Making Quiche

 

Quiche is a great way to use up leftover bits of veggies. This one has lots of ham chunks, spinach, bell peppers, garlic, and broccoli. It was delicious! 

Recipe for very large, deep dish 10" quiche: 

INGREDIENTS: 

8 eggs

1/2 cup whole or 2% milk, I also added a large dash of cream

3/4 teaspoon salt (I use only pink Himalayan salt)

1/8 teaspoon pepper

A pinch each of thyme, oregano

A large pinch of parsley 

A large fist full of chopped spinach, frozen or fresh 

A large fist full of chopped coloured bell peppers. (I especially like the yellow ones. They taste like pears.) 

6 large broccoli florets, finely chopped

2 cups of small chopped ham pieces 

1 can of mushrooms, finely chopped 

4 slices of bacon, lightly cooked and cup into tiny pieces (I use the scissors for bacon)

Enough grated cheese to thickly cover the bottom of the crust. (I like to use old cheddar) 

Pastry for one bottom crust

DIRECTIONS:  

When filling the pastry, leave about 1/2" space at the top at it will rise slightly when baking. You may have some filling left over, that doesn't fit into the pie. I drain as much liquid into the pie as i can and put the rest in a soup bag in the freezer. You can also just fridge it and use in omelettes. 

Cover with foil and bake at 425f for 10 mins. Cut opening in the foil to expose the egg portion, keeping the edges covered. Lower heat to 350f and bake until the center is stable. This usuallly takes another 40-45 mins, approx. If you want to bake it with convection, use 325f and bake a bit less time. Either one works fine. I have done both. When the center is no longer liquid and pastry has browned, it's done. I like to use a glass pan so I can lift it high and look at the bottom to make sure the bottom pastry is brown, being careful not to tip it out. The initial 425f for 10 mins is suppose to help cook the pastry. I put quiches and all pies on a slightly lower rack in the oven to brown the bottom more. You can also cover it up again and continue to bake until the bottom pastry is light brown. Watch the top edges of the pastry to make sure it doesn't get too dark. Cooking pastry in a pie to the exact doneness can be difficult and takes a bit more labour. I suppose one could always prebake the pie shell just a little, but that too is more work and required weights or beans, which I do have. I just don't like to do that unless absolutely necessary. It's so easy to wreck a pastry! 

Making Soup Bags

 

I'm cleaning out the fridge and the freezer. Here's what I'm doing with all bits of veggies, plus saved leftovers: Soup bags! Everything but the meat and spices. I might put meat in some of them too. Gravies and sauces can go in, as well. This makes one large pot of soup. Each bag will be different, slightly, but all will have lots of spinach, garlic and bell peppers. I love all three in anything I make - no matter what it is.

It's not really necessary to record what goes into the bag. I started out doing that, but quickly ran out of ambition. It sure keeps the fridge cleaned out too! 

 

Something else that uses up leftovers is quiche. We love quiche! Anything and everything goes in, but always spinach and old cheddar. I particularly like sausage and mushroom quiche.  

 

 

 

 

I had a large package of garlic to dispose of. I chopped it fine and froze it. I do that with peppers, spinach and a lot of other things too. I can now add a handful to a soup bag.  

Making Jam

I have rediscovered making jams and jellies! After making soap, jam is so simple, quick and easy! It's been a few years since I made jam, but it's something that comes back easily. I'm having fun making jams from just about everything. It's a creative outlet. I have learned to make jam from anything, even herbs. It doesn't require any more than a strong, steeped tea made from whatever. I think squash or pumpkin with the spices would make great jam! I haven't gone there yet, but it's possible.

I'm using Ball pectin for the first time. It wasn't around when I was making jams and jellies before, many years ago. I like it! It works by the teaspoon, and I use the low sugar pectin. Not necessarily because I want to put in less sugar, but because it always gels, unlike the old, classic pectin. I do make less sugar jams, however. Not low sugar, just less, sometimes half of the recipe. The very low sugar jams don't keep as long on the shelf. It still needs a lot of sugar as a preservative. I also add the lemon juice to everything. You can't make safe jam without it. The acid is necessary for the pectin to gel, as well as working as a preservative. 

I have them for sale at the local Farmer's Market. The first one I made recently was Hummingbird Jam. It's pineapple, banana and coconut. It's very thick and I used all the called for sugar, since I was using classic pectin and not the low sugar kind. It's delicious, although a bit thicker than I would have liked. I have reduced the amount of pectin that Ball recommends as I found it makes the jam too thick. 

Currently I have the above Hummingbird Jam, Cantaloupe, Apple, Honeydew-Pomegranate, seedless Raspberry, Strawberry-Banana, Strawberry-Rhubarb, Red-Grape, Real-Orange. I named it "Real Orange" so it's not confused with the creamsicle orange flavour out there. It's made from the juice of real oranges. I have sold some of the orange to people who wanted to glaze their Christmas cakes with it. There are so many things you can do with jams! Glazing pork with the apple jam, or any baking with the seedless, extra thick raspberry. It would also be excellent on cheesecake! I recently made a pot of orange chicken. It was delicious! 

It's so easy to make jam or clear jelly, although the clear part takes a bit more work. I run the hand blender through all my fruits thoroughly first. I don't like large lumps of fruit in my jam. It doesn't spread well like that. It also helps mix together the ones with more than one kind of fruit. I do the mixing in the bowl first, adding the pectin to the cold fruit before blending. The blender also does a good job of mixing in the pectin powder. DO NOT add the sugar at this point. Just the pectin and the lemon juice and any other additives that are going in. I use a coconut baking emulsion for the coconut flavour. It's made with real coconut and, wow, does it ever taste like real coconut. It's twice as strong as extract so you don't need much. It tastes better than extract and doesn't evaporate when heated like an alcohol based extract does. It comes in other flavours. I used to have cherry, and it was amazing! I have made cherry pie jam, previously, adding almond extract to it and the almond came through well, so extract will work too. You can use powdered spices, as well, like you would do in a pumpkin pie jam. I would add those before using the blender, just to make sure they were well mixed. There are just so many things you can do with jams! 

To make clear jellies, you only use the juice. It has to be strained very well through cheesecloth to get it clear. Then make the jelly from the juice. You can make jelly with flower petals too, like dandelion or rose, making a strong, steeped tea. It gets well strained and the jelly made from the tea. It's something I will do in the spring, when my yard is full of dandelions that don't get sprayed and the wild roses on the fence are blooming. The jelly in the spoon at the top, is made from red bee balm! It has a minty flavour and was great on beef! I have made grape jelly from Welches Grape Juice that I bought at the store, and I made it in the microwave! Homemade jams are so much better than commercial ones from the store. I don't know why that is. Maybe it's all those chemicals they have to add as preservative? There has to be some reason why they just don't have the same flavour! 

I put all my jams and jellies through the waterbath canner for a full 10 minutes. I know it's not necessary and decades ago we didn't do it that long. Ten minutes is the recommended time for jams that are being sold to the public, so that's what I do. I only make jam in the smaller jar sizes, I'm not canning quart jars, so I took the handles off the rack in my waterbath canner. I can put them back on if I'm ever going to can in the quart jars. I found I can put a lot more of the 250 ml jam jars in the canner without the handles. I just used the small pliers and opened the loop so it slipped off. I can hook it back on and close the loop if needed.

You don't have to use an actual waterbath canner, although I do, but the water has to be at least a full 1.5 inches above the tops of the jars for it to seal properly. If you are getting some jars not sealing, check your water level. This requires a very tall pot and you will need to put something on the bottom so the jars are not setting on the pot bottom, right on top of the burner. I have seen the rings used for this and also a towel folded and set in the bottom, as well. I tried the towel method, but it put a lot of lint into the water. That's not going to hurt your jam, but it does leave it on the jars when removed and it has to be wiped off. It does work, however, and I have to wipe the very hard water stain off the jars, after they cool, anyway. It's a good way to sterilize your tea towels or wash cloths. I use the rack now but when I was using another tall pot, I had to improvise something on the bottom. I think I used the rings. It's hard to remember, now, how that went. 

Use Those Raspberries!

Our raspberries are ready! We love the tart, fruity flavour of fresh raspberries! A few raspberries added to things can raise the flavour to a whole new level.We have three large red raspberry bushes, producing for the first time this year. We have purchased our fresh raspberries in the past. These bushes have produced enough berries to make one pie and one small cobbler, so far.

This is my recipe for raspberry pie filling. This makes two pies:

9 cups washed berries
3 cups sugar
1 cup flour

Cook on top of stove until thickened. Pour into prepared crust and bake at 350F for 45 mins.I also made a raspberry cobbler with the filling I had left. I just cooked a pot of filling from the amount of raspberries that I had saved. I picked them every day as they ripened and just kept adding them to the bucket in the freezer until it was full. I cooked them in a pot, sweetened to taste and thickened with flour dissolved in a little cold water until it was sweet and thick enough for pie. I filled the pastry and had enough left for the cobbler too.

If I don't have enough of a fruit for a pie, I make a cobbler. A cobbler is a baked fruit thing without a bottom. (A flan is a baked fruit thing without a top.)

I have been using this cobbler recipe since I was in high school. Its the best one I have ever used and it is so simple and easy!

It is very thick and is just spooned on top like biscuit dough.This is my cobbler recipe. I make it in a loaf pan.

4 cups sweetened berries or enough to fill a loaf pan about 1/3 full.
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup soft butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup milk

Combine dry ingredients with butter in a mixing bowl then add the milk and mix with mixer until well blended. Spoon on top of fruit in loaf pan. Bake at 375F for 45 minutes.

You can also make raspberry wine and raspberry cordial or liqueur. I collected enough berries, with the addition of some wild black ones, to make some raspberry liqueur. I just put the washed berries in a lidded jar and covered them with tasteless alcohol (vodka works for this) and added a little sugar. Its sweetened to taste. You might want to put a lot in. They will sit in there for about six weeks while I am going to shake it daily or whenever I think of it. When the six weeks are up, it will be strained and bottled and left to age. It can be imbibed immediately, but gets mellower with age. After a year it will be fabulous! I don't think it will be here in a year. You can pour this over ice cream or other desserts and light it for a fancy dinner.

Raspberry jelly is also a favourite at our place. I run the berries through the juicer first, then make jelly with the juice, sugar and certo. I didn't have enough berries this year. I still have a few dozen jars of strawberry and peach freezer jam from two summers ago, sitting in the freezer. We don't eat very much jam.

Any leftover raspberries get frozen in ice cube trays. I freeze everything in ice cube trays. I have bags and bags of frozen cubes of all kinds in the freezer.

Frozen cubes of rapsberries make great blender drinks on a hot day!

Crabapple Jelly

I picked these crabapples yesterday morning! I drove about 20 mins to a friends house and picked them in the park across the street from her house. There were tons of beautiful, ripe crabapples there! These are the big kind, 1.5 - 2" across! I only need about 15 to 20 lbs to make crabapple wine, which is about two buckets full. I knew there would be a lot of waste, so I picked more than I needed.

After sorting and cleaning, I had about the right amount. Some were still a bit too green to use for wine, although they would be great for jelly. There is more pectin in the slightly green ones.

The secret to making good jelly from the very tart, wild things is to use only the clear juice, without any pulp in it. Use a very fine strainer or straining bag and do not squeeze it. This includes, but is not limited to, rhubarb, wild grape, crabapple and choke cherry (which I fully intend to make next year). It probably also includes wild strawberries and a few other things as well.

These things usually have a lot of acid or tannin which is what makes them so tart. So I don't usually add acid to the recipe, although I will for the crabapple, I think. Raw apples, as a general rule, are low in acid. I have a new acid tester now, so I can test the finished juice after boiling and straining and add just the right amount of sugar to it.

I have enough to make crabapple jelly! (It's TIME that I don't have!) Maybe I will just put those in the freezer for now and make jelly later. No pectin is needed for apple jelly. Apples have a lot of their own pectin. As a matter of fact, you can make pectin for general use from apples and crabapples, if you have enough.

Crabapple Jelly Recipe

8 cups fresh crabapples
water as needed
3 cups white sugar

1.Remove stems and blossom ends from crabapples, and cut into quarters. Place them in a large stainless steel or other non-reactive pot or saucepan. Add enough water to be able to see, but no so much that the crabapples are floating. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium, and let simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. The apples should soften and change color.
2.Strain the apples and juice through 2 or 3 layers of cheese cloth. Do not squeeze. Use just the clear juice. You should have at least 4 cups of juice. Discard pulp, and pour the juice back into the rinsed pan. Bring to a simmer, and let cook for 10 minutes. Skim off any foam that comes to the top. Next, stir in the sugar until completely dissolved. Continue cooking at a low boil until the temperature reaches 220 to 222 degrees F (108 to 110 C). Remove from heat.
3.Pour the jelly into sterile jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Process in a hot water bath to seal.

Drying Herbs & Spices

Gather the herbs you want to use. This is what grows here that I use: plantain, dandelion leaves, horsetail, sow thistle leaves, yarrow leaves, calendula whole blossoms, lavender, rose, spruce, lemongrass, rosemary, peppermint, clover (white and red flowers and leaves), cayenne , goldenrod, fireweed, stinging nettle, thyme, oregano, ground ivy (also called creeping Charlie), usnea lichen, chamomile. I also use feverfew and purslane that I grow myself. 

You don't need to use all of these herbs. Try whatever mix you have handy and can forage. All of these have healing, anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial healing properties. I use a lot of plantain.  It's everywhere! The usnea is an important anti fungal herb, as well. You might, possibly, want to do an allergy test with some of these, just to make sure you aren't making a salve that you react to. If you are unsure of something growing, google it or take a close clear photo and ask online what it is. I enjoy gathering, drying and working with herbs. I like handling them, smelling them, sitting outside in the sun picking them. To me, it's fun. It's relaxing and my house smells wonderful with all these herbs drying everywhere. I try to leave long stems on the leaves or cut whole small branches so I can gather at the ends and hang somewhere. 

I dry small pieces in a single layer on a paper towel, turning every few days. You can dry them quickly in your car on a sunny day and your car will smell marvelous. You can dry them in the oven on a very low setting. Some people dry them in the microwave, however, they need to be half dry before microwaving or it will spark and start a fire. I guess some strong herbs have too much iron and mineral content for the microwave. (Believe me, it can happen, I know...) I think it's best to just leave them out of the microwave altogether. I usually use tin ties to tie bunches to a clothes hanger and hang it up. (No, I didn't put tin ties in the microwave, lol.) 

Stick a small piece of paper on the hanger with the herbs to label then. Sometimes it's hard to tell what they are when they are dry. I have hung herbs from hooks on the wall, on the ceiling fan, from curtain rods, from wires strung under the porch roof, from lamps, shelves, just about everywhere I could hang them. If you have herbs hanging, you will need to tighten the ties every day. As they dry, they shrink and fall out. If your floor is clean and you don't have cats and dogs that like to eat everything green, you can just tie them up again, but I think it's probably best to just tighten them daily at first. Also hang them high enough that your dogs and cats can't reach them. My cats LOVE horsetail. You can also tie them in paper bags, to keep out dust and insects and the bags will catch them as they shrink and fall out of the ties. 

If you can score large screens, you can make screen shelves on the deck with bricks and screens. That has worked well for me in the past but squirrels and mice can get them. You can also dry them on, and wrap them in, curtain sheers instead of screens and paper bags. They catch even the tiniest pieces. Good for drying seeds, as well. 

I usually give herbs about two weeks to dry very, very well and that's important. Everything that goes into the salve has to be completely dry, no moisture at all! If there's one drop of moisture in it, it will grow mold and go bad quickly. When the herbs are very dry, I crumble and grind in my spice grinder, if they need it. Some, like usnea. are so fine that they don't need it. I then put them in labelled glass jars. Any clean and very dry glass jar will do. Pickle jars work well. They will keep dry like this for years, until you are ready to make the salve and easy to use for cooking.

You can spend your summer collecting and processing the herbs & spices, then make the salve in the winter.

My Cobbler - What is a cobbler?

 

My Old Fashioned Cobbler Recipe

What is a Cobbler? What is the difference between a cobbler, pie, tart, flan...these are all fruit pastries. 

A pie has both bottom and top crust and is at least 6" across. 

A tart is the same but cupcake size or smaller. 

A flan is a fruit dessert with a custard base

A tart is a fruit dessert with a pastry bottom and no top crust

A cobbler is a fruit dessert with no bottom

And so now you know...  

This is my best cobbler recipe. It's been in my family for a very long time. 

Fruit Cobbler

4 cups sweetened berries or enough to fill a loaf pan about 1/3 full.

1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup soft butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup milk

Combine dry ingredients with butter in a mixing bowl then add the milk and mix with mixer until well blended. Spoon on top of fruit in loaf pan. Bake at 375F for 45 minutes.