Oatmeal Cake

Years ago, when I first married, I made this cake on a regular basis and then for some reason I stopped and forgot all about the recipe.

 Last night I remembered the cake and dug through my cookbooks.

 It's just as good as I remember.

Not sure how I ever forgot about this cake; maybe I just made it too much and we got tired of eating it? So glad I remembered to make it once again!

Sugar Cookies

My favorite sugar cookie recipe comes from a vintage Crisco cookbook I bought years ago for maybe 25-cents?

 I prefer to substitute margarine for the Crisco as it adds a better flavor.

 

The icing is just margarine, powdered sugar, vanilla and milk.

 

I love homemade cookies!

Peach Jelly

I love making jelly, so when a friend gave me some peaches, jelly was on my mind.

After letting the peaches sit on the counter for several day, they weren't ripe enough in the beginning, I started peeling and cutting the fruit into small pieces.

 

Sadly, the jelly didn't set up properly; even after I put it into the fridge.

 After reading on-line about how to save my jelly, I decided to give it a try. The directions I read about called for pectin powder that wasn't Sure-Jell.

For each quart (4 cups) of jam or jelly, mix  1/4 cup granulated sugar,  1/2 cup water, 2 tablespoons bottled lemon juice and 4 teaspoons powdered pectin in a large kettle. Bring to a boil while stirring. Add jam or jelly and bring to a rolling boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Boil hard for 30 seconds. Remove from heat, quickly skim foam and fill clean jars, leaving a  1/4-inch head space. Wipe jar rim with a clean, damp cloth. Attach lid; process in a boiling-water canner for 10 minutes.

After following the directions, I could tell right away that my jelly was going to set up and I'm very pleased with the results.

Pi Day

Yummy!

Sunday Afternoon

I love to relax on a Sunday, especially when the previous week has been a busy week.

Today Elizabeth and I whipped up some homemade butter; yes, making homemade butter is relaxing.

It still amazes me how simple butter is to make. 

One 16-ounce carton produces a nice amount.

We store our butter in small plastic cups with lids. These go directly in the freezer until it's time to eat some on crackers or homemade bread.

I just might have to make biscuits for supper with the leftover buttermilk!

Winter Stew

One cast iron pot....

 A small roast, seared and cubed...

 With added veggies...

Made an amazing stew!

Corn

 At the start of the Labor Day Weekend I bought 20 ears of corn at 20-cents each.

The corn took little time to process using a knife to cut off the kernels.

 Before I knew it I had a nice large bowl full of kernels.

 Which produced 8 pint jars plus two bags for the freezer; each bag held 2-cups.

At the end of our Labor Day Weekend I decided to buy more corn; this time 40 ears.

 And then I dug out more canning jars.

 In no time at all I had another nice amount of corn kernels.

 This time I ended up with 16 pint jars and 4 more bags of corn for the freezer.

All together I canned 24 pints and froze 6 bags of corn.

Not counting my jars and lids, which I already had, I spent a total of $12.

Smoked Brisket

We love grilled meat, especially smoked brisket.

By careful planning it's very possible to stretch this meat into several meals.

After eating on the meat the first night I then refrigerate the leftover brisket overnight. Once chilled I cut the brisket into manageable hunks.

Sometimes I slice the meat with just a sharp knife but this time I used a food slicer;

 Purchased for $3 buck at an estate sale.

By slicing the meat into thin strips we are able to make it stretch into more meals.

 One brisket makes a lot of slices!

After separating the slices there were enough for 5-meals; plus I still had extra slices in the fridge to be eaten as leftovers.

 All the irregular slices of meat are gathered together;

And cut into cubes for barbecue sandwiches.

I paid just over $15 for a 10-pound brisket. We've eaten on it 3-times plus the 5 meal size portions that are in the freezer. This makes a total of 8 meals from one brisket!

Crabapple Season

It's been several years since I've made crabapple jelly.

With all the wonderful rain we have had this summer the crabapples were big!

Elizabeth helped me wash them outside with the garden hose.

Then I put them on the stove to boil using my vintage pressure cooker.

I really love cooking with this pot.

The apples made enough juice for 2 batches of jelly.

Here is the first batch; all together I had over 2-dozen jars of jelly.

Homemade jelly makes a great gift that I plan to share this Christmas.

Homemade Pasta

 Homemade pasta noodles are amazing to make and amazing to eat.

The recipe is simple, 1-large egg to 1-cup flour.

 

Once the dough is ready it needs to be covered and allowed to rest for 3 or 4 hours.

 

I have a set of pasta cutters with roller that works on my Kitchen Aid mixer; which makes rolling out the dough so very easy.

I love how you can make your pasta noodles as long as you want;

And as thin as you like. 

 When cut, the noodles look just like hair.

 Ideally the noodles should hang to dry;

 But I place mine on clean dishtowels when cooking them right away.

 Homemade noodles cook in 4 to 5 minutes.

And they taste amazing!

I also make my own homemade spaghetti sauce using canned tomato sauce, spices and ground beef.