Owlhaven » Recipes

Canning Recipes

Owlhaven — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:48:13 +0000

Don’t miss: Avoiding the Back to School Wallet Pinch (by me) at Blogher.com

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This is the time of year when people get busy canning garden produce. Just in case you’re looking for a few good easy canning recipes, here are some of the recipes and videos I’ve shared over the years.

Mary Ostyn: Canning tomatoes the easy way from Mary Ostyn on Vimeo.

Mary Ostyn – How to Make Grape Jelly from Mary Ostyn on Vimeo.

Other canning recipes:

–Spicy Salsa

–Homemade Applesauce

– Apricot Jam

–Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

What other canning recipes would you like to see? Weigh in with your requests and I’ll pick the most-requested one and do another video!

West African Sweet Potato Soup

Owlhaven — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 04:36:14 +0000

(Gluten free)

Preparation Time: 30-40 minutes
Serves 6

1 large sweet potato, cubed
3 cups water

Bring water to boil in a large pot. Peel and cube sweet potato, adding to the water once it comes to boil. When water returns to a boil, turn heat down to medium, and let potatoes simmer for 10-15 minutes as you complete the next steps of the recipe.

1/2 of a large onion, minced
1 cup fresh green beans, cut into ½ inch pieces
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon olive oil

While sweet potatoes are cooking, chop onions and green beans. Melt butter and oil in a medium skillet on high. Add onions and let cook, stirring frequently, until onion is wilting and getting browned bits, about 3 minutes. Add green beans and continue cooking on high for 3-5 minute more, until beans soften and start to get some browned bits. Then scoop onion and green beans into the pot with the sweet potatoes and continue simmering soup on medium low.

In a blender combine the following ingredients:

2 cups pureed tomatoes
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 cloves garlic
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 tablespoon salt
¼-½ teaspoon cayenne, depending on how much heat you like

Puree until mixture is smooth and thick. If it gets too thick to process well, take a ladle or two of water out of your sweet potato pot and pour it into the blender. When the contents of the blender looks creamy and well mixed, add it to the simmering sweet potato/onion mixture. Stir to combine and let simmer on medium low for 5-10 more minutes to combine flavors.
Serve with good bread and a salad.

Cool summer “cooking”

Owlhaven — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 21:11:18 +0000

Oh, I love main-dish salads in the summertime, especially ones that use the lovely garden produce that is easily found at this time of year. Even better if the recipe calls for crab… [continue reading at myrecipes.com]

Salad heaven

Owlhaven — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 21:36:18 +0000

When you pick 15 cabbages in one morning, it’s a pretty sure bet there’s all manner of salad in your future. Recently I made a great Thai Pasta Salad that was inspired by the recipe here on Casual Kitchen, one of my very favorite cooking blogs. The salad is perfect on a hot day, and is even tastier once it has been refrigerated overnight. (It’ll easily last in the fridge for 3-4 days).

Thai Pasta Salad

Serves 6

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 T. olive oil
1 lb box of dried linguine
1 red or green bell pepper, chopped
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
4 cups finely chopped green cabbage
2 carrots, cut julienne-style
1 zucchini, cut julienne-style
1 white or yellow onion, finely diced
sesame seeds, optional

Directions:
1) Season the chicken pieces with cayenne and/or black pepper. Heat oil in a large non-stick pan and then sear the chicken on high heat for a few minutes. Cook it through, but try not to overcook. Set aside.

2) While chicken cooks, mix up ingredients for the dressing, below. Add 1/4 cup of the dressing mixture to the cooked chicken and stir to evenly coat chicken. Let sit a few minutes, to allow the dressing and chicken flavors to combine.

Dressing Ingredients:

1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup soy sauce
4 cloves garlic, chopped finely
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon oregano
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro (optional)
1 tablespoon fish sauce (optional)

3) Cook linguine according to directions. While water is boiling/pasta is cooking, chop all the veggies. Combine pasta with the chopped veggies and the rest of the dressing mixture. Add the chicken and stir well. Top with sesame seeds if desired. Can be served warm or cool.

Since my hubby has already started giving them to neighbors…

Owlhaven — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 22:31:18 +0000

It’s begun already. Earlier it seems than most years. I’m awash in zucchini. I vowed to pick them tiny, I really did. It’s so much easier to pick/eat/give away 6-inch zucchinis than 18-inch monsters. But then we went camping and came back to plants that had gone berserk in our absence. John and I picked 10 zucchini on Monday alone, mostly big ones. John gave one away to a neighbor driving by on his tractor. You could tell it is still early in zucchini season because the neighbor took it with pleasure. A month from now he’ll be running from us.

Here are Tuesday’s zucchini, along with plums, raspberries and the first of the green beans. At least I caught a few at the desired 6-inch size instead of the bully-big-brother size. But what to do with the abundance that is now overflowing our fridge? Monday I used two huge ones– about 8 cups of cubed zucchini –in hamburger zucchini stir-fry. Today there’s zucchini bread on the agenda. And I’ve got a few new recipes to try. There are these nice looking zucchini fries from Dinner, A Love Story. Maybe lunch? Smitten Kitchen has a gorgeous zucchini and ricotta galette. Maybe dinner? And, the most pre-emptive zucchini strike of all: Edible Squash Flowers from Wise Bread. Those recipes, along with my plan to pick zukes TINY should help my current zucchini crisis. What about you? Anybody begged you to take a zucchini off their hands lately?

Lemon Curd Cake with Raspberry Sauce

Owlhaven — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 06:02:16 +0000

OK, here’s another recipe I tried from The Berry Bible. If you already have berries, this is very affordable. It is elegantly delicious, and it comes together really quickly. I modified it just a bit. Most notably, I didn’t have fresh lemons, so I used bottled lemon juice and orange zest. I rounded half-tablespoon measures of butter up to whole tablespoons to simplify measuring (ie: 7-1/2 T became 8 T. and 3-1/2 T. became 4 T.). And my raspberries were quite tart, so I added sugar to the raspberry puree. I think this would work equally well with strawberries. If you don’t happen to have berries, the cake would also be delicious topped simply with powdered sugar and whipped cream.

Lemon Curd Cake

Makes 8 servings

Ingredients

2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter
2 large eggs
1-1/2 cups Lemon Curd (recipe follows)
2 cups fresh raspberries, rinsed, drained and pureed with 1/2 cup sugar, plus a handful of berries set aside for garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8- inch square pan and line it with parchment paper. (I actually doubled this recipe and made it in a 10×13 pan. ) Put flour, sugar, and butter into a food processor and pulse until mixture looks like bread crumbs. Add eggs and process until it forms a soft dough.

Press 2/3 of the dough into the bottom of the pan. Spread with lemon curd and then crumble the remaining dough over the curd layer. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until golden brown. Let cool in pan.

To serve, ladle some raspberry puree into the center of a dessert plate. Set a piece of the cake on top and garnish with raspberries. You may also add a sprinkle of powdered sugar and a dollop of whipped cream if you like.

LEMON CURD

Makes about 1-1/2 cups

zest of one orange or two lemons
1/2 cup lemon juice (bottled, or about 2 lemons worth of juice)
1 cup sugar
4 tablespoons butter
2 large eggs, beaten in a medium sized bowl

Finely grate the lemon or orange zest and combine it with the lemon juice in a saucepan. Add sugar and butter and warm until the butter has just melted. Remove from heat and very slowly pour half of the lemon juice mixture into the beaten eggs. Whisk briskly as you pour so that the eggs do not begin to cook. Once the juice is well mixed into the eggs, add remaining juice and whisk again. Return to the saucepan on the stove over low heat, and heat 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens.

Breakfast this morning

Owlhaven — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 06:21:54 +0000

…how I got from “I’m not cooking” to this.

Book Giveaway: The Berry Bible

Owlhaven — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 18:51:56 +0000

We’re just moving into berry season on our three acre micro-farm. Yesterday my 5 and 8 year old daughters spent half an hour picking (and eating) raspberries. Not many actually made it inside, but I felt pretty special when they graced me with half a cup of berries, complete with a note that said, ‘We love mom.”

Berries are better than candy to me. Give me strawberries and I’ll happily skip ice cream or cookies. Off-season prices are way too rich for my budget, so I enjoy my berries in summertime. One exception: Costco frozen blueberries. I can usually buy a 4-lb bag for $8. That’s enough berries for several blueberry-apricot crisps and a batch or two of blueberry pancakes or muffins. Not bad.

Given my love of berries, I was delighted when I was offered a copy of The Berry Bible by Janie Hibler. This 258 page book contains 175 recipes, plus lots of gardening information about the various berry plants and where they best grow. The recipes range from desserts and drinks to sauces for fabulous sounding main dishes. I tried the Blackberry-Blueberry Cardamom Muffins, and wow, was I impressed. Possibly the best muffins I’ve ever made. Would you like a copy of this book? Comment by clicking on the title of this post, and tell me your favorite thing to do with berries. I’ll pick a winner on Friday!

Budget makeover and cherry pie

Owlhaven — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 20:21:04 +0000

Thanks to all of you who volunteered for a budget makeover! In just 24 hours I heard from two dozen families, so you are not alone! I will be contacting the family I’ve chosen in the next day or two, but I’ll keep the emails of everyone who contacted me just in case I end up doing another budget makeover in the future. And I’ll let you know when my budget makeover post goes up on BlogHer, probably sometime in August.

Yesterday the kids and I made cherry pie. Anyone else in the mood? I shared the filling recipe over at myrecipes.com and used PW’s recipe for pie crust. Yum! Makes me wonder why on earth we don’t have a cherry tree around this place.

Mango Ice Cream

Owlhaven — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 01:56:01 +0000

Check it out over at MyRecipes.com