Umbrellas, Snow and 1-2-3- Potato Soup

A day to remember. 

It rained

I walked a couple of blocks

Picked up my playmate

She was dressed for the occasion

Boots

Mittens

Hood

Umbrella

Off we went

Wind caught under our black sails

Cold-footed drops tap-dancing over our heads

I said

"Can you hear the pitter patter of the rain drops?"

She giggled

"Mommy already asked me that."

I smiled

"And what was your answer?"

"YES!'

(Okay, obvious question, even to a 4 year old.)

~
We arrive home

De-brief the camera

She, on a barstool

Me, standing close behind

We both like the posterized version

Papa is home

He calls out like a trumpet

" It's snowing!"
We run to the window

Huge flakes of snow
Floating down like happy parrot troopers

She dances
(Poor Auntie Em's been wanting snow for 20 years!)

Then we make hot chocolate

And potato soup
(...because I intend to have a grandchild say to her grandchild,
 "I learned to cook in my Mimi's kitchen.)

                 

                         Here is our recipe 

1-2-3- Creamy Potato Soup

8 large potatoes washed, peeled and cubed

    (I used red this time and removed half the peel.)

½ - 1 lb. cooked bacon

2 chopped onions

2 stalks celery, chopped

1 quart chicken stock

2 cups water

2 cups milk

½ cup flour mixed with ¼ cup water (to thicken soup) 

3 tbs. butter

Salt and pepper

Stove top instructions:

1.  Sauté onion and celery in large stockpot. 

2.  Add chicken stock, water potatoes, and bacon. Bring to boil, turn down heat and simmer 2-3 hours.

3. Add milk (slowly).It is best if milk is room temp. One hour before serving, mix flour and water and add to soup.

*For extra creamy soup: when ready to serve, scoop about 3 cups into blender and mix until smooth and pour back into soup pot.

Crock pot instructions:

1.  Add butter vegetables, stock and water to crockpot.

2.  Cook on high 6 hours.

3.  One hour before add warmed milk, make paste with ½ cu. flour and 1/4 cu. water and stir into pot.
(See * above)

When serving soup, add one cooked, sliced hot dog (or sausage, or not) and a handful of cheese to the top of each bowl.

 Makes 8-10 servings

                                

(Click the Print Friendly button to save or print.)

~Enjoy

Linking up with:
Farm Chick Chit Chat
Brighton Park: Tender Moments with Toddlers and Preschoolers
White Wolf Summit Farmgirl
Backyard Farming Connection
Deborah Jean's Farmgirl Friday Blog Hop

1-2-3 Cauliflower Soup

I like to make this easy and healthy soup for dinner on a cold winter's night with just a few minutes morning prep time and a few hours in the crock pot.

3 Tbs olive oil

2 cups cauliflower florets

2 stalks celery

1 onion

3 cloves garlic

2 cups chicken stock

1 tsp. sea salt (optional)

½ tsp. pepper

(Makes 2 hearty servings, plus one lunch the next day.)

Sauté vegetables in oil (optional).

Add them to a 2 qt. crock pot.

Add 2 cups low sodium chicken stock, salt and pepper.

Cook on high 1 hr.  Then on low 5 hours, more or less.

Ladle soup into a blender. 

Return to crock. 

Add slices of cooked meat or crumbled bacon. I use sliced turkey sausage today.

Cook to heat meat.

Top with shredded cheddar, sliced green onion, a dollop of sour cream, and serve. 

 The very picture of success!

Click Here to download my recipe, or use the green " Print Friendly" button below the post to print, save or email - with or without photos. 

Click here  to read about the many health benefits of eating cauliflower.

You can find a tutorial about how to make heart-shaped carrots for soup HERE

~Enjoy 

Sharing my recipe with the Farmgirl Friday Blog Hop over at Deborah Jean's Dandelion House. Click on the link to follow me back. There are some great posts to read!

Spinach Bread and Sewing Lessons at Camp Mimi

Each Monday I have the honor and pleasure of spending an entire day with the daughters of my daughters, a second generation of beautiful "little women. "

Today at "Camp Mimi" we made crock pot cauliflower soup and 1-2-3 Spinach Bread. Then we practiced sewing on my vintage Singer -- the very machine I threaded as a young girl --  back when I could see the teeny-tiny hole the thread goes through.

As my contribution to the Farm Chick Chit Chat Bread Bake-off, I'm sharing the "bread" recipe we made today.  It is from Suzanne Sommer's book,  Fast and Easy  Actually, it is not bread, per se. It is a bread substitute for folks limiting their carbohydrate intake; and since it contains absolutely no flour, it is also good for people eating a no-gluten diet. My 13-year-old grand-daughter will demonstrate that spinach bread can be made from three ingredients in less than a half hour, including bake time.

Here goes:

("Variation: To make a whole loaf of this bread, triple the ingredients and pour into well buttered loaf pan. Place pan on baking sheet and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes at 350 degrees. A whole loaf will yield 12 slices. Use what you need and ; wrap well and freeze extra slices or loaves.")

~Enjoy

Linking with the wonderful:
 Deborah Jean's Farmgirl Friday Blog Hop
This Mind Be in You Farm Girl Friday Blog Fest
My Simple Country Living Blog Hop

1-2-3 Veggie Soup

Anytime I can make a yummy and healthful meal with 7 minutes prep time, I'm happy. This is one of the tastiest soups I've ever made. It is as easy as:

 One

Two

Three

Ingredients: (Makes 4 servings)

One quart Low Sodium V-8 Juice
One quart chicken stock or water ( I used stock.)

2 stalks celery, sliced

2 stalks carrot, sliced

3 red potatoes, cubed

One medium onion (or 1/2 large onion) diced

2 gloves garlic, diced (Mine were whole and it didn't matter.)

One large cereal bowl-full of meatballs, optional
(Mine were precooked.)

One bay leaf (I forgot.)

Chopped fresh parsley (I forgot)
1 tsp. sugar.

Cook on high for 4 hours, or on low all day long.

Serve sprinkled with fresh Parmesan or grated mozzarella cheese and some yummy bread.

Great leftover! And my prince likes it! Yay!

Thanks Patsy! 

"Forever" Cookie Ornaments

I have cookies in my house that are 20 years old. And they don't look a day older than Monday. Here is one of them.

  

Here is another one.

 

These 20-year-old cookies are made from gingerbread. I have dozens of them hanging on our tree and a garland in our kitchen.  If you want to make some, simply make the cookie recipe on the box and then let them dry out.  Don't forget to punch a few holes for hanging. 

We also have cinnamon ornaments that are decades old. This year I decided to make more. So I invited a few of the peeps who helped me make the first ones, plus a new generation, to a luncheon of cucumber sandwiches, pears, and coffee stirred with candy canes. Before I share the recipe for cinnamon ornaments, I thought I'd give you the recipe for cucumber sandwiches.

All you need is one cucumber to one package cream cheese and 3 cloves (more or less) of garlic.

Peel the cucumber and remove the seeds like this:

Blend the cream cheese. I use a small food processor. Grate and drain the cucumber and add it a little bit at a time to the cream cheese, Then add the garlic. I use my garlic press. Now you are ready to serve. Cucumber spread is great on croissants or crackers; but I served it on thin, everything bagels.

Then we got busy on our cinnamon ornaments.

They are easy to make, and only require two ingredients.

Cinnamon and applesauce. That's it!

The recipe I used called for a 4 oz jar of cinnamon and 3/4 cup of applesauce. We doubled it, so we used 2 cups of cinnamon and enough applesauce to make a stiff, and fairly dry dough, making 3 dozen "cookies."

Roll it out to about 1/4 inch thick and make your shapes with cookie cutters. Sprinkle cinnamon on your rolling surface just like you would use flour with a pie crust. We used straws and toothpicks to make holes for hanging. Then bake them in an oven at 150 degrees until dry, turning once, about an hour on each side.

I have to say...warn... proclaim that when you bake them, your entire house will smell like CINNAMON!

Once they are dry, it is time to decorate.  I used paints and glitters from Michael's and made the ties with raffia and jute.  I've only done a few so far..

They looked so pretty on the paper plate, waiting to be painted.

They inspired photo art.

Cinnamon ornaments are fun, easy, rustic, and they make great package tags. And, as I already pointed out, they last "forever." 

Don't forget to date the back!

Look at how my 4-year-old granddaughter decorated this generation of gingerbread men!  Sooooo adorable!  

I have another treat for you.  

At Farm Chick Chit Chat, my friends and I are having a virtual Christmas Cookie Swap.  Click on the link and you will find many wonderful recipes, starting 12-15-12.

Blessings to you and yours this holiday season. May God fill your home and your heart with the sweet aroma of love and memories that last forever! 

Nothing Wasted : How I Used 100 Percent of our Thanksgiving Turkey

Four days after Thanksgiving, our turkey was entirely utilized-- every bit of it, bones and all.

Here's how:

First, I bought a 21 lb, fresh, free range turkey at Sprouts Market and soaked it in brine. I cooked the giblets and the neck in a small crock pot overnight, feeding the meat to my dog and to our chickens over the next several days.

Next,  I roasted the bird in our new electric roaster at 450 for 30 minutes, then another 3 1/2 hours at 325 degrees. I was able to roast the turkey in our laundry room, leaving the oven available to warm our side dishes.

I wish I had taken photos of the bird on a platter, but we were too busy getting everything else ready.

As soon as the table was cleared, and before pie, I put the turkey carcass into our large crock pot, covered it with water, and set it on low.  I kept it on low for a day and a half.  Then I strained the broth into a bowl and divided the bones, meat and skin into bags for the freezer.  I will serve this to our chickens, about one bag per week.

Even though our turkey was well built -- due to his "free range life" -- a day and a half in the crock brought his stalwart bones to the point where I could crush them easily between my fingers, exposing  the marrow, which my chickens love; actually, the hens eat every single bone, but not all at once.

(We ate our share of the leftovers too.)

I poured the strained broth back into the crock pot, along with three of the biggest bones, an onion, 2 carrots, a stalk of celery, and 3 cloves of garlic, a bay leaf and a stray pepper top from someones's lunch.

Then I cooked the broth for another a couple of days, adding water a few times. In this way, I was able to pull all the nutrition from the combined elements. Then I strained the stock, adding the vegetables to my compost bin.

Four days after eating our turkey, I made soup:

Creamed Turkey Soup and Dumplings.
~Saute 1 diced onion, one stalk celery and 2 cloves chopped garlic in 2 tbsp butter. Add 3 cups turkey stock (you could use chicken stock) and 3 cups water. 
~Pour into crock pot. 
~Add 1-2 sliced carrots and bits of turkey, about 2 cups I slightly shredded it with my fingers (after removing any 'surprises', because I don't like 'surprises.'
~Salt and pepper and do something else for a couple of hours. ( I went to yoga class.)
~Ladle about a cup of broth into a separate container and add 2 tbs cornstarch, mixing well and return to pot.
~Add some whole milk, cream or half and half, slowly, while stirring until it looks right.
~Turn up the heat and bring to a simmer.
~Add one pinch of love ( I add this to everything I make.)

 I found the dumpling recipe on the internet and cut it in half, because I was only serving 3 people but here is the uncut version.

Homemade Dumplings 
(Click here for a wheat free dumpling recipe)

Ingredients  

~2 cups of all-purpose flour
~2 teaspoons of baking powder
~3/4 teaspoon of salt
~4 tablespoons margarine
~¾ - 1 cup water, or milk if preferred

Directions~~~~Mix flour, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Cut in 4 tablespoons of margarine. Add ¾ cup of water or milk and stir well. Add additional liquid as needed to form a soft dough that can be dropped by a large spoon into the soup.

~Using a large spoon, drop the dumpling dough into simmering Homemade Chicken Soup.
~Cover kettle{ I used my crock-pot} and simmer for 15 minutes. Do not remove the cover to check for doneness before the allotted time. This will cause the dumplings to "fall" and Instead of light fluffy dumplings, you will get dense dumplings. It is possible to cook the dumplings without a cover, but the results are better if they are covered. (Recipe found Here)

In conclusion: I learned how to use 100 per cent of a 20 lb turkey.

1. Neck, Giblets to pets
2. Dinner for 10
3. Sent leftovers home with 3 families
4. Made bone broth with carcass
5. Leftover meal for 2
6. Lunches for 2 days
7. Bones cooked to crushing stage and divided into bags for chickens throughout the month.
8. Creamed turkey soup.
9. Leftover soup
10. 1 quart stock to be used in stew 
11. 2 trays broth ice cubes
12. 2 cups turkey bits in lunch bags for dog's food.

Can you tell I'm pleased?

~Blessings

Linking this post with:
Tuesdays with a Twist
Farm Girl Friday Blog Fest
The Thankful HomeAcre Hop