was small so I could take the flowers I picked home.

The book I am using for the craft idea suggests giving this as a gift. If you have friends that are foodies and like to cook with fresh herbs, this is a great idea. 

This is how my basket looked when finished. I added a card with an idea of making herbs de Provence, herb scissors, and an herb stripper. I am saving my herbs for a project for next month. 

I have really enjoyed making projects from this book to gain more knowledge and practice using my herbs. Do you have herbs you use from your garden?

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

DIY Ice Cream Cake

Making your own ice cream cake couldn't be easier. Give yourself a day or maybe two to make it because you will need to freeze in between the ice cream layers before proceeding to the next step. 

Ingredients:

Cake:

1 carton of vanilla ice cream (around 6 cups)

1 carton of second flavor ice cream. (I used chocolate chip.) (also around 6 cups)

1 1/4 cup of chocolate crumbs for baking (can make these out of Oreos)

12 ounce jar of Smucker's Chocolate Fudge Sauce

Icing: Stabilized Whip Cream :

2 cups of heavy whipping cream

4 tablespoons powdered sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

sprinkles (optional)

Your first step is to pick out a pan and line it with parchment paper, especially on the bottom. I also layered the sides. Then pick out your first ice cream flavor and leave it on the counter for 20-30 minutes till it has the consistency of soft serve like in the picture above.

Once everything is ready, spoon your softened ice cream into your prepared pan. I am using a 9-inch cheesecake pan lined with parchment paper. Then smooth it out on top like icing a cake. Put this in the freezer and let it harden about 30 minutes or more.

Next, pour your cookie or chocolate crumbs over your cake top. Cover it completely. 

Next, warm your fudge sauce in the microwave for about 20 seconds with the lid off. Then pour this over your cookie crumb layer and smooth it out again, like icing a cake. 

Put the whole cake in the freezer again for at least 30 minutes. While this is hardening up, take out of the freezer your second flavor of ice cream and leave it on the counter for 30 minutes.

When the second ice cream is spreadable, take your cake out of the freezer and smooth the other ice cream out like icing a cake. I had more like 4 cups of ice cream in the second layer. It wasn't a tall enough pan to make it with the whole 6 cups of the second flavor of ice cream. Then put it all in the freezer and harden it for at least 30 minutes or more.

Here is the finished ice cream part of the cake, but we still want to ice it.

Now make the stabilized whip cream. Add the cream to a large bowl and, use a hand mixer or stand mixer, stir in the powdered sugar slowly. On medium speed, whip the cream till it forms soft peaks. Slowly add the remaining ingredients until it is incorporated and it whips up to hard peaks, and you are ready to ice the cake.

The cake above has been iced with stabilized whip cream. You can stop here and serve, or you can pipe on with an icing bag and tips and make a decorated cake. I decorated my cake with an open star tip on the edge of the cake and at the base, and then I applied chocolate sprinkles.

One tip is to clean the knife off after cutting each slice. This will give you a nice, clean slice of cake; there will be no chocolate sauce smeared down the sides.

Store it in the freezer until eaten, which won't take long. 

I noticed that this cake is way easier to cut than a DQ cake. It was also about $20 cheaper! How did it taste? The children said it tasted just like a DQ cake. Win win! 

In Victory!

Sherry