The Little Red Hen

Apple Pumpkin Muffins

This is a redo of the Chocolate Chip Pumpkin muffins that we like so much. I had to take snack to preschool this week and didn't want to put chocolate in the muffins so I tried apple instead. They turned out super!!

Apple Pumpkin Muffins
1 1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon grounds nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
3/4 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup applesauce
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 cups cooked and pureed pumpkin (or one 15 oz can)
several apples cut in pieces (I used three apples of different varieties for a good flavor mix)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix flours, and other dry ingredients together in a bowl.
In a different bowl, beat the eggs and add oil, applesauce, pumpkin.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir in the apple pieces.
Bake 20 minutes.
Makes 24 muffins.

Gratitude

I am grateful for the abundance of food in our garden.

Harvest Time

We have been in full swing with our fall harvest lately.  Last weekend we picked some pumpkins and pulled the onions out of the ground.

This weekend we focused on the black beans. First, we pull the bean plants and let them dry in the sun on a tarp. Then, we put a bundle of plants in a smaller tarp and whack them with a stick to pop the beans out of the shell. 

The last step is to separate the small plant bits from the beans. On a slightly windy day we can pour the beans from bucket to bucket and let the wind blow the light dried plant bits or chaff away.

We have also been eating lots of fresh pears from our trees and last night froze several peach pie fillings. Our raspberries will continue bearing fruit until the first hard frost. We pick the berries every other day.

 

I know we will appreciate our preservation efforts come January. That is what I keep telling myself.

Next on the food preservation plan - grape juice. B says the grapes are ready.

I know I will enjoy my quilt retreat next week!

More Recipies! - I promise this is not turning into a food blog. More craftiness coming soon.

This weekend we enjoyed our first raspberry  harvest- more than a quart!

We rushed in to make our favorite raspberry dish, raspberry ribbon pie.  The original recipe calls for a regular prebaked pie crust. Several years ago I tried it with a graham cracker crust and we like it that way too. D suggested that we make our graham cracker crust with the recipe we used for our crackers but just roll the dough and bake it in the pie pan. That sounded like a good idea to me. D mixed up the dough and let it chill in the fridge. After rolling it and putting it in the pan I realized that we didn't have any dry beans to weigh it down while baking. Our black beans are here:

I looked around for something to put in the crust and settled on some baby/child silverwear and put the crust in the oven.

That worked out pretty well. The giant graham cracker crust was a hit.

The crust recipe is here. (this makes enough for two pie crusts and a bunch of crackers)

Raspberry Ribbon Pie
1 quart red raspberries
1 small box raspberry jello
1 tablespoon lemon juice
4 oz cottage cheese
1/3 cup confectioners sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup whipping cream

Dissolve raspberry jello in 1 cup boiling water, add lemon juice. When jello starts to set gently stir into raspberries.http://smittenkitchen.com/2006/11/cubes-of-colossal-cheer/
Whip the cream. Beat 4oz cottage cheese with the confectioners sugar and vanilla. Fold into the whipped cream.
Layer into a baked shell. Refrigerate.

I also had to try yet anothe recipe from the smitten kitchen. This is the cinnamon chocolate chip cake. It was delicious!

And just so you don't think we only eat sweets.... this is the purslane I picked and added to our salad yesterday.

Yes, to most it is a weed. Well, to us too. But it is edible and adds a lemony flavor to the salad. P was also eating some lambsquarters while we were weeding.

Pineapple Upside-down Cake

It seems that the last few weeks have been full of celebrations for us!

B's birthday was while he was in Maine so we waited to celebrate until he was home. He has always liked pineapple upside-down cake so, I splurged and got a fresh pineapple for his cake.  I haven't bought a fresh pineapple for a very long time as any pineapples that we get have been brought to the states on a plane, a very fuel intensive mode of transportation.  I still have a little guilt about that but the cake was very good. I used the recipe from my new favorite food blog, the Smitten Kitchen.

I hope your weekend is full of celebrating fun.

Garlic Scape Pesto - a cautionary tale

We have been trying to do better about using all that our garden produces and not let things go to waste. So, after clipping the off garlic scapes I thought we needed to use them instead of tossing  them in the compost as we have done in the past. After a little research on the web I found a collection of garlic scape pesto recipes.
I chopped and processed and ended up with some pesto for dinner.

It was good but pretty strong. So strong, in fact, that I had to get up twice in the night to drink water! The rest of the family did not think it was too strong. Next time I make this I'll add a bunch of garden greens before processing to cut the intensity a bit.

It is fun to try new things like this. What new things have you tried lately?

Back Yard Smores

Yesterday was another beautiful day. We weeded in the overgrown vegetable garden and harvested LOTS of peas and a few beets.
For dinner we fixed a pasta dish that included peas and beet greens and served it with cooked beets. Delicious.
After dinner we baked graham crackers from the dough D made earlier in the day. The crackers turned out great.

We had a happy end to a busy day. B came home from Maine in time for dinner and we all enjoyed smores from our homemade graham crackers and the marshmallows we made earlier in the week. 

Summer Break Recharge

We have been enjoying summer break for two weeks now.  We like having some time with no deadlines and not much scheduled. Summer is a time for recharging. Each of us can do his or her own thing.

We have time to do things at a slow pace and choose our own agenda. D has refurbished the bike he bought for M at the rummage sale and now they can both ride at the same time. D uses my old (30+ years) bike on the left.

B has been at a two week woodworking class in Maine. I am eager to see the project he has been working on. The rest of us have been sleeping in and recharging our batteries.
We have been playing a lot of games too. Badminton, rummikub, cards, anagrams, matchbox cars, soap bubbles, swings, coloring...

We have also been working a bit to recharge the freezer.

P has really been enjoying the green peas. She pretty much eats them as fast as she can shell them.
So far, the basement freezer contains 15 strawberry rhubarb pie fillings, 7 jars of strawberry jam, 8 bags of green peas, and 3 bags of strawberry sauce for shortcake. I think that is a good start on food preservation for next winter.

I am still trying to find a little time for some needlework.

What do you do to recharge?

Marshmallows

Ever since I got my copy of Jane Brocket's The Gentle Art of Domesticity I have been wanting to make marshmallows. Don't you love that pan of pink marshmallow on the cover?
Yesterday we tried the recipe from the smitten kitchen. We followed her directions carefully and ended up with light fluffy marshmallows. They were easier than I thought they would be and taste great.

Now I'll be searching the web for graham cracker recipes.

Garlic Mustard

I may have mentioned before that B is the steward for a nature preserve in our area.  It is a wooded area and the trees and wildflowers there are different from what grows on our property. One of the jobs of the steward is to try to control the invasive species on the preserve.  We went out there on Sunday to pull dames rocket and garlic mustard that can crowd out the native plants.

Many of the spring wildflowers were in bloom.

Some areas were carpeted with large patches wild ginger and trillium.

We filled bags with the garlic mustard plants because if they are left on the ground they will continue to make seeds. 

The day seemed even more worthwhile because garlic mustard is edible.
Yesterday, we made pesto from one big bag of the weeds. It was quite good and we were able to freeze enough for five more nights.  After tasting the fresh leaves I thought the pesto would be strong but on the pasta it had a stronger smell than taste. 

I feel like we have gotten a two for one deal here. We helped free the native wild plants from an invasive weed and have gotten some good, nutritious mustard greens for us to eat.

I promise to have a non forage food post tomorrow!