Tag: Food Mill

Sunday Morning

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It seems I have so much to share with you all.  Our church has a fellowship breakfast once a year at Smartview Park on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Sunday was a beautiful morning for eating outside.  Saturday we were wondering if we would get to have it or not.  We had lots of fog but Sunday morning was bright and beautiful.   I took sausage gravy, biscuits, fresh churned butter, and scrambled eggs-fresh from our hens.  God is so good! 

Jess and the boys came up Saturday morning to spend the weekend.  David was at a conference  in Georgia all day Saturday.  He came to our house after the conference.  He got here about 1:00 A.M.  Jessica’s friend Leah came over on Saturday to visit with her.  Our house had lots of action-five children all together chasing after kittens.  They all had lots of fun.  We made peach ice cream Saturday evening.  It was VERY good but I am partial to peach ice cream.   I got the recipe from Allrecipes.com 

2 1/2 pounds fresh peaches – peeled, pitted and chopped

  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 1 pint half-and-half cream
  • 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
  • 1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups whole milk, or as needed

    • Mix all ingredients together and put into ice cream maker.

     

    Yesterday I made homemade tomato soup from our tomatoes.  I got this recipe from allrecipes.com  also. 

    4  cups chopped fresh tomatoes

  • 1 slice onion
  • 4 whole cloves
  • 2 cups chicken broth
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons white sugar, or to taste

    • Directions

    1. In a stockpot, over medium heat, combine the tomatoes, onion, cloves and chicken broth. Bring to a boil, and gently boil for about 20 minutes to blend all of the flavors. Remove from heat and run the mixture through a food mill into a large bowl, or pan. Discard any stuff left over in the food mill.
    2. In the now empty stockpot, melt the butter over medium heat. Stir in the flour to make a roux, cooking until the roux is a medium brown. Gradually whisk in a bit of the tomato mixture, so that no lumps form, then stir in the rest. Season with sugar and salt, and adjust to taste.

       I did do a few things different.  I used about 1/4 tsp celery salt instead of regular salt and I only used 1/2 tsp sugar.  I made enough of this to can 5 pts.  According to the Ball canning book, you process this for 20 min. on 10 lb pressure.  I ended up putting mine in the freezer as I was pushed for time. 

    Okay, one more recipe.  I told you all I had a lot to share.  That’s what happens when I don’t make a post for several days.  Anyway, today I made a peach simple syrup.  I had a few peaches left and wondered what I could do with them.  Something easy.  I cut the peaches into chunks. Enough to make l cup chopped peaches.  I then brought to a boil 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water.  Pour the boiling water over the peaches and let sit.  I let mine sit all day.    Strain the mixture and you have a great tasting peach simple syrup.  Then I put about 3 tbsp. peach simple syrup into an 8 oz glass.  I then added ice and sparkling water.  I would have used club soda but I was out of it.  I got this idea from http://theblessedhearth.blogspot.com/.  She did something similar with ginger.  I think I might even try mixing the peach and the ginger syrup together.  I might try adding this to tea as I really like peach tea.  Well, I’ve bored you all enough with all these recipes.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

    4

    Apple Butter

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    I started first with fresh picked apples.  I sliced them, and put them into the microwave for about 10 min. or until tender.

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    Next, I put the apples through my Roma sauce maker.  A food mill will work too.  Then I put the applesauce into a pan and put them in the oven.  Sorry I forgot to get a picture of this step.  You can put them on the stove to cook or cook them overnight in a crockpot.  I use the oven method, but am thinking of trying the crockpot.  Here is my recipe that I use.  I got it from the Mennonite cookbook.

    Apple Butter

    1 gal. applesauce, 6 3/4 cup brown sugar (this can be adjusted to taste), 1 cup apple cider or vinegar, 1 tsp. ground cinnamon, 1/4 tsp. allspice, 1/4 tsp. ground cloves.  Mix ingredients together.   If using oven, put into an oven safe pot, bake at 350 degrees for 3 hrs.  stirring frequently.  I stir mine about every 30 min.  If using top of stove, cook on low for 1 1/2 hrs.  stirring much more frequently as the stove top method is more likely to stick to the kettle.  If using the crockpot method, put in the crockpot and cook overnight.  Stirring only occasionally. 

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    The result.  Beautiful applebutter.  I like this recipe much better than any other I have tried.  I have used a recipe that called for cinnamon red hots.  It makes the applebutter a red color.  We prefer the dark brown color.   This recipe is very friendly.  You can purchase store bought applesauce, use the crockpot method and it requires very little effort to have delicious applebutter.  You also can freeze this instead of canning it. 

    Temperature here this morning is rather chilly.  Mid 40’s with clouds and rain.  No fog yet.  I guess I’ll be drying clothes inside today.  Take care and God bless.

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    A Good Job

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    We were extremely impressed with the food strainer.  It was super fast compared to the old food mill and had very little waste.  We processed a bushel of apples in about 4 1/2 hours.  We used both big canners.  We got 12 qts and 24 pints.  YUM!  I have always used the hot water bath canner to process applesauce.  However, I read in my Mennonite cookbook, they could be processed in the pressure canner.  We tried that yesterday and it went very fast.  15 min. on 5 lb. pressure.  Much faster than using a bath canner.  Vicki and I had a great time and of course the kids had fun.  It is so much more pleasant sharing canning with a friend.  I am so thankful the Lord placed our families together.  Good friends are sometimes hard to find and I consider Vicki one of the best.

      The girls and I are planning a “girl day” out today.  We are going into C-burg to run some errands.  This will include Wal-Mart and Goodwill.  Temperatures have been very warm here in Floyd.  On the farm though, it isn’t near as bad as it is in town.  We are usually a few degrees cooler.  In the summer this is a plus, in the winter not so good.  Thankfully, we have quite a few shade trees in the yard and that really helps. 

    Time for us to get ready to leave.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

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    My Newest Helper

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    This is my new helper.  I did not even know these existed.   About 1 month ago, I was in our local farm supply store, and spotted one of these.  All I have ever used are the old food mills.  I have been told these are so much better than a food mill.  I can’t wait to try it out.    My friend Vicki and I will be making applesauce today out of  early cooking apples.  When we lived in Grundy, we had a June apple tree in our front yard.  I sure do miss that tree.  What they have up here has a little different taste than that one did, but they are still good.  It is our favorite type of applesauce, so I hope to can a lot of it.   Last year, apples were hard to find.  We ran out of applesauce early in the winter and had to buy from the store.  Not near as good as home canned.    Guess I’ll get busy.  Lots to do today but lots of fun too.  Take care and God bless.

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