Broccoli Casserole

Broccoli casserole. It may not sound appealing, but believe me this rich and creamy side dish is one worth trying. It's a throwback to my childhood holidays, and everytime I eat it I'm reminded of all those happy memories. I may not make it often now, but when I do it never lasts very long.

Note: This recipe calls for "stuffing croutons". These are dry bread croutons you can get from most bakeries around the holidays. If they're not available in your area, just cut some bread into bite size pieces and dry it out in a low oven until nice and hard.

Broccoli Casserole

Ingredients

1 large bunch of broccoli, chopped into bite size pieces

2 Tbsp butter

¼ C all-purpose flour

½ C whole milk

½ C chicken stock

¼ tsp granulated garlic powder

¼ tsp ground black pepper

½ tsp sea salt

2 eggs

1 C shredded cheddar cheese

2 C stuffing croutons, or other dry bite size pieces of bread

½ C melted butter

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 350F, and lightly grease a 9 x 9 baking dish.

2. Lightly steam your broccoli, until just starting to get tender. Set aside in a large mixing bowl.

3. In a saucepan on the stove, melt the 2 Tbsp of butter. Once the butter is melted, quickly whisk in the flour to make sure there are no lumps. Cook this together for approximately a minute, to remove the raw taste from the flour.

4. Add the whole milk and chicken stock to your flour paste, whisking continuously wait for it to come to a boil and thicken. Once it has thickened, whisk in the garlic powder, black pepper, and salt. Set aside until cooled slightly.

5. Lightly beat your two eggs. Add the eggs, and creamy mixture you had set aside to your broccoli. Mix thoroughly together. Pour this into your baking dish.

6. Cover your broccoli mixture evenly with the cheddar cheese.

7. Melt your ½ C of butter, toss it with the stuffing croutons until they are evenly coated. Spread this out over top of the cheddar cheese.

8. Place in the middle of your preheated oven and bake for 35 – 45 minutes, until broccoli is tender and croutons are evenly browned.

Broccoli casserole fresh out of the oven. Yum!

Turkey Pies

Well, I think this will be my last post on what to do with your leftover turkey filling. I ran you through the basics of potpies lastnight, today we'll cover the turkey pie. This differs in that it has a top crust and bottom crust and is made from pie dough. I make as many as I can out of my leftovers, and freeze them for quick dinners on nights when we're just too busy/tired/sick/lazy to cook.

Turkey Pies

Ingredients

1 recipe of leftover turkey filling
5 C all purpose unbleached flour
2 tsp salt
1 lb cold lard, cubed
1 egg + enough cold water to make 1C of liquid

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F and get out all of your disposable, individual size, tin pie plates.

2. Time to make your pie crust. Sift together the flour and salt into a large bowl. Cut in the cold, cubed lard with a pastry cutter. Once your flour/lard mixture looks like small peas it's time to add the egg/water mixture. Pour it in and mix together with a fork.

3. Once the dough has started to come together, turn out onto a floured board and knead gently until all the flour is incoporated. Wrap in plastic wrap and store in the fridge for 30 minutes.

4. Warm up your leftover turkey filling, it doesn't need to be hot but it's easier to scoop if it's at room temperature.

5. Cut your pie dough in thirds. Working with one third at a time, roll it out on a well floured board. Take your disposible pie tins and flip one upside down ontop of your dough. Trace a circle approximately 1 inch bigger in circumference all around. Do as many as you have tins/filling for.

6. Press these dough circles down into your pie tins, making sure you leave one pie tin empty to use as a template for tracing the tops.

7. Roll out the dough you have left, and trace around the pie tin again, this time only making the circle slightly bigger than the tin.

8. Fill your bottom crusts in the pie tins, 3/4 of the way full of your leftover turkey filling. Wet the edge of your bottom crust with cold water, and press a dough top onto this. Fold over the edges, and seal them with a flour dusted fork. Continue doing this until all your pies are done.

9. Place your pies on a baking sheet, and bake in your 350F oven for 25 - 30 minutes or until the dough is just starting to brown.

10. Cool completely, and bag individually in sandwich bags then place in large freezer bags (I can usually fit 4 per large bag). Freeze completely.

11. To reheat, cook from frozen in a 375F oven for 45-55 minutes.




Turkey pies ready to hit the oven.



Turkey Potpies

Yesterday I posted my turkey filling recipe made from your holiday leftovers. If you missed it, go and check it out.

Leftover turkey filling


Turkey Potpie Recipe

Ingredients
Turkey filling, enough to fill 4 oven proof baking dishes
1 recipe of your favourite pie crust, biscuit, or puff pastry
1 egg, beaten with water
salt and pepper

Directions
1. Preheat your oven to 375F.

2. Roll out your pie crust, biscuit, or puff pastry topping. Place one of your bowls upside down on top of your chosen topping. Using a sharp paring knife, cut around your bowl about 1 inch out on all sides for pie crust and puff pastry. If using biscuit dough you want it to sit inside the bowl so trace it exactly around the edge of the bowl. Make four.

3. Fill your individual baking dishes with the turkey filling. I use french onion soup bowls, that I know are oven safe.

My delicious filling just waiting to be covered.

4. Take your egg beaten with the water, and brush around the lip and about 1 cm down the bowl that your turkey pie filling is in. You need this to ensure your pie crust or puff pastry will stick. If you're using a biscuit topping this step is not necessary.

5. Place the top crust of whatever you chose on the bowl. If pie crust or puff pastry make sure you press it down and seal it against the egg wash. Brush the top with egg wash and sprinkle salt and pepper over the top.

Ready to head to the oven.

6. Bake in your preheated oven for 20 - 25 minutes, or until the top is golden brown. Remove from the oven, place on a dinner plate and serve. Be careful with the first forkful some steam might escape.

Dinner is served.

Leftover Turkey Filling

Well, if you're a Canadian like me this past weekend was our Thanksgiving. This means family, friends, and lots of good food. Including of course the turkey. We get our turkeys from a local Mennonite family who raises them organically, free range, and grass fed. They're by far the best tasting turkey I've ever had, and I make sure to get us on the list in early May to ensure we won't miss out!



Our 33lb turkey monster.

 I love turkey leftovers as much as the next person, but I can only eat so much before it goes bad. With a fantastic turkey like that you certainly don't want to have to throw any of it out. Of course we make soup, sandwiches, leftover dinners, but I like to keep some to satisfy my cravings for turkey until the next one at Christmas.

This is where the turkey filling comes in. I use my leftover meat and gravy and make an all-purpose turkey filling. I use it for pies, potpies, and turkey and dumplings. It freezes beautifully and satisfies my cravings. I'll be posting the pie and potpie recipes I use in the next day or two, but here's the filling to get started. I don't use exact measurements because this is based on however much leftovers you have. Use your personal judgement.

Turkey Filling Recipe

Ingredients
Leftover turkey, cubed or shredded into bite size pieces
Leftover gravy
Cubed and peeled potatoes, bite size pieces
Cubed and peeled carrots, bite size pieces
Minced onion, I generally only use one large onion
Cubed celery, I use 4 -5 stalks
Frozen peas

Directions
1. In a large bowl, add your cubed or shredded turkey.

2. In a steamer, cook your potatoes and carrots just until they've started to soften. Add this into the bowl containing your turkey.

3. Saute your onions and celery until they've just started to soften. You don't want to brown them. Add these into your turkey mixture.

4. Warm your gravy until it's liquid again, and add enough into your turkey mixture to moisten it and make a slight sauce. You don't want it very runny as it will boil out of your pies and make a giant mess.

5. Toss in enough frozen peas so that it looks like there is an even mixture of everything. You can adjust the seasonings now.

6. Now you're ready to make pies, dumplings, pot pies, or freeze it in individual sizes for future uses.

My turkey filling, see how there's a pretty even mix of everything? This is what you want to shoot for.

Apple Cider Butter

Well fall has come again, which means as usual I'm absolutely flooded with apples. This might be due in part to my husband's serious apple tree buying addiction (he's already purchased an additional 5 whips to add to the orchard). However, I will try not to complain too much as I really enjoy homemade apple sauce, juice, and butter. Not to mention the pies, muffins, bars, cookies...

Alrighty then, moving on.

Ingredients
6 lbs apples, peeled, cored, and quartered (I use McIntosh or something in the same family)
2 C apple cider
1 C honey
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves

Directions

1. In a large stainless steel stock pot, combine the apples and apple cider. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce your heat and continue to boil gently, stirring often, until the apples are soft. (Mine take about 25 minutes)

2. You'll need to work in batches for this part. Transfer your apple mixture to a food mill or a food processor and puree just until you get an uniform texture. DO NOT LIQUEFY!

3. Measure out 12 C of your apple puree. In a large (clean) stainless steel stock pot, combine your 12 C apple puree, honey, cinnamon, and cloves together. Stir until the honey is dissolved evenly.

4. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring very frequently. Reduce heat and boil gently, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens and holds its shape on a spoon. (See note at end)

5. Ladle the hot apple butter, into hot (sterilized) jars leaving a 1/4 inch of headspace. Wipe the rim of the jar, place lid on and tighten screw band to fingertip tight.

6. Place jars in a boiling water canner, making sure they are completely covered by water. Bring to a boil and process for 10 minutes. Turn heat off pot after the 10 minutes are done. Leave the jars in the water for another 5 minutes, then remove from pot and allow to cool undisturbed for 24 hours before storage.

Cooled Apple Butter

Note: Fruit butters are done when they hold their shape on the spoon. Another way to test is to place a small amount of the fruit butter on a chilled plate, when the liquid does not seperate creating a rim around the edge and the butter maintains a spreadable, buttery shape it's good to go.

Chocolate Turtle Brownies

Now, don't say I didn't warn you. These brownies are addictive, full of delicious chocolate, and many secret layers of fattening goodies. That being said, we all need to live a little. These are an incredibly rich treat, so I recommend once you have them cooled and cut to wrap them individually and freeze them so you don't need to worry about them spoiling before they're all eaten.

Chocolate Turtle Brownie Recipe

Ingredients

For the Caramel:
1/4 C + 2 Tbsp of heavy cream
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
1/4 C water
2 Tbsp light corn syrup (I replaced this with white honey)
1 1/4 C granulated sugar
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract

For the Brownies:
3/4 C all-purpose flour, unbleached please
1/2 tsp baking powder
8 Tbsp unsalted butter
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
2 eggs, room temperature
1 C granulated sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 C pecans, chopped
1/3 C semisweet chocolate chips

For Topping:
25 pecan halves

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 325F and make sure you have an oven rack in the middle position. Line a 9 x 9 baking pan with tin foil, allowing the extra to hang over the edges. Lightly oil the tin foil.

2. In a double boiler over medium heat, melt your bittersweet chocolate, unsweetened chocolate, and butter until they are smooth. Remove from heat, and allow to cool slightly.

3. In a small bowl mix together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

4. In a large bowl whisk together the eggs, sugar, and vanilla together. Once the chocolate has cooled, whisk it quickly into the egg mixture. Make sure your chocolate isn't too hot so you don't end up with chocolate scrambled eggs. Add in the flour mixture, and stir together. Then toss in the pecans and chocolate chips, mixing thoroughly.

5. In a medium-size pan on the stove combine the water and corn syrup (or honey). Pour in the granulated sugar, making sure it does not touch the sides of the pot. Cover and bring to a boil over medium heat. Continue to cook this covered, until the sugar has completely dissolved and the liquid is clear.

6. Uncover and continue to cook until the caramel has reached a light amber colour. Do not stir with a spoon, just gently swirl the pot. It should look like this when it's ready.

7. Remove the caramel from the heat, and add the cream and salt. Make sure your hand is NOT over the middle of the pot as this will steam a lot. Whisk this together until the steaming and bubbling subsides. Stir in the butter and vanilla, and pour into a bowl and set aside.

8. Spread half of your brownie batter into the prepared 9 x 9 pan. Ontop of this, spread about 1/4 C of the caramel evenly over the brownie mixture. Top with the remaining brownie mixture, spreading it evenly. Then pour on another 1/4 C of the caramel and with the tip of a butter knife and swirl the caramel through the brownie.

9. Bake in your 325 preheated oven for 35 - 40 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out with only a few moist crumbs attached to it. Let cool on a rack for 2 hours!

10. Heat up your remaining caramel. I placed my bowl over a pot of simmering water, but if you have a microwave you can do it in there for about 45 seconds. Pour the caramel over the cooled brownie and spread it out evenly. Top with the 25 pecan halves, to make 25 even sized pieces of brownie.  Let cool in the fridge for a couple hours, or overnight if you can wait that long.

11. Using the tin foil hanging over the sides, lift the brownies out of the pan and cut into 20 - 25  pieces depending on how many pecans you used. These should be stored in the fridge, or like I suggested above frozen for a delicious treat every day. Enjoy!

Canning Deli Style Dill Pickles

If you'll remember I posted a bit more than a month ago about lactofermented deli dill pickles we were making in one of our crocks. Now, you don't need to can these pickles they are perfectly alright to keep in their brine in the refrigerator. However, in my case we make so many pickles that if I didn't can some my entire fridge would be composed up of 3 jars of jam and a bunch of pickles.

Incase you missed that post, here's the link:

Deli Style Dill Pickles

Ingredients and Equipment
1 Prepared recipe of deli-style dill pickles
7 1L canning jars and lids
1 Jar lifter
1 Lid lifter
1 Large stock pot
1 Boiling water bath canner, or another large stock pot
1 Ladle

Directions

1. Sterilize your canning jars, rings, and ladle in a large stock pot full of  boiling water for 10 minutes. Set aside until needed. Heat your snap lid tops in a bowl of hot water.

2. Drain the pickles out of your crock, reserving the brine. Set aside the pickles.

3. Strain the brine into a large pot, bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat and continue to boil gently for 5 minutes.

4. Pack your pickles into your sterilized jars, leaving a very generous 1/2 inch of headspace. Ladle the hot pickle brine into the jar, just to cover the pickles making sure to maintain the 1/2 inch of headspace.

5. Remove the air bubbles, wipe the rims of the jars. Place your lids on the jars, screwing to fingertip tight.

6. Place the jars in your canner (or stock pot), making sure they are completely covered with water. Bring to a boil and process for 15 minutes.

7. Remove the lid from the canner once 15 minutes have passed, turn off heat. Let the jars sit for 5 minutes, then remove and let sit at room temperature for 24 hours before storage.

Green Hot Dog Relish

Now this recipe may be a little presumptuous on my part, as I have yet to perfect the hot dog making technique. This winter however, when I do master it (because I will) I'd like to make sure I have some relish on hand! I'm not saying you can only use this on hot dogs, far be it from me to control your condiment usage. Explore and live wildly I say, plop it on a burger, sausage, in your tuna salad! Then come back and thank me later.

Note: Take the time to finely chop your vegetables for this by hand. I know the food processor would make this much quicker, but the texture of the final product will suffer.

Green Hot Dog Relish Recipe

Ingredients
6 medium green tomatoes, cored and finely chopped
1/2 lb green cabbage, cored and finely chopped
3 medium green bell peppers, seeded and finely chopped
2 medium red bell peppers, seeded and finely chopped
1 large white onion, finely chopped
2 Tbsp pickling salt
1 1/4 C granulated sugar
2 tsp mustard seed
1 tsp celery seed
1/2 tsp tumeric
1 1/4 C cider vinegar
1/2 C water

Directions

1. Prep all your vegetables. Once that is done, place them in a large bowl and sprinkle with the pickling salt. Stir this together well and refrigerate overnight.

2. Combine sugar, mustard seed, celery seed, tumeric, cider vinegar, and water together in a large pot. Cook; stirring frequently until sugar dissolves and the mixture is boiling.

3. Rinse your vegetables in a colander under running water. Drain, and add to your pot of boiling vinegar.

4. Continue to cook, until the mixture returns to a boil. Remove from heat.

5. Ladle hot relish into hot sterilized jars, leaving a 1/2 inch of headspace. Wipe your jar rims and place on snap lids. Can in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Turn heat off pot after the 10 minutes are done. Leave the jars in the water for another 5 minutes, then remove from pot and allow to cool undisturbed for 24 hours before storage.

Ruffled Grouse

Let me start out this post by saying there are pictures of a dead bird. I killed that bird, so that I could eat it. I understand that some people are vegetarians and do not believe in eating animals, that is fine. I on the other hand greatly enjoy eating animals, and do not want any negative commentary about my choice and methods in doing so. Thank-you.

September 15th marks the opening of small game season in my WMU (Wildlife Management Unit) in Ontario. Look around town and you can watch the mass exodus of men, women, and children in blaze orange getting in their trucks and heading out of town. While small game includes many different species of animals, ruffled grouse aka "partridge" is the prime target in this neck of the woods.

A ruffled grouse sunning itself on the road.



You may have noticed I refered to this bird as a partridge, it is not. That's local terminology and completely incorrect. A ruffled grouse is not in any way related to a partridge, just want to make sure that's clear.

The grouse is a forest dwelling bird, found across Canada and the Northern United States. These birds are non-migratory and spend their entire lives within a few hectares of where it was hatched. Suprisingly it's not a bird that spends much time in flight, being a primarily ground dwelling species. Since it lives in the thick brush of hardwood forests, the most flying it ever does is really hovering and gliding around.

Ruffled grouse can be found anywhere that alder, mountain ash, poplars, and birch are in abundance. They like to browse on the berries and buds, and nest in the deciduous trees. Being primarily grey, brown, and white in colour they can be extremely hard to spot especially when the leaves are still on the trees. The best way to hunt them is to walk slowly and quietly through thick brush in the forest, listening for movement. Occassionally you may spot a grouse sunning itself on the road, which is a great oppurtunity to snag one but they can be fast in taking off and once camoflauged in the brush again it can be almost impossible to spot one.

People may try to argue with you that hunting the ruffled grouse is not good for the overall population. This is highly untrue. Most hunters, if they are honest with themselves, are drive by hunters. They drive the back roads, old logging trails, and anywhere their ATV can take them. Most of the grouse spotted on these paths are the young, inexperienced birds; the majority of which will die in the winter due to lack of food, shelter, or being hunted by hawks and other predators. The mature, breeding grouse live deeper in the forest where you would need to pick your way through quietly to find them. Hunters work in cooperation with the MNR and respect the bag limit for birds, thus maintaining a healthy population.

If asked, I would say that ruffled grouse is one of my top favourite wild game meats. Some people claim that it has a very gamey taste, but I've successfully replaced it for chicken in many recipes with others not able to tell. Plucking and skinning a grouse is near impossible, their thin skin rips very easily causing endless frustration. I usually completely skin the bird, then either cook it covered in bacon or baste with fat to maintain moisture. So if you have your hunting license, I recommend getting out and finding some grouse for grouse pot pie, roasted grouse with bacon, grouse "nuggets", indian butter grouse...The possibilities are endless.

Now, I'm going to show you two close up pictures of a ruffled grouse we shot this morning. If you do not want to see this, I suggest you don't scroll down any further. It's neither bloody nor gory, I'm not cleaning it. So the choice is yours to make.

Relatively small bird.

See the colouring of the feathers? That's what camoflagues them so well in the deep brush.

Pumpkin Pie

If my last post didn't make you want to puree your own pumpkin, I'm sure this one will get you on the bandwagon. Canned pumpkin just isn't as good in this recipe, I'm sure people will tell you it's exactly the same...But it really isn't. So go buy a pumpkin and get roasting and make this pie!



Sarah's Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients
1 Pie crust recipe of your choice (I'll post mine tomorrow)
1 1/2 C pureed pumpkin
1 Tbsp flour (heaping please)
1 C dark brown sugar
1/4 tsp fine salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp mace
2 large eggs
1 C evaporated milk

Directions

1. Blind bake your pie crust for about 20 minutes at 425F, or for however long your recipe recommends. Remove from oven and let cool.

2. In a large bowl mix together pureed pumpkin, flour, and dark brown sugar until well incorporated.

3. Add in the salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and mace. Mix thoroughly as you don't want a pocket full of spice and the rest of the pie to be bland.

4. In a seperate bowl beat together the eggs and evaporated milk until just combined. Pour into pumpkin bowl, and mix together well.

5. Pour the pumpkin mixture into your cooled pie crust, and bake in the middle of your 425F oven for 15 minutes. Then lower the heat to 350F and continue baking for 35 minutes or until set. To test for set insert a knife into middle, if it comes out clean your pie is done.

6. Remove pie from oven and cool on counter until ready to serve. Serve plain or with whipped cream. Leftovers should be refrigerated.

Roasting and Pureeing Pumpkins

Now, I know the majority of people who read this blog most liekly know how to roast a pumpkin. However, since I am going to be doing a lot of pumpkin/squash recipes over the next little while that will require a roasted puree I thought I'd just over the basics.

I highly recommend roasting and pureeing your own squash, especially pumpkin. It's easy, tasty, and much cheaper than buying pureed squash in a can from the grocery store. I freeze the excess in recipe size portions, pureed pumpkin is not safe to can even in a pressure canner.

Ingredients and Equipment
Baking sheet lined with tinfoil
Sharp knife
Papertowels or cotton dishtowels
Spoon
Ice cubes
Foodmill or potato masher or food processor
Pie pumpkins

Directions
1. Preheat your oven to 400F, and place the rack in the middle of the oven.

2. Cut your pie pumpkins in half, and scoop out the seeds and pulp. Incase you're wondering, this is the approximate size of most pie pumpkins.



3. Wash your pumpkin seeds to remove all the pulp and gunk off of them. Spread them out on papertowels or clean cotton dishclothes to dry. You can see that I got a lot of seeds from two pumpkins. We'll save some for planting and dry and roast the rest for eating.



3. Place your pumpkins on the cookie sheet cut side down with a couple pieces of ice in each of the cavities. This will help them steam and cook more quickly without them becoming watery.

4. Roast your pumpkins for about an hour or until the flesh is tender. Flip them so the cut side is on the top and let them cool a bit, until they're just warm.



5. Using your spoon scoop out the flesh from the pumpkin and place it into your foodmill to puree. You can just mash all the pumpkin or puree it in your food processor if you want. I find I get the best texture through the foodmill for baking.



6. Once your pumpkin goes through the foodmill, it will look like little grains of orange rice. This is okay, and what's expected.



7. When you've put all your pumpkin through the foodmill, take a spatula or a spoon and mix it all together and you have delicious pumpkin puree!



8. Freeze in portions you would use for your favourite recipes.

Pressure Canning Tomatoes

The end of canning season will be coming soon, but not before many many batches of tomatoes. You can water bath can tomatoes, but the processing time is much longer. Which is why I prefer to pressure can them, I can get twice the amount of tomatoes done in a quarter of the time.

Equipment and Ingredients
Pressure Canner
1 L canning jars
Jar lifter
Lid lifter
Large Stock Pot
Pan for blanching
Large bowl/cooler
Ice
Citric Acid or lemon juice
Tomatoes (about 3lbs per jar)
White Vinegar

Directions

1. Fill your large stock pot with water, boil the mason jars, screw bands, and your ladle in the pot for 15 minutes to sterilize everything.

2. Place your new inserts in a bowl of very hot (but not boiling) water for 10 minutes.

3. While your jars are sterilizing, it's time to blanche and prep your tomatoes. In a large pan, start water to boiling. Cut all your tomatoes on the bottom with a X pattern. Drop the tomatoes into the boiling water for 30 seconds - 1 minute, then move immediately into a large bowl/cooler filled with the ice and cold water.

4. Once the tomatoes are all blanched and cooled, it's time to peel the skins off.



5. Remove the cores from the tomatoes, bruises, or any discoloured parts. Lastnight we decided to quarter the tomatoes, but you can leave them whole or halve them.



6. Take your sterilized jars out of the water. Put 1/2 tsp citric acid or 2 Tbsp lemon juice into each 1 L jar of tomatoes.

7. Start packing your tomatoes into the jars. We use a wooden spoon to press down the tomatoes so they are as tightly packed as possible. It's important to do this to make sure there are no air bubbles in your product. You want to leave a very generous 1 inch of headspace in each jar.

8. Wipe the rims of the jars with a papertowel dampened with white vinegar to kill any possible bacteria. Place on the inserts and screw bands, only fingertip tightening.

9. Place in your pressure canner, and follow your manufacturer's directions. I process my 1 L jars of tomatoes for 25 minutes at 10lbs pressure. Since there is no added liquid in this recipe they need to process slightly longer than if there was water.

10. Let canner return to normal pressure naturally, leave sit for another 5 minutes. Remove lid, and place jars on a heat proof surface and do not move for 24 hours.

Saving Squash Seeds

Every person who gardens, eventually realizes that a big portion of your cost is seeds. While seed trading can save you a lot of money, learning to save seeds from what you grow will virtually eliminate all cost to things you grow year after year.

There are different methods for seed saving that are dependent on the type of seed. Some seeds need a period of cold, some are fine just to dry. This post will focus on winter squash.

First, if you don't know what a winter squash is we should clear that up. There are several varieties that fall under this type. A winter squash unlike it's summer squash partner will store for several months over winter and is often not ripe until late August/early Septemner. For instance, a zucchini is NOT a winter squash whereas a butternut is. A few examples of winter squash are:
Pumpkins
Hubbards
Butternut
Acorn
Pepper
Potato
Sweet Dumpling
Spaghetti

Equipment
1 Winter squash (I used butternut in this photo)
Papertowels
Sharp knife
Cutting board
Small envelopes or jars

Directions.

1. Choose your original seeds. They should be non-hybridized, I always try to get "heirloom" varities of plants to make sure of this. There are many reputable online sources from which these can be purchased.

2. Make sure your plant does not cross-pollinate with any other squash varities in your garden. We grow our squash varities very far away from each other to prevent this from happening. If you only plant one variety of squash in your garden this is not a concern.

3. Grow your squash to maturity. Most seed packages will come with an estimate of how many days it will take for this to happen. You want it to be fully ripe when you pick it for seed saving. I always try to pick the squash that best represents what it "should" look like.

4. Using your knife, split the squash open sideways. Using a spoon scoop out all the seeds and pulp from inside the cavity.

5. Seperate the seeds from the pulp as much as possible. Under cool water gently rinse the seeds clean, making sure you don't lose any down the sink.

6. Lay out two layers of papertowels, newspaper or a cotton cloth. Spread your seeds out on this in a single layer to dry.

7. Let your seeds dry at room temperature for about a week.

8. Store your seeds in the small envelopes or jars. You'll want to keep them out of sunlight and away from moisture and humidity. Stored properly in a cool, dry place squash seeds will keep for 4 years.

9. Next year you may want to test your seeds for germination by placing them between damp paper towels to see if they germinate. Once they do you can plant them directly in the soil.

Homemade Yogurt

A good friend of mine asked me a couple weeks ago how to make yogurt at home. It's ridiculously simple and I'm surprised I never thought to do a blog on it before. I culture mine in my dehydrator over night, but you could easily use a cooler and some blankets to culture it.

Ingredients and Equipment
1 litre of milk (I use whole fat milk, more vitamins!)
125ml (1/2C) plain yogurt (use organic yogurt, with live cultures in it please!)
Bottles with lids (I use mason jars)
Dehydrator (or cooler with two thick blankets)
Candy/Deep fry thermometer

Directions

1. Heat your milk over medium heat in a large pot. Make sure your thermometer is in the milk, and heat gently stirring occassionally to 180F.



2. Take your yogurt out of the fridge and let it come up to room temperature. If it's too cold your milk won't culture.

3. Once your milk is up to 180F, remove it from the heat and allow it to cool to 105F. I find stirring it with a wooden spoon helps it cool faster, if you're impatient you can cool it in a sink with cold water around the pot.



4. Pour boiling water in all your glass jars to sterilize them and warm them for the yogurt they shall soon receive.

5. Once your milk has reached 105F, remove about 1/2 C of it and whisk it thoroughly together with your room temperature yogurt. Pour it into the rest of the milk and whisk thoroughly.

6. Dump the hot water out of your glass jars, and ladle your yogurt mixture into them. Sometimes for fun, I'll put jam in the bottom of the yogurt jar to make a "fruit bottom" style.

7. If you're using a dehydrator place all your yogurt jars in now, turn on to the correct heat and culture for 11 - 12 hours for a nice thick yogurt. If you're using the blanket cooler method, place the yogurt jars in the cooler and cover with a blanket. Zip up or close the cooler and place in a warm place. Cover this with the other blanket, and leave undisturbed for 11 - 12 hours to culture.

8. Place the yogurt in the fridge for at least 3 - 4 hours before you eat it. Next time you want to make yogurt you can use this culture to start a new batch. I find after a while I need to start with a new grocery store culture as the bacteria becomes less active after a while. The yogurt will last about 2 weeks. Hope you enjoy!

Spicy Thai Noodles

I found this wonderful recipe out of an old Thai book we had sitting around in a box in our garage. I have no idea why it ended up there, but am I ever sad we didn't find it sooner! I had to make a few adjustments to it, but it's an easy and delicious dish for sure. This recipe only makes enough for 2 people to have as a main course, if you wanted to sure it as a side I would say it's easily enough for 4.



Thai Spicy Noodles with Pork

Ingredients
250g (8oz) rice noodles
250g (80z) pork tenderloin, trimmed and sliced into 1/4 inch strips
1/2 large red pepper, chopped
1/2 large green pepper, chopped
4 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp minced garlic
2 - 4 fresh hot chilies, minced (we used 2 and I found it pleasantly warm)
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 Tbsp oyster sauce
3 Tbsp water
20 whole leaves thai basil (I substituted sweet basil, but reduced it to 10 leaves)
1/2 tsp cornstarch
1 Tbsp water

Directions

1. Soak the rice noodles in lots of cold water for at least 1 hour.

2. Heat the oil in a wok (or large frying pan). Add in the garlic and chilies and cook for about 30 seconds until fragrant. Toss in the pork and cook for 2 minutes. Next add in the soy sauce, sugar, oyster sauce, and water and stir-fry for another 2 minutes.

3. Add your bell peppers and 3/4 of the basil leaves, let this cook until the peppers begin to soften. Take the wok off the heat.

4. Bring 3 C of water to a boil. Drain your noodles out of the cold water and put in the pot of boiling water, cooking for 30 seconds. Drain and transfer it into a serving dish or directly to plates.

5. Mix the cornstarch with the remaining Tbsp of water, add this to the pork mixture and place back on heat. Cook for about 1 minute or until thick.

6. Top the noodles with the pork mixture and garnish with remaining basil leaves.

This was a seriously amazing dish, if you've never had Thai food this is a great one to start with!

Malaysian Coconut Red Curry Beef

Incase you haven't heard, I'm heartily sick of poultry of any kind! Everything we seem to eat lately is grouse, turkey, chicken, duck, goose, any type of bird really. I needed a break! Something different, something that doesn't have wings. In my exploration in my freezer, I came across two bison steaks that haven't been used. Don't ask me how they escaped earlier detection, but their time had come.



Malaysian Coconut Red Curry "Beef"

Ingredients
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1/4 C unsalted raw cashews
1/4 C raisins (the kind without sulfur please)
1 lb boneless grilling steak, thinly sliced (it's important to use a good steak for a tender finished product)
2 - 3 hot chile peppers, minced (do it to your own heat tolerance)
1 large red bell pepper, chopped
1 C Basic Gravy (recipe follows at end)
1 C full fat coconut milk
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp freshly chopped cilantro
2 tsp freshly chopped mint

Directions

1. In a large deep skillet, heat half of the vegetable oil over medium heat. Add the cashews and raisins, cook until the cashews are toasted and the raisins start to get all puffed up. Remove from the pan leaving as much oil behind as possible. Set them aside, you'll need them again later.

2. Add the beef to the pan in batches. Brown on both sides, adding more oil as you think it becomes necessary. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.

3. Reduce your heat and add any remaining vegetable oil you have to the pan. Toss in your chile peppers and the bell pepper, cook until the start to soften. Stir in the Basic Gravy and cook that for about a minute.

4. Add in your beef, along with any juices that may have come out in the bowl. Stir this together in the pan until it's well mixed. Pour in the coconut milk and soy sauce, then bring up to a simmer.

5. Reduce your heat and continue to simmer (stirring often), until your sauce has thickened slightly and the beef is cooked to your personl preference (around 8 minutes for medium, my favourite).

6. Stir in the cilantro and mint, and season to taste with salt. Serve it sprinkled with the cashews and raisins.

Basic Gravy

Ingredients
1 280z can of tomatoes with their juices
2 C roughly chopped onions
1/3 C whole garlic cloves, peeled
1/3 C thinly sliced, peeled gingerroot
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1/4 C ground coriander
1 Tbsp ground tumeric
1 Tbsp garam masala
2 tsp salt
1 tsp cayenne pepper

Directions
1. In your food processor, puree the tomatoes with the juice until they are smooth. Set aside in a seperate bowl.

2. Add the onions, garlic, and ginger to your food processor. Pulse them together until they are finely chopped, but not juicy please!

3. In a skillet on the stove, heat your oil over medium-high heat. Add your onion mixture and cook it, stirring until the onions start to release their liquid.

4. Stir in the coriander, tumeric, garam masala, salt, and cayenne pepper. Continue to cook this mixture until it starts to dry out and gets thick and pasty (like tomato paste).

5. Stir in your pureed tomatoes, and bring it all up to a simmer. Reduce your heat and boil very gently, stirring very often until it has thickened slightly.

6. Use as directed in recipe, and freeze extra in 1/2 C portions.

Chipotle Chili Soup

Well the weather on Monday was horrid, it was cold and raining and I definitely needed something to warm up my insides. I wasn't in the mood for the long cooking process of a stew, so I decided on a soup. This was meaty and delicious, and with the addition of the black beans very filling! It made enough for about 8 bowls full, and I served ours with corn tortilla chips and sour cream for those that wanted it.



Chipotle Chili Soup

Ingredients
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 1/2 lbs of ground meat (beef is original but I used venison)
6 garlic cloves, finely minced
2 medium onions, chopped
1/4 C of chili powder
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
400 ml crushed tomatoes (just under 2 C)
6 C beef stock (homemade is preferable, but if using store but low sodium please)
2 - 3 Tbsp chipotle chile peppers in adobo, minced (add according to your heat preference)
4 C black beans, already cooked please

Directions

1. In a large soup pot, or Dutch oven; heat oil over medium heat. Add the ground meat and cook, breaking up into small pieces until it's no longer pink. Drain any fat, and add the garlic and onions cooking until the onions are soft.

2. Add the chili powder, salt, and pepper; saute until fragrant.

3. Toss in your tomatoes, beef stock, and chipotle chiles and bring up to a boil. Reduce your heat and continue to simmer for about an hour.

4. Put in your black beans, and cook for another 10 minutes. You should taste it at this point and adjust for salt and pepper preferences.

5. Ladle into bowls, top with a dollop of sour cream if using and eat with corn chips! Delicious.

Simple Chicken and Vegetable Curry

Incase you haven't noticed yet, we're kind of curry fanatics at this house. I'm sure most of the recipes I post aren't as authentic as they could be, but sometimes it's important just to step out of your comfort zone in the kitchen and try something new. You and your family will thank me for it.



Chicken and Vegetable Curry

Ingredients
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 cinnamon stick, about 4 inches long, broken in half
1 tsp cumin seeds
4 small boiling potatoes, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1/2 tsp sea salt
8 skinless, bone-in chicken thighs
1 1/2 C basic gravy (recipe at end)
1/2 C chicken stock, or water if you don't have stock on hand
2 C cauliflower florets, cut small please
1 C green peas, if frozen please thaw
Chopped cilantro for garnish

Directions
1. In a deep, large skillet heat 1 Tbsp of the oil over medium heat. Add the cinnamon stick and cumin seeds; cook until the cumin seeds start to pop and smell fragrant.

2. Add the potatoes and salt, continuing to cook until the potatoes start to brown. Transfer everything to a bowl.

3. Reduce your heat and add the remaining oil to the pan. Add the chicken and brown, about 4 minutes per side.

4. Return all your chicken pieces to the pan. Add your gravy and cook, stirring for about 1 minute. Add the stock and bring everything up to a simmer, stir in your potatoes.

5. Turn your heat down to low, cover the pan and allow to simmer. Stir it occassionally and turn your chicken once during this process.

6. Once potatoes are tender (about 15 minutes), stir in your cauliflower and peas. Cover again and simmer until the juices in the chicken thighs run clear (about another 15 minutes).

7. Discard the cinnamon. Season to taste with extra salt, serve in bowls garnished with cilantro.

Basic Gravy

Ingredients
1 280z can of tomatoes with their juices
2 C roughly chopped onions
1/3 C whole garlic cloves, peeled
1/3 C thinly sliced, peeled gingerroot
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1/4 C ground coriander
1 Tbsp ground tumeric
1 Tbsp garam masala
2 tsp salt
1 tsp cayenne pepper

Directions
1. In your food processor, puree the tomatoes with the juice until they are smooth. Set aside in a seperate bowl.

2. Add the onions, garlic, and ginger to your food processor. Pulse them together until they are finely chopped, but not juicy please!

3. In a skillet on the stove, heat your oil over medium-high heat. Add your onion mixture and cook it, stirring until the onions start to release their liquid.

4. Stir in the coriander, tumeric, garam masala, salt, and cayenne pepper. Continue to cook this mixture until it starts to dry out and gets thick and pasty (like tomato paste).

5. Stir in your pureed tomatoes, and bring it all up to a simmer. Reduce your heat and boil very gently, stirring very often until it has thickened slightly.

6. Use as directed in recipe, and freeze extra in 1/2 C portions.

Pho Ga (Vietnamese Chicken and Rice Noodle Soup)

Once a year we make a trek down to Southern Ontario to visit my mother. Not only do we visit but stock up on essentials that just aren't available up here. This trip also involves eating at some great restaurants, including Thai, Japanese, Chinese, and Ethiopian. My husband fell in love with Pho, a Vietnamese spicy soup. So every once and a while we recreate it at home and it's always a big hit!



Pho Ga

Ingredients
1 piece of gingerroot, unpeeled and about 4 inches long
1 medium onion, unpeeled and cut in half
8 C homemade chicken stock (if using store bought get low sodium)
1 lb chicken wings (I use the tips we save in the freezer)
2 whole star anise
1 cinnamon stick, about 4 inches long
4 oz flat rice noodles
2 Tbsp fish sauce
2 tsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp sea salt
Pinch of black pepper
2 chicken breasts, boneless/skinless and cooked thoroughly, then thinly sliced
1 C mung bean sprouts
1/4 C thinly sliced green onions
1/4 C mint leaves
1/4 C cilantro leaves
4 slices of lime for garnish

Directions

1. Heat a heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the ginger and the onion sauteeing until the are blackened all over. This usually takes about 5 minutes, and is done in a dry pan. NO OIL!

2. In a large pot bring your chicken stock to a boil. Add the chicken wings, blackened ginger, blackened onion, star anise, cinnamon. Reduce heat and continue to simmer for about 45 minutes.

3. Skim the fat off the the stock and strain through cheese clothe. Discard all the solids, you should have a nice clear stock now.

4. Cook your rice noodles to the packages directions (they're all different).

5. Bring stock back to boil in a clean pot, stirring in the fish sauce, brown sugar, salt, and pepper. You should taste it at this point to see if it has enough salt and pepper for you.

6. Divide your noodles among 4 bowls. Top the noodles with slices of the cooked chicken breasts. Pour about 2 C of stock into each bowl.

7. Garnish this with the mung beans, green onions, cilantro, mint leaves, lime wedges, and sliced chile peppers if you so desire. You can squeeze the lime juice into your soup if you want or not. It's up to you.

Coconut Red Curry Shrimp

Everyone in my house loves curry, especially me. I was however, getting heartily sick of chicken! Every curry we've eaten lately has had chicken as the main protien and it was time to shake things up a little. Luckily this recipe is also naturally gluten and dairy free so no substitutions were necessary.

Note: You need 2 lime leaves for this recipe, if you don't have them you can substitute about a 1/2 tsp of lime zest. Add the zest at the same time as you add the juice.

Coconut Red Curry Shrimp



Ingredients
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 red bell pepper, sliced
2 lime leaves
1/4 salted, roasted peanuts (ground up or finely chopped)
1 Tbsp palm sugar (brown sugar if you don't have palm)
1 can coconut milk (400ml)
1/4 C water
2 tsp Thai red curry paste
1 lb medium raw shrimp, peeled, deveined, and dry
2 Tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice
1 package of rice noodles, cooked following package directions
Mint or basil for garnish

Directions

1. In a large pan, heat oil over medium heat. Saute the red pepper and lime leaves for about 2 minutes or until the start to soften.

2. Add ground peanuts, sugar, coconut milk, water, and curry paste to pan. Stir to combine thoroughly. Reduce the heat and boil gently for 5 minutes or until the sauce thickens slightly.

3. Cook your rice noodles according to the packages directions.

4. Stir the shrimp into the sauce, stirring often, until they are pink and opaque. I find this usually takes about 3 minutes. Stir in the lime juice (and zest if you didn't have leaves).

5. Place rice noodles in bottom of bowl, top with the curry and garnish with either mint or basil.

Enjoy!