Canning madness

Making Apple Butter


Strawberry Jam


Canning


Dehyrdating


Blueberries


Mangos


Ice chest and totes full of frozen fruit!

Pantry cooking - Yet another Salmon Recipe

Here's another we tired from the "100 day Pantry" from Jan Jackson. Of course we changed them up a bit. I used a 14.5oz can of salmon, used 1/2 cup fresh sour cream instead of the sour cream powder, 3/4 cup regular celery instead of dried and added 1 tsp of garlic powder. I used the crockpot, because who has time to watch the stove for 4 hours?

Creamy Salmon Chowder
Serves 4

2 (14oz) cans chicken broth
2 (5oz) cans salmon, undrained
1 (15oz) can corn, undrained
3/4 cup whole wheat berries
1/2 cup sour cream powder
1/2 cup dried celery
1/2 cup dried onion
1 Tbsp dill weed

Directions:
In a medium pot, whisk sour cream powder into chicken broth. Add remaining ingredients. Simmer on low until wheat is tender (4 hours on stovetop or 8 hours in crock pot).

Pantry cooking - Salmon Recipe

Hello, hello. I modified this recipe from the book "The 100-day Pantry" from Jan Jackson. Of course I made a few changes. Instead of simmering the noodles in broth, I cooked them with water. I also used a 14.5oz can of salmon and 8oz of pasta shells. (Get it? Fish and shells?) It was an easy recipe to cook out of the pantry.

Salmon Noodle Casserole
6oz noodles
1 (14oz) can vegetable broth
1-2 (6oz) cans salmon with juice
1 (6oz) can mushrooms, drained
1 (15oz) can green beans, drained
1 (10oz) can cream of mushroom soup
1 tsp onion flakes
1 tsp parsley flakes
1 tsp dill weed
1/8 tsp pepper

Directions
Simmer noodles in broth until softened. Drain, reserving liquid. Add all other ingredients and stir together. If mixture is too think, add in liquid from noodles. Spread mixture in a sprayed 8x8 pan.Bake @ 350F for 25 minutes.

Whoopie.. I won!!

Photo credit: http://www.fontplay.com/

Sweet indeed! Thanks Lisa for running such a delicious give-o-way!
The whoopie pies have been amazing.. and YES I want the recipe!
Visit Lisa's page here.

No Spend month - Week one

Week One totals:

Bus fare: $25
Gas: 35
Eating Out: 25
Massage: 25
B/Lunch/Din@moms 20
Coffee/kolaches 5

Total Spent: $135



Things we did for free this week:
-Went online and reserved/ordered books from the big downtown library. Rode our bikes to the library (no parking fees) and checked out those books. Saved $5
-We cut our hair at home over the weekend. I just trimmed mine, David's cut was a bit more involved. Saved $45.

Other ways we saved money:
-Cancelled subscriptions to 2 magazines. Saved $125
-Cancelled newspaper account. Saved $40
Total Saved: $215

We ended up going up to the lake this weekend. We planned to grill for lunch and dinner while we were there. Instead of buying food along the way, I used an old Girl Scout cooking tip. I created pouches of food ahead of time and we were able to put them on the grill. The basic idea is to assemble these foil packages at home, transport them to the grill, and have an easy meal with easy cleanup.

For the foil pouches I used 4 layers of aluminium foil about 12"x12" in size. I then sprayed the foil with PAM, placed cooked rice, frozen broccoli, diced cooked shrimp, shredded cheese, butter and spices (Italian dressing, garlic, salt and pepper) in the middle. I folded them over and placed in a large ziploc bag. Because I used frozen food items, they travelled and held well in the cooler. These packages can be made up ahead of time and put in the freezer.

Here's a great list of foil pouch recipes on About.com

We are looking good for week 2 of the challenge.

Dump Cake aka Apple Cobbler

One of my favourite desserts from my favourite auntie's. I am making this for David's co-workers.

:) Enjoy!


Dump Cake aka Apple Cobbler
Ingredients

* 1 Comstock canned apple pie filling
* 1 box of yellow or butter cake mix
* 2 two sticks of butter, melted

Cooking Instructions

Grease cake pan. Pour pie filling into the pan. Level the pie filling in the pan covering the bottom. Pour cake mix over the pie filling. Do not mix these layers. Pour the melted butter over the cake mix to cover the entire cake. Do not mix these layers.

Bake in a 350F degree pre-heated oven for 30 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes, serve with ice cream.

Thanksgiving 2008

Thanksgiving will be held at my house this year. So, I'm getting my recipes together. I found this one for Pumpkin Spice Lattes over at A Year of Crockpot Cooking... Are you excited?


The Ingredients.
adapted from Taste of Home's Halloween 2008 edition

--2 cups milk (I used 1%)
--2 T canned pumpkin
--2 T white sugar
--2 T vanilla (not a typo. it asks for tablespoons)
--1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
OR: 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/8 tsp cloves, 1/8 tsp nutmeg, and a teeny tiny pinch of ground ginger
--1/2 cup brewed espresso or 3/4 cup strong brewed coffee

--garnish with whipped cream (optional)

The Directions.

This will make enough for 2 people to have a big mug with a bit leftover. If you are having friends over, adjust the recipe accordingly. I used a 4-quart crockpot, but as small as a 1.5 quart will work with these amounts.

Add the coffee/espresso and milk to the crockpot. Whisk in the pumpkin, spices, sugar, and vanilla.

Cover and cook on high for 2 hours if everything is cold. Whisk again.

Ladle into mugs, and garnish with whipped cream and additional cinnamon. I added a cinnamon stick to be fancy.