Finally, a better night's sleep (I cheated and took a melatonin tablet!). 5 AM and 28°.
I let our nice weather pass and never did get any outside yard work done.....somehow when winter hits and the trees loose their leaves, I am done outside and it is very hard for me to get motivated to garden again.
I will milk this morning.
Yesterday I made pumpkin bread using my frozen butternut squash from a few years ago. I put raisins and nuts in two loaves and left one plain. My family never wants anything added. This is a recipe I have been using for a very long time and makes three loaves.
Pumpkin Bread
Preheat Over to 350°
(I originally got this recipe from MIL)
3-1/3 cup flour
2 teas. baking soda
1-1/2 teas. salt
1 teas. cinnamon
1 teas. nutmeg
1 cup oil
4 eggs
2/3 cup water
1 can pumpkin
3 cups sugar
1 cup nuts, optional
Sift dry ingredients together, including sugar into mixing bowl. Make a well in center and add other ingredients. Mix well. Add nuts if desired.
Pour into three medium sized, greased and floured loaf pans or two large ones or 5 very small foil pans (for the holidays as gifts).
Bake for l hour or until done. Check with straw or bamboo skewers ( I love these). For the smaller pans I figure about 45 minutes.
Remove from pans and cool on rack.
Note: I rarely sift anything. I just fluff it with a wire whisk and then measure.
I just put all this into the mixing bowl and blend the dry ingredients first then add everything else and just mix until blended....don’t overdo it.
We will be butchering in about a month so I am trying to empty out the meat freezer. I found two very large bread bags filled with Jonathon apple cores and peelings and brought them down to the house. I dumped all in my maslin pan (it filled it to the top and I had to press down to get the lid one) added some water and apple juice (I keep in the freezer for adding to various apple things for extra flavor) and cooked it until soft. I then strained it into a bowl for apple jelly and then ran the rest through my Foley Food Mill and got enough pulp to make 2- 1/2 pints of apple butter. I have a quart of juice for making jelly which I hope to get done today.
Just a note about the maslin pan. If you do a lot of food processing, you will love this pan! I don't know how I got by without it all these years. They are expensive but worth it. I have used it for apples, for cheese making, boiling large amounts of sweet corn, canning tomatoes, cooking down anything. The bottom is very thick and heavy and if I place the pan on my lowest burner, I can simmer all day without anything scorching. I did have to stir the apple butter often because of the sugar content.....it never scorched though.
I hope the Kindle comes today.....I have been using my Kindle PC app and reading at my desk. My sis and daughter have 'loaned' me 3 or 4 books and I have purchased two .99 ones from Amazon. This technology just amazes me!
Note: I had a question about tallow making the soap 'greasy'. No, it does not. I run all ingredients through Soapcalc9 before making.
I let our nice weather pass and never did get any outside yard work done.....somehow when winter hits and the trees loose their leaves, I am done outside and it is very hard for me to get motivated to garden again.
I will milk this morning.
Yesterday I made pumpkin bread using my frozen butternut squash from a few years ago. I put raisins and nuts in two loaves and left one plain. My family never wants anything added. This is a recipe I have been using for a very long time and makes three loaves.
Pumpkin Bread
Preheat Over to 350°
(I originally got this recipe from MIL)
3-1/3 cup flour
2 teas. baking soda
1-1/2 teas. salt
1 teas. cinnamon
1 teas. nutmeg
1 cup oil
4 eggs
2/3 cup water
1 can pumpkin
3 cups sugar
1 cup nuts, optional
Sift dry ingredients together, including sugar into mixing bowl. Make a well in center and add other ingredients. Mix well. Add nuts if desired.
Pour into three medium sized, greased and floured loaf pans or two large ones or 5 very small foil pans (for the holidays as gifts).
Bake for l hour or until done. Check with straw or bamboo skewers ( I love these). For the smaller pans I figure about 45 minutes.
Remove from pans and cool on rack.
Note: I rarely sift anything. I just fluff it with a wire whisk and then measure.
I just put all this into the mixing bowl and blend the dry ingredients first then add everything else and just mix until blended....don’t overdo it.
We will be butchering in about a month so I am trying to empty out the meat freezer. I found two very large bread bags filled with Jonathon apple cores and peelings and brought them down to the house. I dumped all in my maslin pan (it filled it to the top and I had to press down to get the lid one) added some water and apple juice (I keep in the freezer for adding to various apple things for extra flavor) and cooked it until soft. I then strained it into a bowl for apple jelly and then ran the rest through my Foley Food Mill and got enough pulp to make 2- 1/2 pints of apple butter. I have a quart of juice for making jelly which I hope to get done today.
Just a note about the maslin pan. If you do a lot of food processing, you will love this pan! I don't know how I got by without it all these years. They are expensive but worth it. I have used it for apples, for cheese making, boiling large amounts of sweet corn, canning tomatoes, cooking down anything. The bottom is very thick and heavy and if I place the pan on my lowest burner, I can simmer all day without anything scorching. I did have to stir the apple butter often because of the sugar content.....it never scorched though.
I hope the Kindle comes today.....I have been using my Kindle PC app and reading at my desk. My sis and daughter have 'loaned' me 3 or 4 books and I have purchased two .99 ones from Amazon. This technology just amazes me!
Note: I had a question about tallow making the soap 'greasy'. No, it does not. I run all ingredients through Soapcalc9 before making.
