Is It A Pumpkin Roll or Harvest Torte?

October 20, 2015

Whew…summer is over.  I say this with a mixture of sadness and relief.  Although highly productive, this summer’s garden was a challenge to say the least.  Charming has been busy most of the summer with another important project, so I was basically on my own in taking care of the garden.  It feels like I spent most of my summer tying up tomato plants.  They grew to almost six feet high and it seemed that the branches were constantly growing and escaping from their confines.  Some were in cages, some were tied to stakes.  It didn’t seem to matter which way we had set them up, they found ways to escape.

Also, it was a dry summer here in the Valley, so I had to carry water from the collection barrels and water the garden.  Granted, the collection barrels are close to the garden, but I still had to fill my watering can many, many times to get the job done properly.  

All of this aside, I am still in love with my garden.  I canned 163 quarts of food that will keep our visits to the grocery store at a minimum.  This doesn’t count the gazillion bags of beans, peppers, snow peas, and rhubarb that I’ve frozen this year.  Most of our regular diet comes from the things that I’ve canned.  When we do make trips to the grocery store, it’s almost always to purchase staples like milk, eggs, cheese, paper towels, toilet paper and other staples of that nature.  We also have to purchase our meats, but I do can meats like tenderloin, chicken for casseroles, sausage, and roast beef.  I usually buy these meats when they’re on sale and then can them for use later.  The tenderloin, chicken, and roast beef is great.  The sausage is good as well, if you use it within a year. 

Since we’re now into the fall and the winter garden has been put in, I’m switching gears to inside activities.  This includes baking, knitting and crocheting, and re-arranging the furniture in our house to make it more “family friendly”.  (Seems I’m always fighting clutter, while trying to actually live in the house.) 

Anyhow, I’ve tried a couple of recipes recently at the suggestion of my sister-in-law, Kim.  The first one was Baked Apple Cider Donuts.  These were so good and went so fast that I didn’t even get a chance to take a picture of them.  I’ve also been wanting a pumpkin roll, but gluten-free baking is not really conducive to “rolling”.  So Kim suggested I try turning the pumpkin roll into a Pumpkin Torte.  No why hadn’t I thought of that?!?!?  I tried it yesterday and it turned out great!  I couldn’t find the original recipe that Kim had given me years ago, so I found one online that sounded close.  I did have to re-vamp the recipe to make it gluten-free, but I’m used to that and did that without much difficulty.  On a whim (and since the Baked Apple Cider Donuts turned out so well), I decided to add a bit of cider to the recipe for the pumpkin torte so now I’m calling that my “secret” ingredient as it seems to make the batter rise more as it bakes.  I also decided to try to use my cake decorating skills and dress it up a bit.  With a bit more effort, and changing out the candy decorations, I think I could turn this into a stunning dessert for both fall and Christmas gatherings.  Look out family and friends…Pumpkin Torte is what’s on the menu at my house for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and any birthdays that fall in between these holidays!  

A small slathering of the cream cheese filling, a quick piping of green
cream cheese filling, and several pieces of candy corn and you've got a
"Harvest" them.  (I could've done a little better on centering the
decorations, but not too bad for a first attempt.)

To make it look a bit more finished, I cooled it in the refrigerator for
about 30 minutes, then used an electric knife to trim up the sides.
(Charming and Jax were happy to get the scraps.)  This makes
the torte look a bit more presentable.

Puppy Jax couldn't wait to get a taste!

Jax did get a small sampling.  My Harvest Torte was definitely
a winner for both Jax and Charming.

Whole Lotta Catchin’ Up To Do…

August 23, 2015

It has come to my attention that I have not yet posted anything for August.  My only excuse is that after we returned from our trip to Florida in the spring, I felt like I hit the ground running and haven’t really stopped since.  We got the garden planted and before I could turn around, the tomato plants were full of tomatoes…despite the dry weather in our neck of the woods.

I have been picking and canning and picking and canning for what seems like months now.  (Although, in truth, it’s only been about four weeks.)  I’ve canned tomatoes, tomato juice, tomato sauce, BBQ sauce, spaghetti sauce with meat, vegetable soup with meat, chili with meat, salsa, pizza sauce, pork & beans, and green beans.  So far, I’m up to 97 quarts of canned food. 

I’ve also frozen about 15 packages of green beans, 10 packages of shredded zucchini, and umpteen packages of chopped green peppers.  We’ve also got about 20 bunches of onions hanging from the ceiling of our shed’s porch.  Despite the work involved in “putting up” the bounty from our garden, I love every minute of it.  It brings me great joy to know that when the snow starts blowing outside I will be able to pull out a jar of my home-made chili, heat it up for a few minutes, and serve up a hearty and healthy meal.

In addition to my small scale canning operation, I’ve also come up with a recipe for Frozen Yogurt Pops.  These are so good that I’ve been making them at least twice each week.  I started off making strawberry/banana flavored pops and then tried my hand at making my own version of a “dream-cicle”.  Both flavors are great, but Charming and I really like the orange pops.  We’ve decided that there’s no better way to wind down a hot summer day than with a cool frozen treat!

Seven quarts of chili w/meat that I canned.  Because
I'm canning 6 - 8 meals during one canning session and I know
exactly what goes into my food, I believe that my food is more
economical and healthier than what I can buy at the grocery store.

A sampling of what my garden had to offer this year.

The first step in making my Frozen Yogurt Pops.  Mash
up two cups of your favorite fruit (or a mixture of your favorites...
or for my version of the "Dream-cicle" add one can of frozen
orange juice concentrate, slightly thawed).

Add one cup of sweetener (such as Splenda for baking...store brand
works just as well), one teaspoon of vanilla, and one 32 oz. carton of
plain yogurt.  Stir all of this together in a big bowl.

Divide it up into frozen pop molds...at the time, I didn't have any...
small cups or other plastic/glass containers worked just as well
when I stuck a popsicle stick in and covered the glasses with a
plastic baggie with a small hole for the stick.

TaDa!  I found these molds at our local grocery store for 88-cents,
so I bought two of 'em.  Yay!

My gluten-free Raspberry Scones turned out so well that they were
gone in a flash.

But these gluten-free Chocolate Chip Scones went even
faster.  They were only relatively bad for you until I decided
to add a drizzle of chocolate icing and large-crystal sugar to each scone.
Oh...My...YUMMMMMMM!!!

Soap-A-Dope…

July 28, 2015

In one of my posts from last year, I showed pictures of my jewel weed soap.  The jewel weed plant is a natural remedy for poison ivy.  I have given some of my soap to several people and have gotten positive comments on how well it works.  I’m not the first or only person to make jewel weed soap.  In fact, there are many businesses on the internet that sell this type of soap. 

I believe that when God created the world, he also created herbs and other plants to sustain us and allow us to live relatively healthy lives.  Indeed, many modern medications are derived from flowers, herbs, and the bark from certain trees.  I try to use as many of these “natural” remedies as possible before resorting to calling a doctor.

Since my jewel weed soap adventure was what I consider to be a success, I decided to expand my “medicinal” soap making efforts.  I wanted to create a natural soap for my skin that would be gentle, but would still clean my skin.  I threw in an additional requirement for my soap this time.  I wanted it to be pretty…something that I would want to see in my soap dish or that I could give as a last minute gift, if necessary.

A couple of weeks ago I went out to my herb garden and gathered some leaves from my calendula plants, a bit of thyme, some lavender sprigs, and some plaintain leaves from our decidedly shaggy lawn.  Each of these plants has soothing, healing, or slightly astringent properties.  (Exactly the qualities I wanted for this batch of soap.)  I washed the plants, dumped them all into my largest stainless steel cooking pot, and added just enough water to cover them.  Noticing my aloe plant in the window, I pulled off a stem of that and squeezed its juice into the pot as well. 

After letting the pot simmer for about twenty minutes, I strained the liquid and threw the plant material into my compost bin.  Since it was too late in the day to make the soap, I simply poured the liquid into a glass container, put the lid on, and placed it into the freezer.  I find that if I “cook” the herb liquid and freeze it on one day, it makes the actual soap making process easier.  It’s sort of like those breakfast casseroles where you mix the casserole in the evening and then bake it the next morning…you feel like a little elf did some of the work for you.

So this past Saturday, I thawed the liquid and used it to make my soap.  Making this type of soap requires the use of lye, which can be a bit dangerous if you aren’t careful.  However, if you use reasonable caution, wear protective gear (rubber gloves, long sleeves, apron, and eye protection), and work in a well-ventilated area you’ll be fine.  It took me about forty-fives minutes to make the soap and the soap is “curing” as I write.  It will take four weeks for the soap to cure, so we’ll have to wait and see how well it works…or doesn’t.

Eighteen bars of herbal soap!  I purchased Wilton silicone baking pans from
Michael's craft store to use as molds.
(Charming and I both used Michael's 40% off coupons...Yay, Michaels!
Charming doesn't mind shopping at Michael's with  me.)

I also got two sets of "soap stamps" on sale for $1.79 each
from Michael's.  The plastic heart set had three different images and
the second wooden set had various images such as a paw print,
clover leaf, a tree, and a few other images. 

I think the plastic stamps worked better than the wooden ones.
They were easier to center and lift off of the finished soap bars and
will need less final trimming on the rough edges.

The soap bars are about 3/4" thick and it feels and looks
smooth to the touch.  I hope this is a good sign.

A close up of some plain bars that I left unstamped.  (I think
my manly man, Charming, would have a problem with using a
bar of soap that says "Love" on it.)

Above and below are samples of the wooden stamps that I
got from Michael's.  As you can see, they were a bit harder
to center and, since the wood wasn't flexible, it was more
difficult to lift the stamps off of the soap bars.

Beautiful Abundance…

July 20, 2015

Here in Virginia, we are deep in the growing season.  Although Charming and I got a late start in our garden this year, it is proving to be very productive.  We have about six varieties of tomatoes, English cucumbers, bell peppers, Big Bertha long green peppers, banana peppers, asparagus beans, Kentucky Wonder pole beans, zucchini, and potatoes.  We planted multiplier onions last fall and were able to harvest them early, so I used the available space in the onion bed to plant Napa cabbage. 

Our banana pepper plants are producing at a phenomenal rate!  Year-before-last, I canned our banana peppers so that I could add them to sub sandwiches for Charming.  So this year I wanted to eat them fresh from the garden.  A simple recipe that I’ve been making use of lately is to stuff the banana peppers with cheese, wrap them in bacon and broil them in the oven for ten minutes (turning them over halfway through the cooking time).  These are really good and quick.  They’d be great for a party, but Charming and I often eat them for supper.  I’m choosing to believe that they are good for you as the recipe includes a vegetable and lots of protein.  (We won’t talk about the fat and cholesterol in the bacon.)

Here’s how easy it is to make the bacon-wrapped banana peppers… 

I pick a batch of about twelve of these beauties every week from
our garden.

Being the control freak, I line up my bacon, the plastic top to one
of my baking dishes, the cheese, and peppers.  This makes it
easier to get the assembly line in motion.  After cutting off the ends
of the peppers and cleaning out the seeds, I simply fill them with
shredded cheese and wrap each pepper with a slice of bacon.

I place the end of the bacon at the top (open) end of the pepper,
then the bacon is wrapped around the rest of the pepper in a
spiral.  Lastly, I stick a sturdy toothpick in the end and stack
them in a baking dish.  I put them in the refrigerator until I'm ready
to cook them.

When ready to bake, I place the peppers on my roasting pan, making
sure they don't touch each other.  Then I broil them for five minutes
on each side and they're ready to eat.

These would be great for small parties, but we eat them
for supper along with a salad or light vegetables.  They taste
great and also gluten-free!

Going Bananas…

July 12, 2015

I recently came upon a great snack/dessert for kids (and husbands!) that I thought might interest you.  It’s cheap, quick, good….and…gluten-free!  There are kits that you can purchase in the produce section of many grocery stores to make these snacks, but I tend to try to replicate store-bought or restaurant foods in my kitchen and often come up with cheaper and/or better tasting renditions.

I’m talking about frozen chocolate-covered banana pops.  Charming prefers to eat bananas when they are still in a fairly un-ripe stage.  However, during the summer months the bananas seem to ripen before he can eat them so when I see the bananas getting past the stage when he will eat them, I quickly cut the bananas into four chunks per banana and insert sturdy toothpicks.  I then stir up some chocolate, cover the banana chunks with the chocolate, place them in a microwave/freezer-safe dish and pop them into the freezer for a few hours.  They come out like little frozen popsicles that are “sort of” good for you. 

Give these a try some time.  Unless you have family members who are die hard banana haters, I think you’ll find that this recipe is a keeper!

Frozen Chocolate-Covered Banana Pops

2 Ripe Bananas (cut each banana into four fairly equal sections)

8 Sturdy Toothpicks (be sure they don’t have splinters)

¾ Cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips (Hershey’s is gluten-free)

¼ Cup Premier White Chocolate Chips (again, Hershey’s is gluten-free)

Insert one toothpick into each section of banana and place on a plate.

In a small, flat, micro-wave safe baking dish, melt both kinds of chocolate chips in the microwave for 30 seconds.  Remove dish from microwave and stir well.  (If all chocolate chips are not melted, return to microwave and heat for 15 seconds more.  If chocolate becomes grainy, add a tablespoon of milk and stir.)

Gently pick up each section of banana by the toothpick and spoon melted chocolate over entire banana section.  Place on a freezer-safe dish.  Repeat with remaining banana sections. 

Freeze at least several hours or overnight.  Serve frozen and accept compliments gracefully!

Two bananas were cut into four sections each, making eight
banana pops.  Chocolate chips were microwaved for thirty
seconds.

Stir chocolate chips to combine.  Then use the spoon to cover
each section of banana completely.

Work quickly to cover each section with chocolate.  If the
chocolate becomes grainy or starts to harden up, simply add
a tablespoon of milk (and microwave for another 15 seconds,
if necessary).  Pop the finished pops in the freezer for a few
hours or overnight and they're ready to serve.

Being Cheap Is The Mother Of Invention…

July 6, 2015

Recently I’ve been very busy designing some knitwear projects.  Some are for things I need, such as a new purse and bath mitts.  I can’t believe how hard it is to find a purse that makes me happy.  The purse design I’m working on now has several requirements:  It must have a strap long enough that it crosses over my body (because I basically carry my life in my purse, I can’t bear the thought of owning a bag that must be either carried on my arm at all times or left exposed in a shopping cart).  It must have several compartments (organization is a must for me because I’m a bit of a control freak).  Finally, it must have some form of closure on it (either zippers or flaps) to keep my “stuff” easily accessible to me, but not to others.  So I’m working on that design and will post that at a future date.

I’m also refining my bath mitt pattern.  I made myself one several months back and have discovered that I absolutely love it.  Wearing the mitt while taking a shower virtually eliminates its being dropped in the shower.  It’s made of cotton yarn, so it’s soft and comfortable to use as well as easy to wash.  Since it has a pocket, it quickly soaps up when I place a small bar of my home-made soap in it.  I would have never guessed that something so ordinary would make taking a shower so quick and easy.

I’ve found that a lot of my design solutions come from having real-life problems that need to be solved.  Take my Swiffer mop/broom/whatever-it-is, for instance.  The kit that I purchased from Costco came with a small pack of dry refills as well as a few wet refills.  Although I have to admit that it pained me to throw the used Swiffer wipes in the trash because I don’t like skunking up Mother Earth with trash, I went through that pack of refills fairly quickly.  After mulling over in my mind how many wipes I could go through in a year, I resolved to find a better way.

On a trip with Charming to the Harbor Freight store, I came upon a pack of four micro fiber cloths on sale for $2.49.  Hmmmm…I thought.  Those might work well for wet or dry applications in my Swiffer mop.  So I purchased them and came up with a pattern that works as well (really better) than the refills that originally came with the mop.  See the pictures below for my pattern and loose instructions on how I make them.

While I’m mentioning the Harbor Freight store, I must tell you that I absolutely love going there.  Although it’s more of a “man’s store,” I have found many items that I have been able to use around the house…such as the sling shot I bought a few weeks ago…but that’s a topic for future blog post!  Hope you all had a wonderful 4^th of July!

A sample of the micro fiber cloths that I purchased from the Harbor Freight
store.  The sew-on Velcro is from Walmart.

My Swiffer mop head measures about 17" long x 5 1/2" wide, so I
cut the 12"x12" cloth into two pieces.  I had to use a half of another
cloth to make the pattern work for my mop.  Three cloths will give
me two re-usable cloths for my mop.  

Using my serger, I serged the short edges together to form a long strip.  

Next, I folded the fabric on one end to make a 4" pocket.  (You could
pin the pocket in place, if necessary.)  I then serged around all of the
edges to prevent raveling.

I slipped the cover onto the mop and marked the spots for two pieces of
Velcro, then I sewed them on securely using my sewing machine.

Finally, I sewed the corresponding pieces of Velcro onto the top side of
the cover and stitched them into place.  (This could be one strip, not
two as shown in my picture...but didn't think of that until I was making
my 2nd cover.)

Here's a picture of the actual dirt that I picked up with my Swiffer
re-usable mop covers.  They work great, are easy to make (after
a bit of practice) and are washable.  I just wait until I get all of mine
dirty and throw them into the washer.  (Do remember to make sure
the Velcro strips are pressed together before washing/drying as
they would otherwise get tangled together.)

This picture shows four mop covers that I made in the space of about
an hour.  The bottom one is a dirty one that I used to mop the floor.
(Easiest way to mop the floor with these is to use a medium-sized
spray bottle.  Add 1/4 cup of white vinegar and fill remainder with
water.  Spray a section of floor at a time and mop with the Swiffer.
Quick and easy!)

A bonus!  I serged two layers of left-over micro fiber
cloth together and use them to mop up spills at the coffee pot.

Squirreling Away…

June 1, 2015

Right now, most people are gearing up for summer.  Sandals, sleeveless tops, and shorts (well…more like peddle pushers in my case) are being worn everywhere.  Like that old saying, “It’s summertime and the living is good.” 

Even though it’s been in the mid-80’s in our neck of the woods, Charming and I are already thinking ahead to the coming winter.  We’ve made several trips to get pick-up loads of wood, with one more trip planned on the next cool-ish day.  A friend of his has a lot of downed trees on his property and a couple of members of my family have also given us wood that they had down as well.  My beloved husband, who knows the importance of keeping his Lovely Wife warm in winter, has already split all of the wood that we’ve gotten so far and stacked it against the shed so it can dry out over the summer and be ready for use this winter.  He has spent hours getting this accomplished.  Luckily, we were able to purchase a log splitter last year which makes the job much easier and faster.  What does he get for his efforts…a grateful wife, no fuel oil bills, and three tick bites.  He’s not too happy about the tick bites, but otherwise I think he’s happy with the pay back.

We also made our yearly trek last week to the grocery store that sells bulk foods so I could stock up on gluten-free flour and rolled oats.  (The sweet little lady that orders the flour for me gave me a hug when I handed her two plates of gluten-free cookies…Awwwwww.)  I buy 25-pound bags of the flour because it’s much cheaper than buying smaller, pre-packaged bags and the bigger bags will last me a year.  For someone who bakes as much as I do, it’s important not to get low on flour.  This afternoon I bagged the oats and flour so it’s ready to go into the freezer.  

I’m also planning to make some jewelweed soap in the next month or so.  Last year I transplanted some of the jewelweed that I had pulled up by the roots from a local river bank.  After I had made all the soap I could use for the year, I folded the leftover jewelweed into its flower pot.  That allowed some of the seeds to fall into the dirt and come up this year.  I make sure that the jewelweed pot stays in the shade most of the time (its current location provides only early morning sun) and is always damp.  That makes for the perfect growing condition for jewelweed.  I have given most of last year’s batch of soap away to family and friends.  However, I do have a small stash that I’ve kept for my own use.  After trips with Charming to cut wood, I immediately come home and take a shower using the jewelweed soap.  I’m happy to report that I have not gotten a case of poison ivy, even though I’ve come into contact with it several times this year.  YAY! 

Here's side #1 of our shed.  Doesn't my Charming stack neatly?

Side #2...the final load of wood will go right in the middle where
the chimney is located.

Side #3.  The wood is stacked as high as Charming could reach
(and he's a 6-foot guy).  The only opening will be at the window
to allow for sunlight to get into the shed while he's working
(and to not accidentally break a window).

My work surface for dividing the flour into manageable bags.
(Our handy, dandy hand-held Shark vacuum is absolutely
wonderful for cleaning up any spilled flour...love it, love it, love it!)

Gluten-free rolled oats, millet flour, and sweet white sorghum flour.
It does my heart (and stomach!) good to know that I have enough
on hand to last me a whole year.

An early morning picture of my pot of jewelweed.  Although I saved
some seeds from last year's plants, all of this came up voluntarily
after I had folded the plants into the pot when I had finished
making soap last year.

Some Beach…

May 11, 2015

Charming and I have just gotten back from a “look see” trip to the panhandle area of Florida.  Our purpose in going there was to check out the area to see if there was a possibility of us ever moving to the Sunshine State.  Charming had heard that the cost of real estate was reasonable in that area of Florida and he would love to own a piece of property near the water.  His desire to live near the water is centered on his dream of some day owning a sail boat and spending a few of his retirement years sailing to different parts of the world.  (I tell him that he needs to wait until I kick the bucket to do this because this ol’ girl can’t swim and has an intense fear of the water…thanks to “the baptizing incident,” when I was very young, and Brother Andy tried to fast track me to Heaven by holding me under the holy waters in our local swimming hole…but I’m getting off track here.)

Charming and I visited the areas of Panama City, Mexico Beach, St. Joe, Destin and a few other places along the way.  We weren’t thrilled with Panama City due to the pulp/paper mills in the area.  However, Mexico Beach is a lovely place with a really nice stretch of beach.  This would be my first choice of places to spend a winter.  Destin is also a nice area, bustling with all of the normal shopping centers, but also really nice beach areas.  Quite a bit of the beach area in Destin is public, but there didn’t seem to be many tourists on the beaches.  I guess vacation season hasn’t really started yet, so we got to see the beaches at the best possible time.  Florida is a really nice place to visit, and I could see myself lolling around in the sun during the winter months, but we really didn’t find a place that we felt we absolutely “had” to have.  Perhaps we’ll go back later in the year to investigate further. 

In the mean time, I’m trying to catch up on planting the garden and working on other projects.  The dandelion wine has been “working” and doing its thing quietly while sitting in a dark corner on the kitchen counter for the past two weeks.  I have already frozen a few batches of rhubarb.  Our pear tree seems to be loaded with jelly bean sized pears this year, but I’m expecting a “fruit drop” which will lighten the tree’s load by quite a bit.  Our peach tree also appears to have a decent crop on it.  Since this tree is only in its second year, I’m not expecting much, but I am hopeful that it will provide us with at least a few mature peaches to brag about.  Blueberry bushes have grown to about two feet tall and are blooming and our blackberry bushes are growing by leaps and bounds.  My wonderful niece, Kelly, gave me two raspberry bushes this spring; one is growing like gangbusters, but the other one seems to be struggling a bit.  I’m hoping I can nurse it along and keep it growing.  Will post some pictures, once I get everything in order.  

Palm trees line the coastal highway at Mexico Beach.

More palm trees on the coastal highway to Destin.

Lovely stretches of beach with emerald green water near the
beach that fades to blue, further out in the Gulf of Mexico.

Charming doesn't care for the pastel colors of beach houses,
but I kinda like them...probably because they remind me of
sherbet.  YUM!

"Hey, Dad, there's a really cute poodle over there on the beach!
Can we go?"

"Ahhh...there she is...my dream girl!"

"I know I can reach her, if I make a break for it."

"Doggone leash!"

(It may look like our Jax is taking a potty break, but he's not...for
some reason that we don't understand, he will never let his
butt touch the ground when he sits.  Guess we all have our
little quirks.)