We've Moved

For a number of reasons, I've decided to move this blog. You can find me at Two Frog Home, from now on. Please update your links and I hope to see everyone there!

Fall Baking

I had some left over baked acorn squash I wanted to use up and went searching for inspiration. I found it in, Homemade Bread by the Food Editors of Farm Journal (copyright 1969). I used a recipe entitled: Golden Pumpkin Bread to springboard my own creative tendencies. Here's the recipe for anyone interested. Items in parentheses indicate original ingredients per the book.

Spiced Squash Bread

1 C. vanilla soymilk (milk)
1 C. cooked & mashed acorn squash (canned pumpkin)
1/4 C butter (shortening)
1/8 C sugar (1/4 C sugar)
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp cardamom
2 TBSP yeast
1/2 C warm water
3 C freshly ground whole wheat flour (not in original)
3 C all purpose flour (6 1/2 C all purpose flour)
2 eggs
1 1/2 C raisins


Scald milk; stir in squash, butter, sugar, salt, & spice. Cool to lukewarm.
Sprinkle yeast over water water, stir to dissolve let sit until creamy.
Add about 3 cups of flour, milk mixture, and eggs to yeast. Beat until combined. Add raisins and enough remaining flour to make a dough. Knead until elastic & smooth. Put in lightly greased bowl to rise. Let rise until doubled about 1 hour.
Punch down dough. Form into 2 loaves and put into greased pans. Let rise unti doubled about 45 minutes.
Bake in preheated 375 degree over of 35 minutes.


We ate some while it was still warm last night and it was delish - this morning we toasted it and just yum!



I also made a bunch of fall inspired sugar cookies for some guests tomorrow. I used my grandmother's recipe - only subsitituting real butter for shortening. That's her recipe card there - I feel incredibly blessed to have that treasure.

An Afternoon Walk

More shots can be found on my flickr page.

Canning Q & A

Stephanie over at Adventures in the 100 Acre Wood asked me this (a long time ago, my apologies for not responding sooner):

Q: We made pickles for the first time this year. The taste is great, but they are very soft, not crisp. What did I do wrong?

A: I've never had pickles turn out as crisp as the ones you buy at the store. I'm not sure why beyond the heat of processing softens them. Sometimes soaking the cukes in salt water overnight will help - but not always and you have to really take care to wash out the salt or they will be too salty in my experience. However, I read once that iodized salt will soften your product so switch to Kosher salt if you're not already using it. I also think if you do the fermenting type of pickles, they'll be crisper but I'm not sure. How's that for vague?

Stephanie over at Going Green in So. Illinois asks:

Q: Had a question, how do you prepare your salsa for canning? Do you pressure can or hot water bath can? My boyfriend makes salsa from store bought canned tomatoes and he wanted to know how he would go about canning it. It has jalepenos in it and is pretty hot so I didnt think I would need a pressure canner for it.

A: It depends on your recipe, actually. The recipe I use has a good bit of vinegar in it, bringing up the acidity of the salsa so I process it in a boiling water bath. If you don't have vinegar in your salsa then yes, you need a pressure canner. I highly recommend finding a good recipe and using it for your salsa if you're new to canning. The combination of tomatoes and other veggies can make it a bit touchy.

Salsa

I was inspired by this quote in the August/September 2007 issue of Mother Earth News in the article Eat in Sync with the Seasons:


"If all the effort expended to get fresh tomatoes on supermarket shelves in January in Portland, Maine , was invested into fully utilizing the late August tomato flood, it would revoluntionize our food system. Not only would it improve our nutrition, it would recycle dollars into our communities, and free us individually and collectively from far-away food dependency. In many cases, it might be the difference between local farmers making enough to get by, and making enough to romance the next generation into farming. When I suggest such a simple solution to nationwide problems, the conventional culture laughs me off as old-fashioned. But, in fact, preserving more of our fruits and vegetables would be remarkably easy to do." - Joel Salatin


As I said, I was inspired and went off in search of the last vesitages of local summer produce. I came home with the last case of local tomatoes I could find and more local beets. I canned 16 pints of salsa and made fresh tomato soup for our lunches this week and I canned another 6 quarts of beets. While out and about I found a place that sells butter and cheese made by an Amish community about 250 miles south of me, still in Montana, not exactly local but I'll take it.

Seed Packets

I've been looking at all my collected seeds, trying to come up with a nice way to store them all. I wanted something breathable and while paper envelopes are easy and certainly up to the taske, I wanted something different.

I decided to make some out of unbleached muslin from my scrap pile. I'm going to work on some with embroided lettering for gifts, but these will do just fine for the time being.

Pantry Photos

Just a few photos to give a taste of our beautifully stocked pantry shelves.