Citrus Wafer Cookies

These cookies pack quite a bit of citrus punch in each bite. They look like they would be extremely delicate but they had this sort of caramel-y chewiness to them. Not that they tasted like caramel, they just felt a bit like it.

So citrus-y. The bit of orange peel on the tops was perfect. Me thinks, I do, that if you like orange and lemon flavors, you will love these cookies.

A note: I realized upon typing out the recipe that I used baking powder instead of soda. That could be why mine don’t look quite like the picture in the magazine. Or perhaps it’s because I used cane sugar, which has a bit of color to it. It’s not snowy white like regular sugar. At any rate, I’ll still make these cookies again, hence the posting of this recipe.

Citrus Wafer Cookies

Adapted from a Taste of Home recipe

1/2 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup cane sugar

1 egg

1 t orange extract

1 t vanilla extract

1 t orange zest

1 t lemon zest

1 cup unbleached flour

5 t cornstarch

1/4 t  baking soda

pinch salt

very thin strips of orange zest

Cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add the egg, extracts, and zests and beat well. Combine the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt. Mix into creamed mixture. Drop by teaspoons onto parchment lined baking sheets. Top with a strip or two of orange zest. Bake at 350 for about 8 minutes or until barely golden.

Remove from pans and cool on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container between sheets of wax paper.

Yield: about 4 or 5 dozen

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Yammy Turkey

I can’t say my whole family liked this dish but I loved it. It’s pretty much just turkey gravy with mashed sweet potatoes on top. It’s like a slice of Thanksgiving after Thanksgiving is over.

The potatoes make this dish so sweet. That’s why I loved it but also why Brad wasn’t a fan. I guess he doesn’t like sweet gravy. Which, admittedly, is a little weird to think about but I still enjoyed it.

I took these pictures before I baked the casserole since the light was better in the afternoon when I assembled it. Just imagine that the gravy bubbled up on the edges of the mounds of potatoes and the tips of the potatoes darkened a bit. Very pretty, if I do say so myself.

Yammy Turkey

Recipe adapted from my Aunt Amber’s

1/2 cup chopped onion

butter, for sauteing

3 cups chopped cooked turkey (or chicken)

2 1/2 cups turkey gravy (a thick gravy works better than a thin one)

3 – 4 cups mashed sweet potatoes

1/2 cup hot milk

salt/pepper to taste

Saute onions in a bit of butter until soft. Add turkey and gravy. Pour into a casserole dish. Beat potatoes and milk together. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Dollop on top of the turkey. Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes or until heated through and bubbly around the edges. Serve immediately.

Serves: 6

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Vegetable Soup

I love soup. You take random bits of food floating around in the fridge and freezer, throw them in a pot, and call it a meal. Easy, economical, and wholesome.

The flavor of simple soups such as these really depends on the stock you use. I prefer homemade but if you are going with something bought, make sure it’s one whose flavor pleases you because you will definitely taste it in the end result.

Have fun with soup! I very rarely follow a recipe so I didn’t write down any amounts for the ingredients here. That’s the great thing about it. If you don’t have an ingredient you can very well skip it or replace it with something else.

Vegetable Soup

chopped onion

olive oil

cubed potatoes

diced carrots

stock (chicken, beef, vegetable, whatever)

frozen corn

chopped cabbage

chopped beet greens or Swiss chard

Italian seasonings or herbs of choice

salt

pepper

Saute the onions in the oil until soft. Add the potatoes, carrots, and enough stock to cover. Simmer until veggies are nearly soft. Add the remaining ingredients along with more stock to make the soup a nice consistency. Simmer another 20 minutes or until all veggies are cooked. Serve with bread, biscuits, or muffins.

Yield: as much as you want!

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Harvest Stew

Bennet’s first meal. He thought it strange but he ate a good tablespoon so I was happy.

The big kids were entranced. Now I’ll be fighting little fingers trying to stick tidbits and morsels into the poor baby’s mouth.

I’m not really pushing the solids on Bennet yet. I just do it occasionally for fun. I don’t follow the “recommended” timeline for feeding baby. (What IS recommended, anyway? There’s so many conflicting reports out there.) I just go with the flow and do what I think is best for baby at the time. Jada didn’t get solids until she was 8 months, Tage was 7 months. Bennet’s almost 7 months so probably at some point in the next few weeks I’ll get a little more serious about things.

I also don’t follow the charts for WHAT to feed baby when. I figure as long as I’m feeding him completely unprocessed foods, then he should be fine. I’m pretty sure the doc would gawk if I told her my babies had raw cow’s milk before they were one. And that Bennet’s first food was a combination food instead of a single food puree. Obviously I’m a bit of a rebel. But my kids are healthy and they eat their vegetables with little to no complaint so I think I’m doing something right.

Eh, I could go on and on about my opinions concerning feeding kids. But that’s not for today. Or maybe ever. I’m not very good at writing such things. I’m terrified of writing my opinions, actually.

So anyway, Bennet’s first meal was vegetable soup. He liked it well enough and didn’t get diaper rash or a stomach ache from it. I call that a success.

This is just a simple stew of vegetables. I’ve adapted it from Extending the Table, a world community cookbook.

Harvest Stew

adapted from page 91 in Extending the Table

3 T olive oil

1/2 a onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

2 t chili powder

salt and pepper to taste

2 pints canned diced tomatoes

4 cups peeled, cubed butternut squash

2 cups corn kernels

1 1/2 cups chopped cabbage

1 cup chopped greens (kale, chard, spinach, you know the drill)

Heat the oil in a soup pot. Add the onion and saute lightly. Add the garlic, chili powder, salt and pepper. Stir and saute another minute or so. Add the tomatoes, squash, corn, and cabbage. If using kale, add it now, too. Simmer for 45 minutes or until squash is soft and flavors are melded. If using chard or spinach, add it near the end of the simmering time.

If serving soup to baby, puree until fairly smooth. Allow to cool until just warm.

Yield: 2 quarts?

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Butternut Squash Bars

It is definitely fall around here. The leaves are slowly dropping. I’ve given the chickens free run of the garden. And we’ve been eating pumpkin for a couple of weeks now.

Ahh. October is the best month of the year. It’s so pretty and I’m finally finished with the majority of the preserving work. I can relax. I can sew. I can read more stories to the kids. And now when I’m in the kitchen, I’m baking a pie or rolling out pasta instead of loading the canner full of jars again. The other day it was homemade egg rolls and these butternut squash bars.

My littlest brother was here for the day and we needed something tasty to complete lunch. So I handed him a spatula and we whipped up this dessert.

Jada helped, too. She did a beautiful job of greasing her fingers, I mean the pan.

These bars are so moist. Lots of pumpkin flavor with a light vanilla glaze. Almost as good as pumpkin whoopie pies. Definitely easier to make, though.

The original recipe used a half-sheet pan but I have to cut it in half and use a quarter sheet or else we gorge ourselves. It’s pretty sad. But that means they are tasty, right?!

Butternut Squash Bars

Adapted from Simply in Season, page 219

1 cup butternut squash (or pumpkin) puree

slightly heaped 1/2 cup sugar

6 T peanut oil

2 eggs

1 t vanilla

1/4 t salt

3/4 cup sprouted whole wheat pastry flour

1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1 t baking powder

1/2 t baking soda

1/2 t cinnamon

Beat together the squash, sugar, oil, eggs, vanilla, and salt. In a separate bowl, stir together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. Combine the two mixtures and pour into a greased quarter-sheet pan (or 9 x 13 pan). Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan before drizzling with the glaze and cutting into squares.

Glaze

1/2 – 3/4 cup powdered sugar

1 t butter

1/4 t vanilla

milk

Mix 1/2 cup powdered sugar, butter, vanilla, and enough milk to make a thin glaze. If it seems too runny, add more sugar. Too thick, add more milk. Drizzle over the cooled bars.

Yield: 12 bars

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