Christmas Goodies

So my list of Christmas goodies goes something like this

Mary's Sugar Cookies

This recipe was in the 1963 Betty Crocker Cookbook. It is the recipe I grew up with. When I moved out on my own and got my first Betty Crocker Cookbook (1980) the sugar cookie recipe was different. I tried the recipe and hated it. I memorized Mary's Sugar Cookies recipe and have been using it ever since. 

There is only one alteration I have ever made to the original recipe, I didn't have almond extract one year, so I used orange extract instead. My mother absolutely loved the change and I always made hers with the "new" recipe.

Frosting for Sugar Cookies

My mom taught me to use a butter cream frosting, but it didn't harden and when the cookies were stacked on a plate, the frosting from the cookie below would stick to the back of the cookie on top. Now this is not necessarily a bad thing, but when I've put so much effort into decorating I don't want them to get messed up.

I've shared this link with you for the frosting recipe only. I wouldn't recommend the sugar cookie recipe, too close to Ethel's for my taste, but hey, it's your cookie, use whatever recipe you want.

Sweet & Saltines (aka Christmas Crack)

Last year, my daughter introduced me to this. I made pan after pan after pan. Yes a pan or two did make it out the door, but I ate more than I shared. It is truly addictive.

Fantasy Fudge (original recipe)

Who in the last 40 years hasn't had Fantasy Fudge? I have it every year, I even make it in the spring, summer and autumn (why wait until once a year to eat fudge?). Apparently, Kraft Foods has changed the recipe for Fantasy Fudge. I'm guessing...because Nestle semi-sweet chocolate chips are not owned by Kraft Foods, where as Baker's semi-sweet chocolate is, go figure. If you'd like to try the new recipe for Fantasy Fudge, go here.

Each family has it's own list of Christmas goodies, I thought I would share mine to help get you in the goodies mood. Happy cooking!

The Foray into Pinterest

Pinterest, as all users know, is addictive. You start out looking for a crochet pattern and end up an hour or so later creating a board full of "Honey Do's". You know what I'm talking about. I avoided Pinterest like the flu for the first couple of years that it existed (I still don't have an instagram account). It sounded like a waste of time to me and well...

I've been on Pinterest for a year or two now. I've even pinned items from this blog, but I only had a personal account and not one associated with Shadle Park Provident Living, so I decided to create an account just for this blog, only because I'm pretty sure that if you read this blog, you don't want to see pins about Scouting, crocheting, or Wood Badge. If you do, you can always look me up and follow me, otherwise at least check out some of the boards I've created specifically for SPPL.

I'm am going to try to sort the boards by subject matter, such as food preservation, emergency preparedness, you get the idea. I will tell you now that as with all other things found on the internet, some things may not be a good idea (such as oven "canning" perishable foods) and I will try to weed out those pins as I go along. I will also check the links as I go. No sense in repinning something that goes no where.

So here you go, if you would like to follow SPPL boards, you'll find the widget just under the blog archives to the right. Have fun, see you in a couple of hours. LOL.

Compassionate Service Cookbook

A few years ago, I had a medical event and the sisters in my ward were wonderful delivering meals while I recovered. My husband and son were not reduced to eating PB&J tortillas, mac & cheese, and hamburgers. When asked what I could eat now, I replied no salt, low fat foods. We got lasagna (of course), breads, spaghetti with chicken, green salads, and a variety of other pasta dishes. I am very grateful for all the sisters did for our family during this time. Unfortunately, I couldn't eat most of the foods these sisters so loving produced. I give them an A for effort, but most don't understand the nature of commercially processed foods.

This led me to an idea, a Relief Society Compassionate Service Cookbook. The idea was that the sisters were to share recipes specific to medical dietary needs such as diabetes, celiac disease, hypertension, etc. I would compile these recipes into a booklet that could be shared so that when certain people needed meals, the sisters could be more prepared with ideas. Our R.S. president was very excited and she told the Stake R.S. president who contacted me and asked that I share with her when it was complete. Wow, this must be a great idea. Anyway, to make this very long story shorter, I got a few recipes, but not enough...so the idea kinda died off.

Every once in a while, I run across this file on my computer that has the layout, design, some recipes all for this cookbook. I glance at it, even might put a new recipe in there, but nothing much happens after that. This past week I made a trip to the library and was in the cookbook section. There were cookbooks for ADD/ADHD, diabetes, autism, hypertension & cardiac disease, pregnancy, on and on. And even though I collect cookbooks, recipes and the like, I don't have cookbooks specific to each of these diseases. I don't think anyone does, nor do I intend to.

          

These books are all available at www.amazon.com

I got to thinking again about this cookbook and I've decided to go ahead and write it. It will be a compilation of recipes found all over the internet. No recipe will be included if I have not tried it out on my family first. I know that the pictures may look fantastic, but the dish tastes like _____. Or the dish is more complicated to make than it should be. I can also get the opinions of my husband and son who have very different likes and dislikes.

If you have a recipe you think would be great to include in this book, please share.
Send the recipe to shadleparkpl@gmail.com

It's Been Found at Last - Tomato Jelly

Okay, so I don't eat a lot of PB&J, but occasionally I do and I happen to like grape jelly.

I was never into making jams and jellies, it looked too complicated and I had no idea what a jelly bag was. That was about ten years ago and then I had one of those bumper crops of tomatoes.

I made tomato sauce, soup, salsa, pasta sauce, diced tomatoes, stewed tomatoes.

I dehydrated tomatoes, gave away tomatoes and still I had a bushel of tomatoes (that's 53 lbs).




Then I happened on a recipe for tomato jelly. Actual jelly, not a preserve, or jam, but real jelly. So having no clue how to do this properly, I followed the directions and man oh man, it was the best jelly ever. The kids were eating it straight out of the jar. (I had to bean them once or twice to get them to stop) This stuff is even better than grape jelly. Time goes buy and I don't have such bumper crops in the ensuing years and there is tons of tomato jelly on the shelf (or so I thought).

This year was a really weird growing season. It was warm early (May was in the 50s) and warm late (October was in the 80s). We didn't get our first frost until a few days ago and we are sitting in the middle of a deep freeze now. (Temps are in the teens). Anyway, the tomatoes didn't ripen on the vine. I had about three bushels of green tomatoes still on the plants. Mid October, fearing a freeze, I harvested the green tomatoes, placed them in a cardboard box and waited for them to ripen. I had to do a second harvest a week later. In all I ended up with nearly two and a half bushels.

I had already put up plenty of tomato products from those that had ripened earlier, so what do you do with so many tomatoes after they ripen? You make jelly of course! So I looked in my recipe file, in my cookbooks, in my secret recipe hiding place (I really need to organize that), and even online. Nope, couldn't find it. (it had been a few years) A Google search for "tomato jelly" brought about 1,900,000 results (0.40 seconds). So I looked at about 50 different sites for the recipe, all but one were recipes for jams, conserves and the like. There are even recipes that use canned tomato juice and Jello that are called jellies, really?

Preserves is used to describe all types of jams and jellies.
Jam typically contains both the juice and flesh of a fruit or vegetable
Conserve or whole fruit jam, is a jam made of fruit stewed in sugar.
Jelly refers to a clear or translucent fruit spread made from sweetened fruit (or vegetable) juice.

I don't remember what I searched for or how I got there, but I found a tomato JELLY recipe finally. I cannot express how excited I was. It wasn't the same recipe, but I could work with it.

This is not a step by step tutorial, just pictures as I worked.

Sliced Romas (yes I use a filet knife)

Cooking it down

After it's drained

This is tomato juice

See how clear it is

Jars are filled

Finished Product. Ain't it purdy?

And now for the recipe (adapted from Bernardin Pectin)

Tomato Jelly 

Yield 7-1/2 pints

8 cups (2L) sliced tomatoes

1/2 cup (125 ml) water

2 tsp pepper sauce (I used Tabasco)

3/4 cup (175 ml) coarsely chopped fresh basil or

  1 tbsp (15 ml) dried basil

2 tbsp (30 ml) lemon juice (lime juice works too)

1 pkg powdered pectin

3-1/4 cups (800 ml) granulated sugar

1/2 tsp butter or margarine (optional)

• In a large deep stainless steel saucepan, combine tomatoes, water, pepper sauce and basil. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat and boil gently, stirring and crushing tomatoes occasionally, until tomatoes are softened, about 25 minutes.

• Transfer tomato mixture to a dampened jelly bag or a strainer lined with several layers of dampened cheesecloth set over a deep bowl. Let drip, undisturbed, for about 2 hours. Measure 1-3/4 cups (425 ml) tomato juice. If you do not have the required amount, add 1/2 cup (125 ml) boiling water to the remaining pulp in the jelly bag to extract additional juice. (Or add unsweetened apple or white grape juice to extend the juice to the required measure.)

• Place 7 clean 1/2 pint (125 ml) mason jars on a rack in a boiling water canner; cover jars with water and heat to a simmer (180°F/82°C). Set screw bands aside. Heat lids in hot water, not boiling (180°F/82°C). Keep jars and lids hot until ready to use.

• Measure sugar; set aside.

• Transfer tomato juice to a large, deep stainless steel saucepan. Add lemon juice. Whisk in pectin until dissolved and add 1/2 tsp (2 ml) butter or margarine to reduce foaming, if desired.

• Over high heat, bring mixture to a full rolling boil. Add all the sugar. Stirring constantly, return mixture to a full rolling boil that cannot be stirred down. Boil hard 1 minute. Remove from heat; skim foam if necessary.

• Quickly ladle hot jelly into a hot jar to within 1/4 inch (.5 cm) of top rim (headspace). Using nonmetallic utensil, remove air bubbles. Wipe jar rim removing any stickiness. Center hot sealing disc on clean jar rim. Screw band down until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip tight. Return filled jar to rack in canner ensuring jars are covered by water. Repeat for remaining jelly.

• When canner is filled, ensure that all jars are covered by at least one inch (2.5 cm) of water. Cover canner and bring water to full rolling boil before starting to count processing time. At altitudes up to 1000 ft (305 m), process – boil filled jars – 10 minutes.*

• When processing time is complete, turn stove off, remove canner lid, wait 5 minutes, then remove jars without tilting and place them upright on a protected work surface. Cool upright, undisturbed 24 hours; DO NOT RETIGHTEN screw bands.

• After cooling check jar seals. Lids curve downward and do not move when pressed. Remove screw bands; wipe and dry bands and jars. Store screw bands separately or replace loosely on jars, as desired. Label and store jars in a cool, dark place. For best quality, use home canned foods within one year.

I don't have any baking powder...what am I to do?

So I found this really fantastic recipe for no yeast donut holes. I couldn't wait to try them out. 

Just look at the picture. Doesn't it make your mouth water? Don't you just want to make them and eat all 2 dozen before the kids get home? Yeah, me too. So I pulled all the ingredients out... except one...baking powder. Dag nabit, my mouth was watering for these sweet treats. Now what?

It isn't the end of the world however. I did what every good cook does nowadays, I searched the internet for a solution. The best solution I found was on joyofbaking.com and not only did I find a substitute for baking powder but also for stuff I didn't know I might need to substitute. 

So I got them made. They were very good. They are also very gone. Shhhhhh, don't tell the husband, I'll make more later to share with him.

Anyway, so that you can enjoy these bitty treats just follow this link to Kelly's Justataste.com for the recipe. I do strongly suggest that you make a test batch before the kids get home, you know...so you can determine if it's something they'll like, then when you know that they will want them, make another batch to share with them. Shhhh...I'll keep your secret.