Winter Comfort Food: Tomato Soup and Simple Mac and Cheese

Lately I have really been enjoying the recipes I have tried from Heavenly Homemakers.  I recently came across this recipe for tomato soup that is made from fresh tomatoes and can actually be canned.  I love tomato soup and I do love canning, so I was immediately intrigued.

You see, I grew up on Campbell's tomato soup. Despite the fact that the second ingredient is high fructose corn syrup, I still buy it and still like it once in awhile. It's a childhood thing.

Now in the summertime, we use just about every tomato we can get for our favorite spaghetti sauce canning recipe.  But, I'm always open to squeezing in a new recipe if it's really great and if it's something we will love in the middle of the winter.  If it can be an actual meal for us?  Even better.  I mean, I do like jam and jelly, but seriously, how much can you eat of that stuff?

So I happened across this tomato soup recipe.  Four simple ingredients:  tomatoes, onion, butter and salt.  Three hours on the stove.  A splash of cream.  Heaven in a bowl.

I was just going to bookmark the recipe and add it to my list this summer, but then I had an idea.  My father-in-law gave us a bunch of quarts of tomatoes he canned last summer, and I still had some left.  I decided to use those to try out the tomato soup recipe so I could see how it tasted before I allocate our precious summer tomatoes to a recipe I've never tried.

I ran 6 quarts of tomatoes through the food mill to remove the seeds and doubled the tomato soup recipe.  If a recipe is going to have to cook for three hours, I'm going to make a BIG batch.  When it was finished simmering, I used my immersion blender to puree it in the pot.  And then I tasted it... wonderful.  It had just the flavor I was looking for:  simple and tomatoey.  And, it goes well with this delicious recipe for easy, creamy macaroni and cheese.

We ended up eating some that day (Molly gobbled it up), putting about 2 quarts in the fridge, and I froze another 3 quarts.  This recipe will be definitely be on the priority list this summer.  We'll see how much canning I get done with baby #2 due 9/15....!

Winter Fruit Salad

Yum, today I was inspired to make a refreshing fresh fruit salad.  I used grapefruit, oranges, pineapple, apples and bananas.  It's hard to tell from the picture, but I cut the pieces very small, similar to what I had many years ago when I visited Brazil.  Lots of little pieces of fruit, a little fresh citrus fruit juice squeezed on top to keep the apples from turning brown, and some chopped bananas added right before serving.  The great thing about the little pieces of fruit, is that when you eat a spoonful of the fruit salad, you get several different types of fruit in the same bite and not just one big hunk at a time.  It's a bit of work to do all the chopping, but it is so delicious and unexpected in the middle of the winter.

Granola

Mmm, last night I made granola.  I had been in the mood for it for awhile after enjoying a few boxes of Cascadian Farms granola with my yogurt.  I haven't made granola in a long time, but it was just as good as I remembered.  The coconut adds a wonderful subtle flavor that makes it stand out from other granola recipes.

Here is the recipe:

4 cups regular or quick oats
1/2 cup wheat germ (or ground flax seeds, oat bran, etc)
1 cup coconut
1 cup slivered almonds (optional - just add more oats if you omit this)
1 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup raisins (or other dried fruit)

Combine all ingredients, except raisins/dried fruit and mix until well blended.  Spread on a shallow baking sheet and bake at 300 degrees for 30 minutes or until golden brown, stirring every 10 minutes.  Add dried fruit and stir.  Will continue to crisp as it cools.  Store in a sealed container.

One note: this is definitely not a low calorie recipe. You can try adjusting the oil if you want, but I have found the finished product to be not quite crispy enough when I've cut it down too much.

Enjoy!

Bagels!

Lately I have been really inspired to make bagels.  Maybe it's the Eat From the Pantry Challenge that is making me think twice about every food purchase, or maybe I was just ready for the next culinary adventure.  Who knows.  I've made three different batches of bagels in the last couple days.

First, I used my current favorite bread recipe's dough to make bagels.  I had already made a loaf of bread and was going to make two, but changed my plan after I had already started the second batch of dough, so I thought I would see if the dough would make good bagels.  I followed this recipe, which was actually my inspiration for making bagels to begin with, for turning the dough into bagels.  Here are some pictures from that attempt:

Batch #1:  Boiling the broiled dough.

The finished product.  They were 2/3 whole wheat flour (freshly ground hard red wheat), 1/3 unbleached white flour.  I made some with cinnamon sugar, some with sesame seeds and minced onion, the rest plain.  They were pretty good, but a little bread-like, not so crispy outside/chewy inside like I was looking for.  Not surprising, since afterall, I did use bread dough to make them!

Batch #2:  Here is the finished product for the original recipe I had been wanting to try.  They're 100% whole wheat, and that's how they tasted.  A bit too wheaty for me.  It could be that I used the hard red wheat instead of the hard white wheat I normally use.  I had heard that the red wheat had a stronger flavor but had not used it much.  I can't tell much difference in my bread, and these bagels were beautiful ... but wheaty.  I'll let Molly eat those!

After I made the first two batches and saw that bagels were not as much work or as time consuming as I assumed, I decided to try to find a good recipe for New York-style bagels.  Have I mentioned that I am a total bagel snob?  I grew up in New Jersey, and have lived in the Midwest for the past 15 years, where bagels are just not the same.  I still dream about New Jersey bagels and pizza.

So I decided to just forget about whole wheat for now, and work on finding a good bagel recipe that might get me close to my ideal bagel:  crispy on the outside and chewy goodness on the inside.  One-inch layer of cream cheese or egg salad... even better.

Batch #3:  I found this recipe for New York-style bagels and tried it tonight.  The bagels were pretty good!  I would definitely make them again.  Maybe I will even play with adding in some whole wheat flour.  The recipe made 8 bagels, and they were huge, so I will probably try to turn it into 12 bagels next time.  I substituted molasses for the malt syrup, since I didn't have any, though I may just have to get some for this recipe.  As with all of the bagel recipes I tried, I used my bread machine for the dough.

Here is a picture of the finished product:

Wow, I can't believe I made bagels!  Have you had any culinary adventures lately?

Winter Trash Can Turkey

When turkeys were $0.40 a pound at Thanksgiving time, I bought two extras for the freezer.  A turkey is nice to have on hand to roast over the weekend, and then enjoy leftovers in turkey and dumplings, turkey and noodles, turkey pot pie... the possibilities are endless.

This year, I wish I would have bought many more turkeys for the freezer.  See this post for why I only had room for two.

We decided to try out a recipe that we did a couple times this summer - but on a 15 degree day instead of a lovely summer day.  We made a trash can turkey!  It was DELICIOUS.  Seriously.  You have to try it.  The flavor is wonderful, the meat is incredibly juicy, and there is even a hint of smokiness to the meat, which I love.  Not to mention that my 15 lb turkey cooked in less than 2 hours and there was no roasting pan to clean up!

Here are a few pictures of our culinary adventure today.  First I laid out some heavy duty foil and poured an 18 lb bag of briquettes onto it.  You light it the same way you would for grilling, and let them cook until they are gray.  While that was cooking, we pounded a 2X2 stake into the ground and covered it with foil.  I laid out other sheets of foil around the stake, to protect the turkey in case it happens to fall down the stake onto the ground (which has not happened to us yet).

In the house, I rubbed the turkey with canola oil, salt, pepper and smoked paprika.  Then, I hung the turkey on the stake. 

Then, we put the galvanized trash can (which has never been used for garbage) on top of the turkey.  The turkey is not touching the inside of the can.

Once the coals were ready, using a shovel, we put 1/2 of the coals on top of the can and 1/2 around the base.

Then, since we had never done this in the cold weather before, we put the trash can lid on top of the coals and folded up the foil around the base, so that any wind wouldn't burn up our coals too quickly.

One hour and 45 minutes later, we used the shovel to take the hot coals off the top of the can, and scraped away the coals at the base.  Then, we lifted the trash can and... viola!  A toasty, perfectly cooked turkey.  The heat from our experiment must have warmed the frozen ground, so the stake started to lean, but this didn't hurt anything.

Then, with oven mits on and foil against the bird, I took the turkey off the stake and plopped it in a pan.  Here it is on our picnic table!  We did go inside to eat it, of course.  It was SO wonderful and amazingly juicy.  Try it sometime!  And don't forget to throw the carcass into your crock pot for some fabulous turkey stock.  Mine is simmering right now...

Update on this week's cooking adventure!

In last week's meal plan, I had a bit of a cooking adventure in store for me.  On Wednesday, I used my pressure cooker for the first time for COOKING instead of canning.  Tuesday night, I scoured a couple cookbooks for a recipe that looked good and would use one of the huge pieces of meat from our 1/8 cow that I always have trouble using up.  I settled on a crock pot recipe for beef barley soup using round steak. 

I'm sorry I don't have a picture to share, but it was DELICIOUS!  Seriously, delicious.  I had been in the mood for something like that lately, with the weather getting cooler, and it was exactly what I wanted. 

The pressure cooker was awesome!  I chose a crock pot recipe, since the moist, long, slow cooking of a crock pot is perfect for tougher meats that take a long time to tenderize.  A pressure cooker works well for similar cuts of meat, but uses very high temperatures and pressure to achieve similar results.  The best part about using the pressure cooker is that it took 25 minutes of cooking time once all the ingredients were in the pot!!!.  Amazing.  My new Nutrimill grain mill and my pressure cooker might just be my favorite kitchen appliances (besides the dishwasher!) right now.

Below is the recipe I used in my 10 quart pressure cooker.  This is doubled from the original recipe, and it filled my pot just over half-way.  You might want to reduce it if your pressure cooker is smaller, since you don't want to fill a pressure cooker more than 2/3 full.  Also, my pressure cooker only has one pressure setting, 15 pounds, so adjust accordingly if yours is different.

Beef Barley Soup
adapted from Fix Freeze Feast:  Prepare in Bulk and Enjoy by the Serving

3 pounds round steak, cut into small bite-sized pieces
3 cups sliced carrots
3 cups sliced celery
2 cups chopped onion
1 large green bell pepper, diced
2 (14 1/2 oz) cans diced tomatoes, undrained
2 cups any tomato sauce (I used pizza sauce I bought and didn't like on pizza)
2 quarts beef broth
1 tablespoon beef boullion
1 cup pearl barley
2 teaspoons salt (can be reduced)
1 teaspoon black pepper

1.  Brown the meat in a little bit of oil and remove from pot.
2.  Add carrots, celery and onion and saute for 7-10 minutes, or until they begin to soften.
3.  Add back meat and all other ingredients, stir.
4.  Attach lid to pressure cooker and turn heat on high to bring it up to pressure.  Once steam starts coming out (or whatever your particular pressure cooker does to indicate it is up to pressure), reduce heat to low-med and cook for 25 minutes.  Reduce pressure according to your pressure cooker's instructions.  Once all pressure is gone and it is safe to open the pressure cooker, open it, stir the soup and enjoy! 

Recipe makes 5-6 quarts, so be sure to freeze some for another day.

Do you have any tips or great recipes for using a pressure cooker?  Please share!

Last Canning Project of the Season??? Honey Apple Butter

This week I made honey apple butter, which was wonderful.  We had been accumulating quite a selection of apples in the refrigerator, and I am almost out of the maple apple butter that I made 2 years ago.  Maple syrup was an incredible accompaniment to apple butter, but it is pretty expensive and I already used my stash of maple syrup in some fabulous maple blueberry jam this summer.  Also, we had our first honey harvest this year and have lots of honey to get creative with!  No problem.  I like a challenge like that.

Sweet Cider Apple Butter, adapted from the Ball Blue Book of Preserving
yield:  about 16 - 8oz. jars (this is a double batch!)

12 pounds apples (I like to use a combination of varieties)
4 cups apple cider
1 quart honey
1 teaspoon cloves
1 tablespoon cinnamon

Directions:

First, a picture of my little helper/apple thief Molly. 

All the apples went into the sink for a good wash first.  Before I started cutting apples, I put my frozen (from last season) apple cider in an 8 quart stockpot on the stove.  As the cider melted, I quartered, cored and peeled all of the apples, throwing them in the pot to start cooking and soften.  To be honest, I forgot how many apples 12 pounds is!  I wished I had taken out my apple/peeler/corer/slicer to speed up the process.

Once the apples were pretty soft, I took my handy stick blender and pureed the apples until they were nice and smooth.  I like my apple butter silky smooth, so blend them as much as you prefer.  The recipe says not to liquify it.

                                     

Then I added my honey and spices, stirred, turned the stove down to low and cooked slowly all day, stirring occasionally.  See how dark it got?  You just want it to thicken slowly without sticking to the bottom of the pan or popping up and splashing out.  This takes several hours, but the house smells incredible as it cooks.  For some people, the whole process would NOT generally take an entire day to do, but I had many, many distractions and interruptions hanging out with little Molly that it took longer than it would have had I been by myself.  But... by the end of the day it was done and that's what counts!

Once the apple butter cooked down to a consistency I prefer, I processed 8 oz jars for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath canner. 

Try a sandwich of cream cheese and honey apple butter on this homemade whole wheat bread... YUM.

Meal Plan For This Week

Spending just 5 minutes planning out our dinners for the week saves me a lot of things:

::  Time - no wasting time thinking about it during my busy day at one of my two jobs:  working outside the home or staying home chasing my 14-month-old Molly.
::  Angst - no more fretting over what to make for dinner when I've already thought about it and defrosted what I need.
::  Money - no stopping for take-out because I'm too tired and overwhelmed to prepare a nice meal.  Also, meal planning helps me look at what food I already have that needs to be eaten and get creative instead of deciding on a meal and then going to the store and buying all of the ingredients, on sale or not.

I always regret it mid-week when I haven't made a meal plan.  I am guilty of stockpiling food with the best of intentions and then forgetting about it in the pantry, freezer or fridge.  Meal planning helps me remember these items and get them onto our plates!  So, when you see strange items in my meal plan, it is probably something I'm trying to get out off my shelves :)

Here is our meal plan for this week:
Monday:  Cranberry Chicken from "Don't Panic - Dinner's in the Freezer", organic green salad from the farmer's market, perogies from the freezer
Tuesday:  Turkish Pork Loin Chops from "Fix Freeze Feast," kale from our garden, corn on the cob (probably the last of the season!)
Wednesday:  Black Bean Chilaquile from "Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites" using onions from our garden, corn I froze this summer, home-canned salsa and tomatoes from my father-in-law's garden
Thursday:  Friday night pizza with homemade crust from this website for one of my favorite books.  Toppings will include zucchini and onions from our garden and diced bell peppers I froze this summer.  I know it's not Friday, but we're traveling Friday night and we didn't get to have homemade pizza last Friday either!
Friday:  Ham or Turkey sandwiches on homemade bread from this great website, apples we picked at the orchard and some kind of treat for our road trip for a family wedding this weekend.

Between the usual chaos of my days at home with Molly, I'm also attempting to make some honey apple butter today with apples we picked at the orchard and honey from our bees.  Yes, our bees!  Stay tuned for a future post dedicated to our first honey harvest this year.

This Week's Meal Plan

I don't know about you, but I work much better if I have a plan, especially in the kitchen. I love cooking, and mostly from scratch, but I am often terrible about keeping track of what I have on hand in the refrigerator, pantry and our two (yes, two!) extra freezers. The fact that we have two freezers probably gives you a clue that we often have quite the stockpile of food.

In the past several months I have been making more of an effort to simplify, reduce waste and save money, and one area I have focused on is food. A few minutes of meal planning each week has done wonders to help us eat the food we have grown or spent hard-earned money on before it goes bad, rotate our food supply and lose the 5pm panic of figuring out what to have for dinner.

Each person/family is different, but for us, I prefer to just plan out our dinners. Breakfast is usually cereal, fruit, bagel and cream cheese, PB&J or oatmeal with bananas, raisins and maple syrup during the week, and pancakes or eggs and toast on the weekends. Lunch is usually anything - leftovers or a sandwich. It's not usually too hard for me to come up with breakfast and lunch. Dinner during the week is the struggle, but really important, especially since this is where our lunch leftovers come from! If I don't cook for a couple days, our lunch options begin to dwindle and the temptation of going out to lunch gets stronger and stronger. That option is neither wholesome, healthy nor frugal, so this is where meal planning comes in to save the day.

Here is our meal plan for this week:
Monday: Casserole of potatoes, kale, onions and smoked sausage with sauerkraut and German mustard
Tuesday: Spaghetti with meat sauce, zucchini, garlic bread
Wednesday: Indian dal and butter chicken simmer sauce with brown rice and naan (Yuck, when will I ever stop thinking that what comes out of a jar will taste anything like what you get in a restaurant??) I have BAD luck cooking Indian food. Any advice is appreciated.
Thursday: Disappearing zucchini orzo and salmon burgers
Friday: Homemade pizza using this recipe for the pizza dough (stay tuned for a future post about our Friday Night Pizza tradition)

So far we've stuck to the plan, and I'm so glad I'm back on the meal-planning wagon. We eat far better and it's less stress for me, even though I typically end up cooking more this way. All it takes is 5-10 minutes a week and a couple of peeks in the fridge and freezer to see what needs to move along. Result: less rotting produce, happier bellies and healthier bodies.

Enough Spaghetti Sauce for the Year

Over the weekend we canned our last batch of tomato sauce of the season. My goal this year was 4 batches and wahoo, we're done!! It is a lot of work, but a few busy summer weekends pays off all year long with our luscious red gold from a jar. Rich, tomatoey, a touch of spice... there's nothing like it. I love knowing each and every ingredient that goes into this favorite quick, easy meal of ours. The smell you encounter every time you walk in the house from outside while the sauce is coooking is absolutely heavenly.

Seasoned Tomato Sauce, adapted from the Ball Blue Book of Preserving

yield: about 14 pints or 7 quarts

30 pounds tomatoes

4 cups chopped onions

8 cloves garlic, minced

1/3 cup olive oil

1 1/3 tablespoons oregano

4 bay leaves

2/3 tablespoon black pepper

1 tablespoon sugar

1/6 cup salt

1 1/3 teaspoons crushed red pepper

bottled lemon juice for canning

Canning our favorite spaghetti sauce is quite an event and takes all day... sometimes even into the next day if I take too long to get started. My recipe starts off with a 20 quart stock pot filled with washed, cored and quartered tomatoes. Plum tomatoes are the best since they tend to have the most solid/least liquid but any will work. I have made batches with any and every tomato I can find to get up to the 30 pounds, including cherry tomatoes.

I squeeze the tomatoes as I add them to the pot, bringing out the juices so that tomatoes can start to cook without burning to the bottom of the pan. I cook these until they are nice and soft.

Once the tomatoes soften, I run them all through the vegetable strainer that attaches to my KitchenAid mixer. This removes the seeds and skin, which go into the compost.

The tomato juice goes into a 16 quart stock pot with the rest of the ingredients, and then you cook, cook...

and cook it some more.

It takes many hours to cook the sauce down to a consistency I like for spaghetti sauce, and it is worth the time and effort to get it to be nice and thick. I usually cook it down by half - so basically I end up with 7-8 quarts when I start out with about 16 quarts. Add 2 T lemon juice to quarts or 1 T lemon juice to pints, and process quarts in a water bath canner for 40 minutes, pints for 35 minutes. The entire process takes 8-10 hours. Enjoy all year.