I Dare You To Eat It

Fresh Ingredients

1 onion, chopped

4 carrots, diced

4 stalks celery, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 big box of fresh baby spinach (from Costco)

Storage Ingredients

2 cups dry lentils

5-6 cups chicken broth (or water)

5-6 cups vegetable broth (or water)

1/4 cup olive oil

2 teaspoons dried oregano

2 teaspoon dried basil

2 bay leaves

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 tablespoon paprika

1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 can crushed tomatoes (28 oz.)

1-2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

At first, this recipe scared me. The list of ingredients seemed a little long and I had NEVER USED LENTILS. Can you believe it? Never! But the prep turned out to be lots easier than I expected and the results were WONDERFUL!

Here. Hold my hand. I’ll walk you through it. 

Three vegetables chopped, ready to be sauteed. Check.

Spices present and accounted for.

Cook veggies until softened. Fond is our friend. (vocab from Laura) Add spices and cook for 2 more minutes.

Add broth, tomatoes, and lentils. ***Be sure to first sort and rinse your lentils to remove any grit or rocks. Phew. That was close.

Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer covered, or not, for at least 1 hour.

When ready to serve stir in the whole giant box of spinach. (Don’t even ask what I was trying to do here.)

And don’t forget to add the balsamic vinegar when you stir in all those piles of spinach.

Salt and pepper to taste.

This is my new favorite soup. I love it with all my heart. Happy Valentine’s Day. Thankfully, this soup freezes well and is currently saving my life.

I came home from my happy little presentation tour through the lands of sunshine and gorgeous warm weather, sporting instead of a bronze glow, a terrible cough and cold. When I try to talk, it sounds like that kid you knew in Jr. High that thought it was funny to speak while burping . Plus, it’s 20 degrees outside! The report printed on the National Weather…something…site actually said, “Feels Like 13 Degrees”. Totally accurate description.

Mmmmmm. Good thing I made this nummy soup before I went out of town.

This recipe is for sure being added to my monthly rotation.

Alison, my wonderful neighbor and friend from across the street, is a FANTASTIC cook. I even referenced her lucsious food in my book. This past Christmas Alison and Tom gave our family a little mix for her gingerbread pancakes and caramel syrup. Oh my goodness. It was easily the very part of our holiday feasting and she said that I could share it with you.

Fresh Ingredients

2 large eggs

Storage Ingredients

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1 cup apple juice (I used about 3 cups of apple juice to get it thin enough for pancakes. Maybe we like extra thin pancakes?)

1/4 cup vegetable oil

Mix dry ingredients together. In a separate bowl, whisk wet ingredients together and add to dry ingredients, whisking until blended. If needed, add extra water or juice to batter until it is pourable. (Like I said, we used about 3 cups of apple juice.) Pour onto hot greased griddle. Cook one side until bubbles on the surface just begin to pop, then turn over and cook until golden brown.

Caramel Syrup (Alison said she doesn’t call this buttermilk syrup because the name can freak people out. Good to know.)

Fresh Ingredients

3/4 cup buttermilk (She also told me that she ALWAYS uses powdered buttermilk reconstituted with water per the package directions. Amazing and I’m for sure trying it.)

1/2 cup butter

Storage Ingredients

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 tablespoons corn syrup

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons vanilla

Place first five ingredients in extra large saucepan. Bring to boil and cook for 7 minutes (mixture will foam like crazy), stirring to prevent scorching. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract.

Okay.

Friends?

These are the best pancakes I’ve ever tasted! My daughter Hailey, newly returned missionary daughter Hailey, has some pretty big (weird) bread issues. I forgot. But she GOBBLED these pancakes down and totally enjoyed them. We all loved them! You have to try this recipe. Don’t walk, run. Alison told me last night that they enjoy these gingerbread pancakes all year long and her favorite topping is fresh bottled (?) peaches with the caramel syrup drizzled over the top. THIS is a truly glorious way to use your wheat.

I’M STARVING!!!!!!!!!

Fresh Ingredients

2 cups milk, scalded

2 eggs

Storage Ingredients

2 tablespoons yeast

6 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon salt

1/2 cup canola oil

1/4 cup warm water

1 cup cornmeal

7 cups flour

Scald milk by heating it in the microwave for 1-2 minutes. It’s ready as soon as tiny bubbles begin to form around the outside edges. Discard skin that may have formed on top of the milk. Pour hot milk into your mixer and stir in the sugar. Allow to cool slightly before adding the yeast. (I used Saf Instant Yeast so I didn’t have to wait 10-15 minutes for the milk/sugar/yeast mixture to get puffy.) Add salt, eggs, 1/2 cup canola oil, water, and corn meal. While mixing, add five or six cups of flour.  Continue adding the remaining flour just until the dough cleans the sides of the bowl and is not sticky.  (I only used a total of 6 cups of flour.) Knead for 10 min. Divide dough in half, then into thirds, and braid as desired. Transfer to a sprayed cookie sheet, sprinkled with cornmeal. (One recipe made two fairly large Christmas wreaths.) Let raise about an hour, until doubled in size. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes and brush with butter before serving. The braid was soft and tender as can be on the inside with lots of corn flavor.

This is my new favorite bread and a wonderful holiday treat that isn’t terribly (?) sweet. (oxymoron)

My friend Cami demonstrated how to bake this yummy hybrid during our Relief Society Big Bad Bread Initiative. Only took about 3 and a half months for ME to gather the courage for trying the recipe on my own. Never mind that my first December baking adventure ended up, ONCE AGAIN, in the garbage can. All three batches. But that’s a whole other story. Who says the Card family doesn’t have special Christmas traditions???

So, anyway, THIS recipe is easy to make and the results are wonderful. Really, the best of both worlds. Thaaaaaanks Cami!

My daughter, Samantha, gave me the yummy recipe after she received it from our dear dear friend, Zina. Zina and Sam suggest using regular full size butternut squash, but when I went to the store they only had these little runts. What is it with me and the miniature butternuts? At least they were bigger than that one paperweight I grew in my garden a couple of summers ago. (None of that will be on the test.)

Fresh Ingredients

1 med-large butternut squash (or 5 minis)

4-8 oz. Gorgonzola cheese

1/4 cup butter, softened

Storage Ingredients

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 – 1 cup pecans, coarsely chopped

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1 tablespoon flour

dash of salt and pepper

Wash outside of squash. Cut in half, making a bowl with the bottom end of the squash, and remove all the seed…crud. Peel and dice the pulp from the neck of the squash and fill the hollowed out bowls with the squash chunks. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and pack with crumbled Gorgonzola. For the topping, combine the butter, brown sugar, spices, flour, and pecans and  pile/press on top of the squash. Bake uncovered at 400 degrees for 45-60 minutes, depending on the size of your squash.

These little bad boys were GOOD!

We served the little squash grenades (fully loaded, armed and dangerous) with pot roast, steamed purple cabbage, asparagus, and rosemary roasted potatoes. Isn’t holiday food fun!

Have you read this News Week article? IT’S GREAT! I’m so proud of Jeff Edwards. Not only are the Edwards our friends, neighbors, and ward members …we just three days ago hired their son to move our year supply of long term food storage back into the house now that our remodeling is almost finished. It was ridiculously exhausting work, with at least 80 trips up and down a steep staircase and yet this young returned missionary was the very picture of a diligent, dependable, and cheerful employee. Thanks C! You’re obviously part of the big picture.

Promised Land

How Utah became the new economic Zion.

The above shot is a bit of false advertising. Me and everyone else. My excuse is that I originally wanted to share a recipe for fresh tomato bacon soup but then I tried a different recipe tonight and liked it so much more. In fact tonight’s version was easier to prepare and then gone so quick, the thought of taking a picture didn’t even cross my mind. Ignore the bacon bits and sour cream.

It all started when my amazing friend, Linda, who happens to be a bottling FOOL, gave me the recipe for her famous bottled tomato soup. It calls for a half bushel of fresh tomatoes? What is that? I had to Google the term “bushel” to find out. Then…I divided her recipe by EIGHT, added one of my own secret ingredients, and made a wonderful, yummy, healthy, rich, pot of  fresh from the garden tomato soup for the family’s dinner tonight. Next summer…we are going to have this soup once a week.

Fresh Ingredients

3 lbs. of fresh tomatoes, washed and quartered

1/3 cup onion, course diced

2 tablespoons butter

Storage Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons sugar

1-2 tablespoons salt

1 tablespoon flour

1 can evaporated milk (12 oz.)

All you do is pour the olive oil into your crock pot. Add the onion, tomatoes, sugar and salt. Cover and cook on high for approximately 3 hours. The amount of time is totally flexible, which I love. When you’re ready to eat, melt the butter and stir in the flour before adding it to the crock pot. Then pour in the can of evaporated milk and puree with a stick blender. That’s it. It’s wonderful.

I had my husband run a couple cups of the hot soup across the street to my neighbor. After tasting the sample she phoned to ask what I had done to flavor it so well. Yes! Good old sugar and salt…and canned milk.

This is THE way to enjoy lots of tomatoes, without lots of work.

Me too!

FINALLY, thanks to our funky Spring.

I’ve been using the little sweeties to make lots of fresh pico de gallo. The leftover pico went into bottles of black beans. It gives the beans just a little…extra…kick in the pants. (In a good way.) Most of you already know how to do this but in case you’re interested in the step by step, I used: 

1/2 cup pico or salsa 

1 cup of rinsed and sorted black beans

hot water to the neck of the jar, stir to release air bubbles

wipe clean, top with heated lids and rims, and fill pressure canner (mine is only an 8 quart cooker so it will can four quart bottles at a time)

allow to vent for 10 minutes before adding weight on top at 15 pounds PSI, and can for 90 minutes

cool naturally and *carefully remove jars

So. You might notice that I have an odd number of bottles. That’s because something *odd happened.

I

EXPLODED

ONE!!!

But this is what I learned. DO NOT take a BOILING-BOILING HOT bottle out of the pressure canner and immediately try to wipe it off, in the sink (thank heavens) under a stream of warmish water. BAAAAAAM!

You should have seen my husband’s face. Makes me laugh just remembering, but it totally scared the dump out of us. Oh my gosh. It sounded like a shotgun.

Bean wars.

French toast is one of my favorites but I rarely serve it because of how long it takes to properly cook. And if you’ve ever experienced undercooked french toast as we did on a family vacation in San Francisco, you’ll understand why I’m a little anxious.

But with General Conference coming this weekend, WOOHOO! and a freezer full of homemade bread from the past month of bread lessons, I decided to experiment with oven baked french toast. If you’ve read even any two of my previous posts, chances are you already know that I’m all about doing things ahead of time. It’s a survival skill. It’s the only way I can keep up, and believe me, I BARELY keep up.

The most important thing about this next weekend are the messages given in General Conference. Nothing, not even food, should interfere with that opportunity. It would be nice if I could create a lovely gathering for the family and enjoy a celebratory meal, of sorts, but not if that meal hinders my ability to focus on General Conference. I can’t allow meal preparation to suck up all my life and energy, so that I end up dozing when I should be listening. Done that before.

Here’s the nummy results from this morning’s test run. Once again, this post is about designing a plan and not necessarily a specific recipe. If you search on line for oven baked french toast recipes you’ll easily find lots of suggestions. I tried my dear friend Natalie’s suggestion for Baked Orange Pecan French Toast and it was a hit. What I liked most of all is that the whole thing can be prepared the night before AND I was able to use up one of the leftover no-knead bread hubcaps. Even the bacon was oven roasted yesterday and zapped in the microwave right before we served. No mess no hassle.

I hope we’ll all be able enjoy General Conference this coming Saturday and Sunday. It’s such an incredible opportunity to listen to the Lord’s living prophet and apostles. Count your many blessings!

You believed that?

So here’s the whole truth.  My sisters served this fresh lemon ice cream at a family wedding shower a couple of weeks ago. EVERYONE agreed it was fantastic. And besides tasting amazing, it turns out that this recipe is easy to make.

Now, I’ve never made ice cream before but this turned out perfect, even for ME! I piled on sweetened raspberries but you totally don’t need to do that. Like really good creme brulee, this lemon ice cream is perfect all by itself.

Fresh Ingredients

1/2 cup lemon juice (freshly squeezed)

2 tablespoons lemon peel zest

1 quart half and half or whole milk

Storage Ingredients

2 cups sugar

rock salt

(These are the exact instructions I received from my sis.) (She thinks she’s soooooo smart.)

ah well… hmmm … didn’t come with any instructions. You just follow the instructions on the ice cream maker. (super helpful for someone like me) But basically, you combine all the ingredients in the ice cream can, (I mixed it in a separate bowl) stir for a minute so the sugar is mixed into the liquid. Then you put the paddle in the can, and the can in the ice cream maker. Layer ice and rock salt all the way up surrounding the can, and turn it on. I think you’re supposed to whistle the whole time it’s turning. (she’s killin’ me) When it gets thick enough to stop the turning, you just turn it off, and hard-freeze in the freezer.

Dear friends. Can you hear me? Look into my eyes.

YOU SHOULD TRY THIS RECIPE.

TONIGHT.

Well folks, she’s off and running! 

This Sister Card has completed week number one in 18 months of missionary service for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We’ve received one letter and one email and can already tell that she’s happy, learning, and growing in new ways. Evidently, the Mission Training Center experience has her ”whelmed but not overwhelmed”. And I was RIGHT about the no time to get ready in the mornings and how much she’d love the bottomless chocolate milk. Told ya!

Sometimes I actually feel a little embarrassed that I’m not in shambles with two daughters currently serving missions. I of course miss them both every day, but there honestly isn’t anything I would rather have them doing. Missions aren’t right for every Mormon young woman but when it fits it’s a completely remarkable experiences! In my mind, this (and marriage and family) is what all the years of hard work and family nights were for. We were trying to get them ready to do BIG things. I’m thrilled that two of our girls have been in a position to accept callings to serve the Lord through sharing His restored gospel in Missouri and Arizona.

And for the record, people are not joining The Church, the world over, solely or even primarily based on the individual testimonies of 19 year old boys and 21 year old women. I mean…really? These kids are great but they’re not that great. People choose to be baptized because they read The Book of Mormon and feel the power of the Holy Ghost testifying of its truthfulness in their hearts. The missionaries’ job is to share that opportunity.