Yummy Saturday night supper...

Brrr, it is chilly here this morning. The temperatures dipped into the mid 40's last night. Fortunately for us, we didn't have any frost, but I believe some folks south of us did. Since it is Monday, laundry is the chore of the day. I will be back in the garden as well. My tomato bed is almost ready for planting, and my plants are more than ready to go into the soil. I have managed to make chore assignments for everyone. It has been a work in progress over the past week. I will post them another day.

I have to tell you about a wonderful dish I made for Saturday night's dinner. I was a little pressed for time, and I had not taken the steak out of the freezer far enough in advance. It was still hard as a rock. So, I was flipping through my Amish cookbooks and in Cooking from Quilt Country by Marcia Adams I found a recipe called German Apple Pancakes. I looked at the ingredients and to my delight I had them all. It is sometimes called a puff pancake. To the best of my knowledge the book is out of print, so I have included a copy of the recipe here. Just click on it to make a bigger picture.

This is a pitcure before it was served. It looks great.

Needless to say, this was a big hit. My son wasn't even here for dinner. I would have to double the recipe and use my bigger pan if I made it for all of us.

Baked Brown Rice

I bake my brown rice in the oven. I used to cook it on the stovetop, but I had mixed results. By baking it in the oven I have fluffy, tender brown rice each and every time. Obviously, brown rice has a different texture than white rice, so it does take a little getting used to. It should not be hard to chew or crunchy. Some of my children actually prefer it to white rice now that they have been eating it for a while. At first, it was not very popular.

Start by preheating your oven to 375 degrees. Give yourself about 1 hour and 10 minutes for prep time plus cooking time. I measure out one cup of brown rice.



Pour the rice into a greased casserole dish.

In a pot on the stovetop, bring to a boil: 2 1/2 cups of water, 1 tsp. of salt, and 1 tbsp of butter or oil.

Here is where the batteries on my camera died and we did not have anymore, so you will have to use your imagination for the rest.

Pour the boiling water over the rice. Cover tightly with one sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil or two sheets of regular aluminum foil. Carefully move the dish into the oven. You can see I use a jelly roll pan under my casserole dish to make it easier to move and in case the water boils out which can happen from time to time.

Bake this for one hour. When you remove it from the oven, fluff it with a fork. Most of the liquid should be absorbed.

Enjoy.

Cast Iron Kitchen

Can you believe that this lovely cast iron Dutch oven was lurking in my parents basement completely unbeknownst to me? A year or so ago, my parents were cleaning out their basement and had the notion to call me, to ask if I wanted a few cast iron pieces that they found. I jumped at the chance. My dad showed up at my house with this beauty and two other fry pans. I was amazed that I had not known about their existance in the dark recesses of my parent's basement. I don't ever remember my mom cooking with cast iron. My maternal grandmother did. She made me the most delicious scrambled eggs in her cast iron fry pans. My grandmother passed away when I was 11 years old, and after that it was nearly 15 years before I ate scrambled eggs. I did try them here or there, but none could match the flavor and texture of those fantastic eggs made with loving hands by my dear grandma.

I don't know if this Dutch oven was hers or not, I will have to ask my mom. I can tell you that I use this pot all the time in the winter. It cooks just as well as my crockpot in a fraction of the time. So, if I forget to plan ahead, I can have a crockpot recipe cooked for dinner. I did this on Saturday night. I decided to make Spicy Beef and Beans which is a recipe from my dear friend Crystal Miller. I started with my ingredients.



It was easy to quickly brown up the beef in the Dutch oven.



All the ingredients go into the pot all at once and then I simmered it for about an hour while I baked my brown rice in the oven. I served it with a salad and fruit.

Our new eating plan...

Here is a sampling of dinner menus from our new eating plan.

Beef barley soup (homemade)
Bread (homemade)
cheese
oranges

Hamburger Pinwheels
Brown rice
green beans
applesauce
pickles

Chicken tenders
Buttered noodles
Peaches (canned)
Romaine and spinach salad

Macaroni and cheese w/ meat (I confess that my kids like hot dogs in theirs, but ham would be better if you are going for whole foods)
Pennsylvania Red Cabbage
Salad (romaine)
Pickles

Meatball subs
Green beans
Pears
Noodles

Cube steak
Mashed potatoes
broccoli
applesauce

Pizza (We eat this every Friday. I make my own, but now I am rounding out the meal more by adding...
carrots or salad
strawberries or other fruit

I hope this blesses some of you as you strive to eat healthier with more whole foods.

The Eating Plan...

I have learned over time and by experiment that making too many changes at one time leads to disaster. I have decided through much reflection that during the month of January the only changes I am making to my eating and meal preparation will be to follow the meal plan laid out in Feeding the Whole Family: Recipes for Babies, Young Children and Their Parents.

Since we are not vegetarians, I will follow the meal plan with animal protein. This is how the plan breaks down:

Fish, eggs, chicken, pork or beef
Starchy vegetable or whole grain
Green vegetable
Another vegetable or fruit
Something fermented, pickled or raw

I tried this with tonight's dinner. For dinner we had hamberger pinwheels which does include both meat (beef) and whole grain (the dough). I did add in brown rice as another whole grain to add some depth to the meal. We also had green beens that were sauted and quartered strawberries. I forgot to include the pickles, but we did have them at lunch.

Typically I plan my meals for a month. I am not in the habit of giving much thought to the vegetable or fruit that we are having with the meal. Sadly, it is often an after thought. This will take all of my thought and effort this month, so I am waiting until I get this down before I add in other things. The only other focus area will be water consumption. This is not that difficult for me, so I am not counting that as a "new" focus area for me.

Now I am off to get the rest of the plan down. I especially need to know what I am making tomorrow.

Homemade Tortilla Shells

I have been making my own homemade tortilla shells for well over a year now. We prefer them hands down to any store bought shell out there. They are soft and flexible. The flavor is delicious, and best of all these don't upset my stomach as some of the commercial shells have been know to do.

I started with the recipe from Hillbilly Housewife and then modified it somewhat.

My recipes is this:

4 cups flour-usually it is 3 cups AP flour and one cup of wheat (hard or soft is fine in this recipe)

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup vegetable shortening

1 1/4 cups water (usually cold or cool)

Assemble your ingredients.

Add flour, salt and baking powder together in a bowl.

Whisk that up.

Add 1/2 cup shortening.

I mix it in with my fingers until I have little pea sized balls of shortening.

Add water and mix until a dough ball forms. Lay that out on a floured surface. Knead a few times and let rest 10 minutes.

Divide dough into 12 pieces.

Roll pieces into balls.

Lightly flour your work surface. I use a wood board. Flatten your ball into a disk. Flip the disk over, so that both sides are floured.

I use a tapered rolling pin with the sloped ends and no handles. It is easier for me to work the dough with one of these. I roll and turn the disk. If it sticks to the rolling pin I flip it to the other side.

Finally, into the ungreased 10 inch cast iron skillet the shell goes. I cook it on one side until it bubbles up some and is slightly browned.

Then I flip it to the other side. You can see the brown spots on this shell. This is what I strive for. If I don't focus, they get a little more done than I may like.

As each one finishes, I put them on a plate that is covered with a kitchen towel. This keeps them plenty warm.

Enjoy your shells with your favorite taco fixings. We like meat, tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, black olives, sour cream, taco sauce (or salsa) and onions. Well, I like the onions.

Blessings,

Jennie