I was blown away with all the sweet emails, you are all the dearest readers!
First off, we will use this page of our website " Recipes & News" to post an occasional recipe and update you on how we are doing. And of course any big news like the release of our documentary, which I might add takes a lot more time than we even anticipated. ;)
Now for the promised recipe:
Pickled Smoked Garlic
3 cups vinegar
6 cups water
8 tablespoons pickling salt
1/4 teaspoon alum
1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke per jar
Heat vinegar, water, salt to a full boil. Pour over peeled garlic in pint jars. (I buy pre-peeled organic garlic at Costco in bags) Pour 1/2 teaspoon of liquid smoke per jar and process ten min. according to your canning manual.
If you don't like the smoked flavor, add a little dill to the jars and omit liquid smoke.
We are sorry to announce the end of our blogging days. We have made an area for recipes. We are still selling the Grandpa Jakes, and busy filming our upcoming documentary. We feel the need to spend very little time online, and to put our time into growing food and living the homestead life.
We thank you for all your kind comments, and support.
Farm On Friends!
Apple Puff
¼ cup unsalted butter
¼ cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 apple, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced
5 large eggs
½ cup milk
½ all purpose flour
1tsp vanilla
Dash of salt
Maple syrup or powdered sugar with some lemon juice.
Heat the oven to 425 degrees. Place the butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon in a 9-inch pie plate .
Heat in the oven until the butter is melted and
bubbly - 5 minutes. Remove from the oven, stir well
and mix in the apple slices. Return the to the oven and bake for 2 minutes. Meanwhile, combine the eggs, milk, flour and salt in a blender or beat by hand until frothy – 1 minute. Pour over the apple mixture.
Bake until the cake is puffed and set – 18 to 20 minutes. Serve warm with maple syrup or lemon juice,
and powdered sugar. Enjoy!
My great granny was a very resourceful woman. She lived thru the depression, and I grew up begging for any story she would tell me of those days. She always thought it funny for young girl to want to know about that time in history, but she would still tell me what I wanted to know.
I enjoyed digging in her cellar/basement; I found all kinds of goodies. I loved everything that was old and had a story. I still do, that’s why I love old simple recipes. They have stories and life in them. This oldie was my granny’s she made the best pies! It’s simple and tasty. This really was a simple desert often used during the 30’s and 40’s.
½ c. cocoa
¼ cup cornstarch (or ½ c. all purpose flour)
3 eggs
1 ½ c. sugar
¼ tsp. salt
2 c. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
Mix cocoa, cornstarch, beaten egg yolks; sugar and salt, then add milk gradually, while stirring in a pot over med-high heat. Cook until thick, beating it smooth. Pour into a pre-baked pie shell. Put in the fridge to chill, add whipped cream if you like :0
Just a note: I no longer use cornstarch, I substitute with arrowroot flour or unbleached flour. I also use organic sugar or honey in my recipes.
Enjoy some old fashioned goodness!
You asked for the recipe... so here it is! Enjoy. Pumpkin Delight
1 large can of pumpkin or two small 15oz cans ( don’t be afraid to use some of your pumpkins from the garden)
3 cups of organic sugar ( 1 ½ organic sugar 1 ½ honey works too!)
1 cup of light olive oil or butter
4 ½ cups of unbleached flour (you can use whole wheat or go half white & half whole wheat. Whatever your heart wishes!)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cloves
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
4 tsp. soda
Bake @ 350 for 1 hour
Makes 3 loaves of pumpkin bread.
Simple & Sweet.
Note: I always add toasted nuts and chocolate chips to the top, and slightly pat down before baking.
My Great Granny always made simple food, and boy was it good. She lived through the depression, and really new how to use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.
Ducks! I've been dreaming of ducks for such a long time... Now the dream has become reality.
WARNING: Do not get ducks, if you are not prepared to watch their adorable antics, every time you walk by. I'm Serious!
Why Ducks? I love my Chickens, but wanted a second source for eggs, and secretly I just love cute little ducks. They are amazing at putting out the eggs. The French say that baked goods are superior when duck eggs are used. I can't wait to get some of those beautiful eggs!
Dutch Baby
½ C. Butter
2 C. Milk
8 Eggs
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
2 C. Flour
5 Tbs. Sugar
We add a little lemon zest too!
This make two cast
Iron pans full about 8-9 inch skillets.
Put ¼ cup of butter in each
cast iron pan; place that in a 425 oven until the butter is melted and bubbly
(you want it hot, but don’t burn the butter) Combine milk, eggs, and vanilla.
Beat well and stir in slowly flour and sugar. Beat until smooth. Pour the batter
into the hot pans. Bake for 20 minutes or until well-raised and brown on
top.
We love to drizzle with lemon juice and berries, or maple
syrup.
We needed some fencing, and fast. I love wattle fencing (we have always called it wicket fencing). They use this in England, and I have always loved the whimsical romantic look. We have hundreds of small pine trees on our property. A fire went thru a long time ago, and left a little forest of perfect wattle material. My husband and the kids got to work building some wattle fencing for the duck yard.
Thought you might enjoy a pictorial guide on how we build wattle (wicket) fencing.... The perfect duck yard!
We have a wonderful guest post today... Shaye at the Elliott Homestead. I love her recipes, and when she talks food, I get excited. Especially when It's about "Whole Foods". We hope to have her back again!
Whole Foods & Lemon Mousse
I've said it before and I'll say it again...eating whole, real, high quality foods is a journey. Chances are, you aren't just going to wake up one morning with a counter full of soaking and fermenting products. No kefir fairy will come and make a pro-biotic rich product in your fridge. It just ain't gunna happen. Lucky for us, we have resources. We have each other. We have the wisdom of past generations. And we have the internet. All of these great resources combine into a wonderful bounty of knowledge that can be used to further increase our productivity and knowledge of "real" foods and teach us to be less dependent on packages from the grocery store. Here on our homestead, we've come far on our food journey since beginning it a few years ago. While we used to purchase bread, chips, cereals, crackers, cookies, and prepackaged meats at the store...we now have traded all of these "kitchen staples" in for new and improved varieties! We now buy all of our organic grains in bulk to help reduce the cost. We soak and bake our own bread. We make sourdough crackers, in place of chips. We make cookies from ground almonds. We purchased locally raised meat and make all of our own stocks and lunch meats. We've ventured into brewing kombucha and ginger beer. We ferment and drink kefir on a daily basis, made from raw milk we purchase from a nearby dairy. All of these changes took time and consideration. They took planning and a change of routine - forcing us to break out of stale, old, unhealthy habits! And what a blessing that is! Not only have we never felt better, health wise, but we also love knowing that we are able to produce delicious, nutrient-dense, high quality food right here in our own kitchen. I'd like to share one of these recipes with you, which is originally from Nourishing Traditions (my go-to source for everything in my kitchen!). I've made it a few times...and lawdy, is it delicious. Simple. Sweet. Refreshing. Perfect for a summer evening. Lemon Mousse. I'm drooling right now, just typing that. Side-note: The quality of the ingredients used in the recipe matters. I wouldn't trust just any 'ol raw egg from the store here. Seek out a high quality, free range source for local eggs near you! Ask around! Put in the leg work to find a good egg supplier - trust me, once you start eating real eggs, you will never ever ever go back to eating the pale, tasteless ones from the store. Also, take the time to find a high quality cream. Raw cream is best, but if you can't find it, at least find a high-quality pasteurized cream (NOT ultra-pasteurized)! In my state (Washington), it's illegal to sell raw cream, so the best I can find is pasteurized cream from a nearby dairy. Yum! You will need: - 6 egg yolks, at room temperature - 1/2 cup raw honey - Zest of two lemons - Juice of two lemons - 6 eggs whites, at room temperature - Pinch of sea salt - 1/2 cup heavy cream, well chilled Step One: Combine the egg yolks, lemon rind, honey and lemon zest together in a saucepan. Heat very gently and whisk constantly for about 10 minutes, until the mixture thickens. Remove from heat and chill in the refrigerator for about a half-hour or so. Step Two: While the lemon/yolk mixture is chilling, whip the cream until it's stiff and forming peaks. Then, let your baby lick the whisk. She's only young once, ya know. Step Three: Then, in another bowl, beat the egg whites with a pinch of sea salt until they are stiff and forming peaks. Step Four: Gently fold the chilled lemon mixture in with the whipped cream. Then, gently fold the egg whites in as well. Gently now, people...gently. Portion into small ramekins, or dishes of your choice. You can serve this two ways: chilled (from the refrigerator) or frozen (from the freezer). I prefer it frozen, so I just stick the ramekins in the freezer until I'm ready to serve it. Garnish with a few mint leaves. If you're feeling fancy! Oh la la. This is a super simple dessert that is based on quality, whole ingredients. It's stripped down to the basics: no artificial lemon flavor, yellow #5, or corn syrup to be found! And that's the way, uh huh - uh huh, I like it, uh huh - uh huh. Song reference? Anyone get that? Never mind. Please give this recipe a try and let me know what you think! I love getting to share easy, real recipes with folks just like you. So get to cookin'! Cheers!
Scones
2 Cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
½ cup butter
2/3 cup buttermilk
Mix like you would biscuits. Then add your fresh fruit. (For a fun fall scone add cranberries, walnuts, and some orange peel.) Pat into a circle and cut into wedges, separate wedges slightly. Brush with a little egg white and 1 T. milk or cream, then sprinkle with coarse sugar.
I used fresh peaches in the scones this time.
Bake @ 400 degrees for about 15-20 min. Make sure it is cooked thru in the center. Then make some Devonshire and enjoy to the fullest!
Devonshire Cream:
1 package cream cheese (8 oz.)
1/4 C sour cream
6 T powdered sugar
Beat together until smooth and enjoy.
For an elegant but simple teatime treat, we love to make these pecan tassies. They are quick but oh so pretty. Makes 24
4 oz. cream cheese
1/2 cups (1 stick) butter, at room temp.
1 cup flour
For The Filing
2 eggs
3/4 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter melted
1 cup pecans
1. Place a baking sheet in the oven and preheat to 350. Grease 2- 12 -cup mini-muffin tins.
2. Cut the cream cheese and butter in pieces. Put in a mixing bowl. Sift over the flour and mix to form a dough.
3. Roll the dough out thinly. With a fluted pastry cutter, stamp out 24 2 1/2- inch rounds. Line the muffins cups with the rounds and refrigerate while making the filling.
4. For the filling, lightly whisk the eggs in a bowl. Gradually whisk in the brown, a few tablespoons at a time, and add the vanilla, salt, and butter. Set aside.
5. Reserve 24 undamaged pecan halves and chop the rest coarsely with a sharp knife.
6. Place a spoonful of chopped nuts in each muffin cup and cover with the filling. Set a pecan half on the top of each.
7. Bake until puffed and set, about 20 mins. Transfer to a rack to cool. Serve at room temperate.
You can put any kind of filling in these: Lemon curd, pumpkin, jams and fresh fruit. This recipe always brings smiles!
Bread, doughnuts and biscuits. Doesn't that sound comforting ? I consider anything with flour, sugar or honey, butter, olive oil, eggs, salt, soda, yeast or any leavening, basic simple staples that can be turned into good old fashioned food. Here are some of our favorites.
Challah Braid
1 pkg. active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (105-115)
1/2 cup lukewarm water
1 T. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 egg
1 T. shortening
2 1/2 - 2 3/4 cups unbleached flour
Dissolve yeast in warm water, then stir into the lukewarm water, sugar, salt, egg, shortening and 1 1/4 cups of flour. Beat until smooth. Stir in remaining flour. Knead for 5 mins. Let rise 1 1/2 hrs. Punch down and braid, now brush with butter and let double (40 mins.) Heat oven to 375. Brush with egg yoke mixture
(1 egg yoke, and 2 T. cold water) Bake 25-30 mins.
This recipe is so easy to make and yummy my daughter makes it for us often.
Doughnuts!
This is my friends recipe. I love these doughnut ! The first time I made them they turned out perfect. Great recipe.
Better than Crispy Cream's Doughnuts
1 T Yeast
1 3/4 C lukewarm Water
1/2 C Sugar
1 tsp Salt
2 Eggs
1/3 C Shortening
5 C Flour
- Dissolve yeast in water. Add sugar, salt, eggs, shortening and 2 cups of flour. Beat on low for 30 seconds, scraping bowl occasionally. Stir in remaining flour until smooth
- Cover and let rise until double (50 to 60 minutes)
- Turn dough onto flour surface - coat lightly with flour. Gently roll dough 1/2" thick with floured rolling pin
- Cut with floured doughnut cutter
- Cover and let rise until double (30 to 40 minutes)
- Heat oil to 350 degrees
- Slide doughnuts into hot oil with a wide spatula
- Turn doughnuts as they rise
- Fry about 1 minute on each side
- Remove from oil
- Dip in glaze or roll
Doughnut Glaze
1/3 C Butter
2 C Powdered Sugar
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla
4 - 6 T Hot Water
- Heat butter until melted
- Remove heat
- Stir in powdered sugar and vanilla until smooth
- Stir in water, 1 T at a time, until desired consistency
Maple Frosting
1/2 C Butter
3 C Powdered Sugar
2 tsp Maple Flavoring
- Thoroughly cream butter and powdered sugar
- Add maple flavoring
- Beat until spreading consistency
 Happy cooking!
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