Jennifer's Junky Life ~

Pinterest Geared Apology

My apologies to all of you Pinners out there for the influx of Smitten Kitchen food pins lately! I'm a huge fan.

Was that really necessary to say that..?

I'm working on my meal planning, and organizing recipes right now. (Is there supposed to be a comma there? I don't think there is but I put it anyway.) I'm gathering all sorts of recipes and meal ideas so I can write down several months' worth of meals at a time. Something I've always wanted intended to do but have never gotten around to.

I know it's something that will make life a whoooole lot easier around here and that's always a beautiful thing. Don't ya think?

Not only am I gathering supper ideas but also breakfast, lunch, and snack ideas. If I feel ambitious enough when I finally get it done. Which will probably take me two months to do at the rate I'm going. I'll share them on here from time to time.

Seeing as how 'procrastination' is my middle name, I can't guarantee any type of weekly share but we shall see!

I don't follow any food pins out there - and this is probably why! They can totally consume the boards! eek. sorry 'bout that. :) Remember: It takes only one little click to unfollow a board!

{Photo: This was taken yesterday (May 1). I realize that my child isn't food but I love her so much I could just eat her up sometimes! And, besides... She is sitting in a large stainless steel bowl after all...}

Sugar is Sugar

A lot of my favorite bar recipes call for sweetened condensed milk and I quit buying it a couple of years ago because of all the additives in it. And I haven't been able to find any that is organic. Recently, while on Pinterest, I came across a homemade recipe for sweetened condensed milk that called for milk powder. So, I ordered organic milk powder from Azure Standard and decided to try out the recipe.

I finally got around to it tonight and I'm really happy with how it turned out. Organic or not, sugar is still sugar and we try not to eat too much of it. I don't bake nearly as often as I used to but it's nice to have a treat once in awhile.

I made Chocolate Revel Bars this evening with the homemade sweetened condensed milk. They look like they turned out but I just pulled them from the oven so I'll wait until they're cooled before trying them. (eta: I tried them and they turned out great. I'll definitely be going this route in the future!)

Homemade Sweetened Condensed Milk

Recipe adapted from here.

4 T unsalted butter
3/4 c. sugar (recipe calls for 1 c.)
1 c. water
1 1/2 c. organic dry milk powder

Add butter, sugar and water to a saucepan and bring to a boil over low heat until the sugar dissolves. Turn off heat. Whisk in milk powder 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup at a time making sure it has dissolved before adding more each time*. Cool and use immediately. (Recipe states that it doesn't store well.)

*I still had a lot of lumps after mixing it - and I tried whisking it for a *very* long time before adding more after the initial addition. I gave up and when it had cooled enough, I stuck it in the blender to get rid of the lumps.

I didn't measure how much it made but I'd guess roughly about 1 1/2 cups to 1 3/4 cups. I used 1 1/4 cups of it in the bar recipe. It will appear like it's not as thick while it's still warm but it thickens as it cools. It's not as thick as the stuff in the can, but I think it had a nice texture to it.

A Good Day to Bake

eta: The french bread was a keeper! It was nice and crusty with a soft center. So good...! And, the Sweet Orange Buns are to.die.for. Next time, I will reduce the sugar, though, as there was way too much sugar in the filling and it almost dries out your mouth. The filling also bubbled over and spilled into the oven while it was baking - so it would be better to reduce it anyway. I reduced the butter in the filling, as well, when I made them but would reduce it further next time. We don't eat that much sugar or butter in our bakery anymore and I normally cut the sugar by half or nearly by half when I bake - but I didn't want to tweak these too much until I'd tried the original recipe first. Everyone loved them! end of edit.

It was almost -30° overnight. Winter is finally here! And I'm enjoying nothing more than hunkering down in a warm house with a nice little fire burning in the wood stove.

Source and recipe.

I decided to bake some Sweet Orange Buns today. Been wanting to try the recipe (above - I substituted 1 c. whole wheat flour in my recipe) since I came across it in my recent issue of Saveur magazine. They take 6+ hours to rise in the fridge so they're in there and will be ready for the oven this evening. Can't wait to try them. The filling that goes in them is divine! If that's any indication of how the buns will taste... man! Here is hoping.

Actually, I'm really crossing my fingers that we'll like them. I would love to have more roll options. The only one that we all love around here is this one and I would love to have more choices when it comes to sweet rolls.

I'm also working on a batch of bread. A new recipe, A French Bread. And as I'm sitting here, it's just about finished with the first rising and I'm afraid it's about to spill over my mixing bowl! I've made two different recipes in the past couple of years - and we liked them both but I'm still looking for 'the' one.

I love homemade bread. Is there anything better? I make it pretty often, but not necessarily every week. We don't eat sandwiches that often. Things changed pretty drastically when Carter was a baby and was diagnosed with severe peanut allergy.

That's really what snowballed me into making bread regularly (or fairly regularly) in the first place. We had been purchasing our bread from our local baker but he had an allergic reaction due to cross-contamination so I started making my own. I love that I know exactly what's in it and I can use all organic ingredients.

Incidentally, he's been reaction free for some time but he broke out in hives three times at my mom & dad's house over Christmas. Nerve wracking, to say the least... I don't know if it'll ever get 'easier' for me when that happens. I just get so worried that it will be worse than just hives - so far, we've been lucky. Only hives, and Benadryl has given him relief.

My family has been so awesome about his peanut allergy from the very beginning and they have never had peanut butter out or peanut butter bakery while we are there. They're very cautious about it and it means a lot.

We figured out it was probably because of peanut oils/peanut butter residue on some toys that had been played with by his little cousins who eat peanut butter (it was invisible - but there, nonetheless). We also figured out that one incident was due to one of my brothers... He had eaten peanut butter fudge and hadn't washed his hands after eating it, before coming over one night and was playing with Carter and his new remote control helicopter that he'd gotten for Christmas. An innocent mistake but a good reminder of how cautious we need to be with him!

He is super sensitive and no matter how much we do to protect him, there will always be reactions. All we can do is the best we can and to hope for the best every time.

Veleauu :: Fruit Soup or Berry Sauce

I made Veleauu today. The word is Finnish (pronounced something like fell-ee-ah), and I'm not sure if I have the spelling correct (any Finns out there who can verify that...?) but it's basically a 'fruit soup' or berry sauce. And I've often had is served over ice cream. It also tastes great plain or over french toast, waffles, pancakes and desserts.

(Hot off the stove.)

I'm sure there are many recipes out there but this is the one that I had in my box. Although, I don't think I've ever made it before. It's from my mom's recipe box - and I believe it came from one of my cousins on my dad's side of the family. It's quick and easy and delicious!

Veleauu

4 c. berries (I used: 1 c. tiny wild blueberries, 1 c. raspberries and 2. c. strawberries, diced up - all were frozen. I let them thaw for awhile with the sugar first.)

1 c. sugar (I used 1/2 c.)

2 c. water

3 T cornstarch

Combine the berries and sugar in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil while stirring. In a separate bowl dissolve cornstarch in water and add to berry mixture in saucepan. Bring the mixture back to a boil and stir until thickened. Serve warm.

It seems like most of the veleauu that I've had before has also had rhubarb in it. I'd planned to throw some into mine but completely forgot until it was already at the first boil. So, next time!

Which may be sooner than anticipated...

I managed to spill almost all of it on the floor and the curtains and shelves under my counter while I was putting it away! What a waste! The jar slipped while I was filling it and only about a cup of it remained in the jar after it fell. The shelves under the peninsula haven't been painted yet so now there is a nice big berry stain on them. Hopefully, we can paint over it this summer.

At least we were all able to enjoy a bowl of it, including Mark when he got home from work, before the big spill. It was so good. I haven't had it since I was a kid and had forgotten how much I liked it! Mark was asking about it recently so I thought I'd whip some up. He said it reminds him of eating it in our Calumet (MI) church when he would visit up there when he was a kid.

Meal Planning

My sisters, my mom, and I have started weekly meal planning. We each come up with our own menu for the week and share it through email. We started last week. This is our second week and I'm loving that we're finally doing this.

(The winter sun is my favorite! And we get a lot of it out here in Minnesota.)

A few of us have talked about doing this for months (maybe longer - I've been wanting to do this for years but never have). Sharing our meals is such a fun way to give one another dinner ideas, as well.

We're only doing suppers at this point but I like that it's getting me into a little preplanning. Last week felt like it went so smooth when I knew what we were having for supper every night instead of getting to 4:00 or 5:00 and panicking because I don't know what we're going to eat that night. (Below: The kids helping to  make pierogies with leftover mashed potatoes from a chicken dinner. We all love pierogies* - even our picky eater.)

I'm trying to keep my meals simple at this point. a.) Because I'm taking this month to try to do a lot of purging and organizing around here, and b.) Because I'm pregnant and that means I'm all about simple and quick right now!

(Sunday afternoon, playing guitar. I love listening to him sing and play guitar. It was one of the things I missed most about him being out in North Dakota, a year ago - I'm still appreciating that he's able to be here this winter. We try not to take it for granted.)

*I may be all about simple right now, but... I suppose pierogies are far from simple. They're like pasties. They take hours to assemble and cook. After assembling them, I boil ours first for about 5 minutes per 5-8 pierogies. Strain them in a colander and then crisp them up in the cast iron skillet using some safflower oil, which has to be done in batches, as well - but they're so worth it! We like them served with caramelized onions. I use this dough recipe but I use safflower oil in place of the vegetable oil and substitute 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour for the white - and I do two individual batches of the dough for us - which gives us a lot of leftovers.

Cities Run

I had the opportunity to go to Trader Joe's and Target yesterday in the cities (3 hours away) with my sister, Sara, and it was so much fun! She had two of her kids and I had three of mine. And they were all good little troopers the whole day. That's not to say that my kids didn't step on a nerve or two throughout the day, but overall they were good, considering we spent the entire day in stores! (Below, Abram (First Grade) doing his daily reading to me for school. One of my favorite parts of the day, snuggling up on the couch.)

It was my second time at Trader Joe's and Sara's first -- what a blast. I picked up a bunch of new things to try and wish I was closer to it so I could go get more. Namely, the Greek Honey Yogurt and the Cilantro Jalapeno Hummus. They're both fantastic and I only bought one of each.

That was my first taste of any kind of Greek yogurt and I knew I'd like Greek yogurt once I heard about the dense/creamy texture. With the honey, it was perfectly sweetened, just the way I like yogurt. The hummus had just the right amount of kick to it. (I don't like too much spice. I can't handle it. But this was really good.)

I also made some organic orange juice tonight for tomorrow's breakfast and tasted some and that was real good, too. It was mild and not to sweet -- just right for breakfast I thought, and a bargain price for organic orange juice concentrate.

There were so many, many other items I wanted to try but I tried to be selective in what I chose this go round, not wanting to go quite overboard yet as Mark just started working again.

Carter has an appointment to see an allergist (for his peanut allergy) this spring and I'm wishing it was near a Trader Joe's or Whole Foods (which I've never been to) but it's not... and I'm thinking it's not quite worth another hour to go there... But it is near a Target and a thrift store. So, that's pretty good, too!

Looking forward to a lot of family time this weekend. Can't wait! I know it's technically Thursday night but not sure if I'll get on here again on Friday or not... Have a great weekend!

A new (old) blanket quilt for the Argosy

It's easier to justify keeping something that I bought with intentions of putting it in the junk shop when the edges are fraying...

I love this vintage blanket. It's super heavy and warm. I don't know what exactly it's lined with, but it feels like random heavy fabrics (maybe even pieces of clothing or old blankets, as I've seen done in another handmade quilt I have).

 

I love the satiny soft feel of the cotton floral top portion. And, I like how the bottom print clashes with the top. I can't tell if the bottom is made of barkcloth or something else. It feels kind of like it but maybe different, something similar... Maybe it's barkcloth but it almost feels more like a super heavy duty linen -- I'm not a fabric expert, so I'm not sure.

I'm hoping to work on some Christmas baking this weekend. On my list for baking in the coming days: sugar cookies, pumpkin seed brittle (a delicious peanut brittle alternative), prune tarts (my favorite!), pecan pie (new recipe), pumpkin pie, Sesame Candy (new recipe), shortbread cookies (store bought) drizzled in caramel and chocolate, brownies, pretzel kisses (the pretzels with a Hershey kiss and m&m's on them), and chocolate dipped Oreos. Now, to see if I accomplish even half of that before Christmas! (I also plan to gather ingredients for some cracker and chip dips for Christmas Eve.)

Have a great weekend!

One Happy Girl :: Operation Kitchen Aid Mixer

My Kitchen Aid Mixer has been sitting dormant in my kitchen since sometime last summer. I used to use it almost every day up to that point.

It took me a couple of months to get around to trying to 'figure it out'. (My middle name isn't 'procrastination' for nothing.) When I did, I came across this post about repairing what appeared to be the same issue I was having. So, over a week ago, Mark volunteered to tear it apart following the detailed instructions in that post and one look at the gear mechanism and we knew it was the exact same problem!

So, he hopped on here and did a little searching and found the best price for a new part to be on Ebay. We ordered it right away and received it just about a week later, which was yesterday. I'm so grateful for that post on repairing it yourself. Instead of paying a few hundred bucks for a new mixer, we paid about thirteen, shipped, for the part.

Tonight, he finally had time to look into putting it all back together and things were going quite smoothly until it was nearly back together and he looked down at a small but alarming little pile of screws. So, he took it back apart, found the correct positions for them, and put it back together once again.

I walked into the kitchen to the sound of my mixer whirring for the first time in months and, although, I was nervous to look -- the turning mechanism was moving in circles, as well. Music to my ears! It was fixed.

And, the first thing I'm going to do is whip up a big batch of my favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies for the kids tomorrow. I have to admit, I love baking and cooking but I don't always love making cookies...simply because of all the pans to wash afterward. Bars, now I love doing bars. They only take one pan. But cookies take all my pans because I still make huge batches just like when I was a kid. I feel like why waste my time making a small batch when I can just do a huge one all at once and throw a bunch in the freezer.

(I've got two posts today -- don't forget to check out the Etsy Favorites in the post below!)

The Ugliest Dip You'll Ever Love

This is my favorite dip for the holidays. It's SO good. And so darn ugly that when people see it for the first time, they're reluctant to try it and quickly pass it up. Yet, once they do, sometimes with a little nudging from those who have had it, they usually can't stop eating it. It's also so ugly that it feels nearly impossible to get a decent picture of it, but I did the best I could with my already flattened top. I had it covered overnight in the fridge so it's not fairing as well as it would have last night...but it would have been just as ugly then anyway, so who cares!

It's adapted from an old Pampered Chef recipe and a family favorite. I posted this recipe three years ago and many of you may already have this dip in your arsenal because it's definitely made it's rounds from The Pampered Chef but for those who don't, I'm linking to it again.

Happy Holidays!

Snowflakes and wood smoke

I haven't had much time to monkey around with my camera yet. And, for some reason I wasn't able to import my pictures into Picasa when I tried today. I don't feel like trying to figure it out at this hour, so I'm putting it off for now. (I need to make some pearsauce with some pears that are already getting overripe but wanted to hop on here real quick.)

We had our annual fall services here at church this weekend. It was a busy weekend and the services were very nice. We all have our trials. And it's so reassuring when you hear sermons that pertain to particular trials that you may be walking through... when it feels like those words were meant just for you, to bring warmth and comfort to your heart. So comforting and so reassuring.

The weather was beautiful as well. Sunny and in the mid- to high- 70's°. It was actually a little too warm in church in the evenings. Crazy to think we're nearing the middle of October with weather like this! I'm ready for a good freeze though. Our house has been taken over by Asian beetles and flies. Not to mention the fact that I feel like I've been roasting lately. I'm ready for the cold of winter and cozy fires in the wood stove. I'm ready for snow!