Homemade Brownies...Try em', you'll LOVE THEM

I was talking on Facebook a few weeks ago about how I made Homemade brownies that day for my Husband and I got a lot of responses such as "What, brownies don't just come in a box?"..."Really, homemade brownies, they must be VERY difficult to make".  My response to these concerns is NO!  They are easy to make and OH. SO. TASTY.  I really doubt you will EVER go back to buying the box mix.  No, really, I don't think  you will.  I am not saying that I NEVER make brownies from a box because on occassion I do.  I AM a brownie snob though and prefer the Ghiradelli brownie mix if I do partake in a box mix.  The best thing about homemade brownies is that I typically can find all the ingredients in my pantry and freezer at any given time.  Now, I don't know where the recipe I got today came from (as I do usually write it in my cookbook) but it looked easy and I had all the supplies and I decided to give it a go as my Birthday boy, Ike, who is 2 today said that he wanted brownies.  It must be great to be my child ;)  When I bake, unfortunately, I don't always think "gee, I should take a picture of this and put it up on the good ole blog" but today, I was able to snap a few quick shots of the supplies and brownies both before and after baking them.  I hope you enjoy this recipe and feel free to make it your own.  I added Ghiradelli chocolate chips to my batter (which was NOT called for in my recipe, but I know my hubs likes them like that) today.  I know, I know, such a rebel, right?  Now for the good stuff.  First, you will need to gather your supplies:

I TOLD you it was easy!  this is literally ALL you need and I added the chocolate chips which you technically DON'T even need to use!

Ingredients you will need to gather:

*Preheat your oven to 350*

4 oz. chocolate (like found in the baking aisle, each square is usually 1oz)

1c. butter (this is 2 sticks people)

4 eggs (room temp works best)

2 c. sugar

1 c. flour

1 tsp. vanilla

Optional:  Chocolate Chips (I like semi sweet and I add about 1/2 to 2/3 of a cup to my batter)

Next, you will need to find either a 9x9" baking pan for thick gooey brownies OR a 9x13" pan if you like them thinner and crispier, more well done.  Choose your pan and spray it with some cooking spray (I had baker's joy so that is what I used, but I am typically NOT particular about this).  I used the 9x9" pan and this is what it looked like after I put my batter in the pan

Don't worry about that white stuff in the corners, that's just some of the cooking spray, it will cook down into the brownies so NO worries.  I also added a few extra chocolate chips to the top.  Now, it's time to put them into that 350 degree pre-heated oven.  Bake them for approximately 30 minutes.  My oven runs hot, so I usually check after about 25 minutes.  Remember, brownies are BEST when underbaked a bit to maintain that gooey texture.

Now, this is what the finished product looks like.  Lookin good, right?  Bet you wish you were here to smell them and maybe even taste them.  Mmmmmm, chocolate.  Delish, rich, ooey and gooey!

A pan of yumminess!  It just makes ME happy looking at them knowing that my boys are going to LOVE them!

What a cuteie!  Doesn't it look cute on my Narumi China plate?

The birthday boy definitely approves!

Mommy approves too.

Someone's in the clean plate club today!  Happy Birthday sweet little Ike.  We love love love you!



Homemade Bread...Try it, you'll like it

I am always meaning to put more recipes on here and more posts, but I get busy and distracted with 3 busy little boys and this is the activity I have to ixnay.  Now that it's finally feeling fall like here in Oklahoma, I decided it was time again to bake some homemade bread!  Now, homemade bread makes me really, really excited.  No, really, it does.  I was going to tell you that it's JUST as easy to make a loaf than to pick up a loaf at your local grocery store, but that would be a blatant lie.  I will, however, tell you that it really is NOT that difficult to make your own bread and you will definitely reap the rewards.  I love homemade bread.  I love the process of making bread and I love the smells of baking bread in the house.  Now, I am really not loyal to any specific recipe for bread.  I like to experiment and try different things.  I have made bread with ALL whole wheat flour and have NOT had good luck with it.  It seems to get too heavy and does not taste quite as yummy as it should.  Last night, I was looking for some motivation, so I went to my cook book cabinet and on a whim pulled out my "The Joy of Cooking" cookbook that I scored at a local thrift store for $1.  The most recent copyright date in this book is 1953, so this book is definitely an oldie but a goodie.  It's got recipes in the margins and also is inscribed to someone named Bertha.  The inscription says the following:  Bertha, Cookbooks are to be used!  and it's signed Dr someone or another.  I could NOT agree MORE with Dr. Who's a ma what.  After looking at the index, I turned to the bread section and settled on a Steel Cut Oatmeal bread.  Ironically, I just picked up some ORGANIC steel cut oats for 99 cents a pound the other day.  The recipe seemed easy enough except for the part about using a yeast cake.  A yeast cake!?!  What in the crap is a yeast cake?  After further reading the bread section, I was informed that dry yeast (1 packet) can be evenly swapped out for a yeast cake.  Problem averted.

Now here comes the recipe you've all been dreaming about:  Steel Cut Oats Nut Bread (See, I improvised once again and DID not add the nuts as I did not have any)

This recipe will make ONE loaf of bread

Measure into mixing bowl:
1 C. steel cut oats
1/4 C. dark molasses
1 Tbsp soft shortening (crisco)
3/4 tsp. salt

Pour over above ingredients:
2 C. boiling water

Stir In:
2 C. flour

Cool, then add:
1 package yeast (follow directions on back to dissolve.  Usually you dissolve in 1/4 cup lukewarm water)

Work In:

2 C. flour

Knead the dough on a floured board until it is soft and pliable and no longer sticks to the hands.  Use a little additional flour if needed.  You may work in the following:  1 C. pecan pieces.

Place the dough in a greased loaf pan.  Punch it down so the pan is only 1/2 full.  Cover it with a cloth and allow to rise (doubling in size).  Bake in a 375 degree oven for approximately 40 minutes ( I check mine after about 35 as my oven runs hot).  Remove from pan and cool on a rack.  Then, devour said bread.  It's really great fresh from the oven with a little bit of butter and honey on it.  It does NOT get any better than that kids.

Look at that beauty!  I wish you could really get the full scope of how HUGE this loaf is.  It wouldn't even fit in the toaster.  I had to cut it in half to toast it this morning.  It was a delish breakfast treat with homemade black cherry jam I got from my jam exchange partner, Anna. 

My gorgeous loaf after being all sliced up!  I have an electric knife I got from someone for perhaps a wedding gift that I found last year in the move (brand new might I add) and it works AMAZING for getting nice, uniform slices of bread.  Can you see the little white flecks in the bread?  Those are some of the steel cut oat goodness.  Delish.

I again URGE you friends to step outside of your culinary box and at least TRY and make some homemade bread.  I really think that you won't be disappointed.

Until we meet again...
Paula

Kleenix Koozie--A Tutorial

Some of you may be aware that last week I was one of the caterers for a quilter's retreat in Missouri. Can I say awesome!!!  No, seriously these ladies rocked.  Their handiwork was completely amazing.  I also brought my sewing machine along just in case I had an extra 5 seconds to sew.  Some of the ladies taught me some amazing tips and tricks to use when sewing and also passed around some hand made crafts to share.  I received one of these kleenix koozies.....My name for it, not theirs.  I thought what a great present this would be to give to ALL the kids in Abe's first grade class for Christmas.  I know that I've never met a six year old without a snotty nose and thought that it would be pretty cute.  I was telling one of the ladies what a great idea it was and she informed me that she is the one who made these.  I then got a quick lesson from her on how to construct said koozie.  I  didn't even get her name, but I am very thankful to her for showing me her stuff! 

Materials you will need:  To make this little project you will need a small piece of fabric, approximately 6"wide x 13"long.  I found that you can make 2 of these projects out of a fat quarter piece of fabric.  You will also need a scissor OR rotary cutter, cutting mat and pins.  Of course you will also NEED a sewing machine.

Once you have cut your fabric to the specified size of 6"wide by 13"long, take your fabric and fold longways with the right sides facing each other.  Then, sew a 1/4" seam.  Once your seam is finished, turn your fabric rightside out.

Now, you want to take the seam and center it on the bottom side.  Then take your fabric and fold in (right sides together so your seam is on the bottom, outside).  I used 4 pins across the top and 4 pins across the bottom.  Next, you are going to sew the seams where you have pinned it.  Again, use a 1/4" seam allowance.

After you sew your seams, take out your pins, pop out your corners and flippy-flip.  You are going to rotate it so that your seams will all be INSIDE!  Now, you have your almost finished product.  The ONLY thing left to do is to add a nice little pack of kleenix to this pouch.  See, doesn't this make a CUTE little gift for a friend?  Or in my case, your child's classmates?  The fabric possibilities are ENDLESS for definitely have fun!  Please, let me know what you think about this cute little project.

   Here is a picture of my cute little sewing machine!  It doesn't need to be fancy to get this little job done!  Happy sewing everyone.

Happy Almost Fall

The Fruits of my labor



How Pretty are these Dilly Beans?





Owl Fabric Kindle Koozie! Soooo Snug and warm

Gorgeous! I LOVE the color of the Watermelon Jam! Delish

Here was the beautiful little watermelon I used this morning. It too was a bargain at 3 lbs/$1

Wow! I didn't realize how long it's been since I've last posted. I have an excuse. A very cliche' excuse. Um. I was busy. How's that? Well, in addition to being busy, I haven't really done anything too note worthy as of lately. Today, however, is a different story. I have ALL sorts of things to tell ya'all about. Like my fun day of canning I had today. I should also mention that the ONLY reason I am able to neglect my children and spend the day in the kitchen on occassion is because of my Mother In Law.....She pretty much rocks. While my mother in law wrangled the children this morning, I was able to make a batch of watermelon jam, strawberry-rhubarb jam and some dilly beans! I am OUT of strawberry rhubarb jam so I HAD to make that. I also have been reading on some foodie blogs about watermelon jam/jelly....I LOVE watermelon and have been DYING to make it! I finally bought a watermelon on my shopping excursion yesterday and hunkered down and got my recipe and prepped for the making of the jam this morning. It is a beautiful pinkish/red hue and looks and tastes amazing. I don't know how PRACTICAL it is, but I figure it's a pretty cool, quirky foodie gift that I can give away! According to the recipe on http://www.blondiescakes.blogspot.com/, the jam has a tendancy to be a bit cantankerous and NOT always set up right. I followed the directions to a T and even added a couple of minutes to the hard boil stage and I am still NOT sure how well it set up. It has thickened up since this morning but is still pretty runny. If all else fails, I may have to pop all those beautiful seals and re-process it tomorrow and HOPE for a better consistancy. My third recipe I made is something I have NEVER made before and really wanted to try. It sealed the deal when I found some gorgeous green beans at the Sunflower Farmer's Market in OKC. It's NOT really a farmers market but a fancy, schmancy grocery store with amazing produce and lots of organics and hard to find items. I should also mention that they have Ridiculous deals and you can score some great food for really cheap. Case in point, I got my green beans for 77 Cents/Pound yesterday. Seriously cheap. Of course I didn't have a recipe for said Dilly beans and had to go to one of my tried and true foodie blogs to find a good recipe. I trolled around http://www.foodinjars.blogspot.com/ and found a recipe that would be PERFECT. I wanted the beans to be a bit spicy and the red pepper flakes will hopefully ensure that they are! Now my only problem is waiting the suggested TWO WEEKS for the flavors to really develop in the beans and brine. I don't know if I can do it, but I am certainly gonna try. The beans just look so beautiful in their little jars, all standing up perfectly with the herbs and garlic swirling around the bottom. I WISH I would have bought MORE green beans but there is always next time, right?

The first project I made today was actually a little Kindle Koozie. I wanted a place to protect my kindle and I found some cute fabric and a pretty easy pattern online. I decided to give it a whirl. I must confess that I really like to sew, but I really am NOT very good at it. I try. Perhaps if I used my sewing machine more often than every couple of months, I would be better at it. I have a lot of projects I would like to make so hopefully I can sharpen up my sewing skills in the coming months and possibly make some cute, thoughtful Christmas gifts! The blog where I got the kindle koozie pattern is: http://www.jessicapeek.blogspot.com/.

I hope you all enjoy looking at my tasties! I was able to put up 13 jars of jam and 4 jars of Dilly beans!

County Fair Fun...Winning

I know it's been a week or so since my last post and I truly had the BEST of intentions to chronicle my County Fair Fun and all of my Ribbons...Including my beautiful "Grand Champion" ribbon in cake decorating. I must confess that the high of winning has worn off. My ribbons are put away snugly in my closet until I figure out what to do with them...I thought about making a cute valance for my kitchen (Just kidding...or am I?) but for now, they are just laying around until something better comes along. I am also thinking about defending my new title next year. I sort of like the sound that grand champion has to it. I am mulling over cake ideas in my head... I am sure by next year, I will have a spectacular idea (I hope). I am also thinking of ALL the things I can can or otherwise make or craft. I guess I've got approximately 12 months to figure it all out. I also want to urge you all to make something with your hands. You will SEE how good it makes you feel to actually MAKE something! And if you make something, enter it in the fair!

Okay, okay here are some special pictures of my ribbons and my winning items! I hope you enjoy!

A Recipe...Sort of

This beautiful pot of delish-ness is the final product. Notice all of the beautiful colors and chunks

This was the pot when I first mixed everything up and got her heating up

These are the little garden cuties I used in my sauce

Anyone who knows me, knows that I love to cook and I love to bake. There is ONE difference between the two for me. When I cook, I tend to throw things together and hope it tastes good. When I bake, I follow my recipe to a T. Always. This is why, when some of you ask me for a recipe, I have to make something up, literally! I essentially KNOW what I put in there, but the amounts of items are definitely up for debate. I guess you could say, my philosophy is if it tastes good, eat it. If it doesn't taste so good...Add something to it and hope it can pass as edible. Now, throwing things together is NOT always the case for me when cooking. I do follow recipes a lot of the time, but things I make often, I like to improvise or wing it sometimes. Today was sorta one of those days. I decided to do something nice and make homemade spaghetti sauce for dinner for the hubs. We had chicken out and we always have spaghetti and sauce in the pantry so it was gonna be a pretty easy dinner. Then, I decided what the heck, it's really NOT that much harder to make homemade pasta sauce, from scratch. Really, anyone can do it. Before I started, I did have to check and make sure I had some canned tomatos. Without this main staple of spaghetti sauce, I would either have to run to the store or doctor up some jarred sauce. Neither of these seemed to appease me, so I was THRILLED to discover that I had 4, yes, 4 cans of different variety tomatos! If I am going to make sauce, I wanna make a big batch and sort of make it worth my while and at least have some to freeze and if we are lucky, leftovers too. Like I said, my sauce really does not have a recipe, however, I have watched my father in law make it plenty of times and I just sort of follow his example and wing the rest! I have to say that this was my best batch of homemade sauce EVER! I really wanted to bottle some up as in pressure can it, but we will save that for another day, perhaps if my garden ever decides to give us tomatos. Well, here goes my attempt at a spaghetti sauce recipe. If you all have NEVER tried to make your own sauce, DO it! You more than likely won't be disapointed ;)

Spaghetti Sauce:

4- 15 oz cans of Tomatos or tomato sauce (I used one can tomato sauce, 1 crushed, 1 petite diced and 1 stewed as it's what I had)

2 yellow onions diced

1 head of garlic (yep, all of it)

1/4 to 1/2 cup chopped basil (from my garden)

3 carrots (shredded)

3 green peppers (small, from the garden, chopped up)

4 slices of cut up bacon

salt to taste

1 stem rosemary, chopped (again from the garden)

1/4 to 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (It depends on how much if any kick you want it to have)

1 tsp olive oil

Now comes the FUN part, cooking it and making it come together. First I take a large stockpot and put the olive oil in the bottom. Next in the pan is your bacon pieces. I sautee them (medium high to high heat) up until they are nice and crispy like. Don't bother to drain the bacon fat out of the pan as it gives the sauce excellent flavor. Once the bacon is cooked, add your onions and start sauteeing them. I also add a smidge of salt to sweat them out. When your onions are cooking, add your garlic (I was out of fresh garlic and only had 5 cloves so I left whole and put in the sauce and used about 1/4 cup of the pre chopped in a jar garlic from my neighbor). Once you start to smell the garlic, it's time to add the tomatos! Just dump em right on in the pool! I then added my fresh veggies and herbs and blended it all together. Once it was blended, I added a bit of salt and my red pepper flakes. I think I remembered to incorporate all my ingriedients, yes! Now, you can essentially set it and forget it. I turn mine down to about a 5 on my stove for a few minutes, get it nice and bubbly (use a lid people) and then I turn it down to a 2 or 3 and let it simmer away for a good hour and a half to about 3 hours. The longer you leave your sauce to simmer, the more concentrated and delish it will become. I sauteed mine for about an hour and a half tonight and it was delish. What, Oh, you want to see some pictures? Sure, that's no problem at all, I've got em right here. If you decide to make this sauce, please tell me how it turned out for you. And remember, this is the way I do it, feel free t adjust any amounts and add anything else that I may be missing. I would have added some squash and zucchini if I would have had some in the fridge. Happy eating!

We Be Jammin!

Here are the jars that I "put up" yesterday.

Peach Rhubarb Pie Jam

Rhubarb Blackberry Lime Jam

Mmmmmm. This is what Jam is before it's jam!

One of my new favorite passions is canning. Why canning you may ask? I say Why not. If you know me at all, you know that I LOVE to be in the kitchen and I enjoy baking, cooking and now canning. I am also a native Minnesotan so perhaps it's ingrained in my DNA. I am not sure why I decided that THIS is the summer that I learn how to can...Perhaps it's because I have a bigger kitchen than I've had in the past or maybe it was just time to learn. I've watched my mom can for years, but never until now had a desire to can anything. Ever. I started my canning adventure by doing what any self respecting person looking to learn a new skill would do: I trolled the Internet and picked up a copy of the "Canning Bible" also known as the Ball Blue Book. It has TONS of practical advise on canning and a ton of recipes in it too. Did you know that you can pretty much can anything? For real. You can can jam and fruit and pasta sauce and mustard and chocolate sauce and salsa and soup and well I could literally go on for days but I won't. Some other great resources that I found for canning were blogs. One of the blogs that I really like that has great information and recipes on it is: http://www.sbcanning.com/ this lady is very saavy when it comes to ANYTHING canning, she is a certified master canner (perhaps a new title I could attain). Another blog I like to look at is: http://www.foodinjars.blogspot/. The first thing I had to do when I was ready to can was to pick up a few supplies like a canning kit, which includes a funnel, lid magnet, air bubble remover and headspace tool and of course a jar lifter. This kit again can be picked up at local hardware stores or your local retailer like Wal Mart. I do not have a water bath canner, however, I do own plenty of large stock pots and at this time, it's what I use. I was able to get a pressure canner from a friend and she was kind enough to give me one of her grandmas to have (thank you Michelle). I in return, promise to keep her well stocked with my canned items. She also gave me a bunch of grandma's old jars and they are amazing. Am I the only one who thinks that old jars are super cool? I just WONDER what has gone into these jars, oh if only these jars could talk. There are a couple of the jars that are super special looking and I will be saving them for some super special treats and I will probably keep them for myself (selfish right) UNLESS, someone else appreciates the jars as much as I do. Have I mentioned that it's a pretty satisfying feeling to can your own food? It's pretty amazing to make something from scratch and then preserve it and use it in the next year. I KNOW exactly what is in my food, do you? I would like to share a couple of the recipes that I made yesterday that I found on SB Canning. She also has a Facebook page and is very good about getting back to you if you leave her a comment. It's also a knowledgeable community of people on there who can exchange ideas or recipes with you.

You all may be wondering why I am canning all these new recipes. It's simple really. I've got some things comming up, big things ;) Okay, Okay. I have entered a jam exchange on www.Stephchows.blogspot and every participant is to get a name and send them TWO 1/2 pints of jam. I am also entering a bunch of categories at the Payne County Fair in Stillwater next week. I REALLY want to earn a blue ribbon. Thats all kids, I hope you TRY these recipes and enjoy them.

I am going to end this note with the recipes I used yesterday. I found them on the SB Canning site. Enjoy and if you've never canned, give it a try!

Rhubarb Blackberry Lime Jam

(I doubled this recipe and got 5 1/2 pints)

2 Cups diced rhubarb

1 Cup frozen or fresh blackberries

1 tsp lime zest

2 T. bottled lime juice

1 1/2 C sugar

1 1/2 T. pectin (Ball Flex batch low sugar/no sugar)

If using frozen berries, let thaw for 30 minutes if possible. Sterilize 2 half pint jars. Combine first 5 ingriedients in a stock pot or dutch oven and cook on high heat for about 10 minutes until the recipe is at a boil. Continue stirring until the rhubarb begins to break down. Bring back to a boil for one minute. Add the pectin and contine boiling for one minute more at a full boil. Remove from heat and using a canning funnel, ladel the recipe into the jars leaving 1/4" headspace. Add sterilized lids and rings and process in water bath for 10 minutes (at a full boil).

Peach Rhubarb Pie Jam

2 C chopped rhubarb

4 medium peaches (NOT Peeled, but pitted and cut into slices)

4 T. bottled lemon juice

2 C sugar

1 t. cinnamon

1 1/2 T Ball flex batch (no sugar/low sugar) pectin

Fill your water bath canner with 5 jars and get the jars and lids boiling to sterilize them.

Add to the saucepan the rhubarb, peaches, lemon juice and cook on medium heat for 15 minutes, stirring occassionally.

Back at the pot, check the consistency of the recipe and break up some of the peaches with your rubber spoon or spatula leaving chunks, add sugar and bring the recipe to a biil. Be careful as the recipe will be thick and will splatter during the boil. Once at a boil, add the pectin and bring back to a boil for ONE minute. During the minute, remove the jars from the water and set them on a dishtowel. Ladel the jam into the jars, leaving 1/4" headspace, and put lids and rings back on and waterbath for 10 minutes. Take out and place on a rack and leave alone for 12 hours. Check to make sure all your jars are sealed. Enjoy.