What cures a windy, blustry day?

Well of course baking!  Yesterday while it was cold and windy we made a pot of Ham and Bean Soup, Cornbread Muffins and Marble Cake with Carmel Icing.  This cake recipe was something new and I thought the Carmel icing( taken from another recipe) would top it off beautifully!

                                       Marble Cake
                 
          3/4 c. lard/ shortening
          1-1/2 c. sugar ( I cut this back to 3/4c.)
          1-1/2 tsp. soda
          1-1/2 tsp baking powder
          1/2 tsp salt
          2-1/2 c. flour
          1-1/2c. sour milk or buttermilk
          1-1/2tsp. vanilla
          2 unbeaten eggs
          Work the lard until soft, add sugar mixing well. Add remaining ingredients;except eggs When mixed well add eggs and blend in. Pour batter into a well greased pan( we used a bundt pan), except retain approx. 1/4 of the batter in the bowl. Mix the following into the bowl and remaining batter
            1Tbsp. sugar
            1/4 tsp, soda
            2Tbsp. cocoa powder( carob powder works well too)
            2Tbsp. hot water
Mix well and pour over the batter in the pan. Take a knife and zig zag through the batter to give it a marbled effect.  Bake at 350F for 30-40 minutes.

                            Carmel Icing
            1 stick butter( no substitutes, sorry)
            1c. brown sugar
            1/4c. cream
            1 tsp vanilla
            powdered sugar
In a heavy sauce pot bring the butter and sugar to a boil, stirring constantly to avoid burning, for 2 minutes. Remove from heat; add cream and mix well, return to boil( stirring) for 1 more minute, let cool. Add vanilla and enough powdered sugar to spreadable consistency .

Kraut is finished!

 Literally down to our last 6 qt. jars!  I do have some old mayo jars in the garage, but really hesitate using them for canning, we typically use them for  storing dried foods and seeds.

 After removing the plate, this is what it looks like and I wish you could smell it, Ummmm, Ummmm! Now Mike and Cortney don't agree that it smells good, LOL!!!!   It's an acquired smell and taste I guess.

 Simmering on the wood stove to heat up for canning with jars sterilizing in the pan behind.

 Here are some of the jars of oven roasted tomatoes, milled and cooked down into a paste and 5 of the 6 qts. of kraut. One of the jars went right into the refrigerator for eating ASAP!

One more batch of tomatoes and we'll be all through canning, I just hope and pray we empty enough jars in time to can the last batch of sauce*wink*   Such a problem to have*wink*

It's still snowing here, we have approx. 12-14" of snow and it's due to get bitter cold tonight, -4F and will stick around for the next several days, clearing out by Thanksgiving. Day.

Whoot, Whoot! we just sold our last turkey, making 7 sold this year! We're hoping people will like them enough to want one ever year! If our hens don't have better success setting and hatching, we'll purchase poults and let them raise them( sneak them under them on the nests at night)

I think we'll concentrate on marketing our turkeys and garlic and the rest we'll just raise for our own uses. Both the turkeys and garlic seem to be a good selling products for us.  :o)

Well, it's time for evening chore, since the time change it's dark here by 4:30pm*sigh* 
Blessings for your Sunday

Smashing all myths that cooking from scratch takes all day

Now to smash all those myths that you can't cook from scratch quickly. Today we had to run an errand in the morning, leaving at 10am and returned home around 12:45pm. Once home, we had to collect clothes off the clothesline, getting the load in the washer, wrung out and hung on the line. Then Cortney and I went to our separate tasks. I began cutting tomatoes and running through the mill, while Cortney headed out to the hoop house to collect all the tomatoes left on the vines because it's forecasted to freeze and freeze hard tonight with our low into the low 30's to high 20's F. Since we've decided not to heat the hoop house this year, I didn't want to chance the loss of any of the beautiful tomatoes left on the vines. Much to my surprise, Cortney also went ahead and pulled up the vines, stakes and did all the clean up for me as well, what a blessing :o)  After the tomatoes were all milled and the Victorio all cleaned up, I proceeded to start a fire in the stove for two purposes; first to simmer the tomato sauce down  so it's thick enough for chili sauce, enchilada sauce and thick tomato sauce, and secondly because the indoor thermometer was reading 59F and it's forecasted to keep dropping in temperature outside. When the fire was going and shutdown, I headed outside to retrieve a package of chuck steak from the freezer. We've been out of burger for months and have an excess of steak in the freezer, some of which is over a year old already, so we've decided to thaw and grind burger on an "As Needed Basis."  Today burger is needed for our supper. 

 Tomato sauce simmering- Check

 Chuck steak thawed( enough) in hot water, cut into chunks and ground into burger-Check

 Burger cooked and seasoning added- Check

Home canned pinto beans, ready for mashing, mashed-Check

Mashed pinto beans added to burger in preparation for Enchiladas :o)

 Burger and beans mixed and simmered, ready to fill the..... okay I admit we did use store bought tortilla shells that we had in the freezer*wink*

 Home canned Enchilada sauce, recipe found here, ready to be opened and cheese grated

     The finished product before being baked in the wood cook stove oven :o)   Now all of this plus another load of laundry was washed and wrung out before 4pm.  Feeling quit good about all we'd accomplished in such a short period of time, Cortney and I treated ourselves to one episode, of the 9th season of The Walton's  *wink*  Then it was off to do evening chores, Mike coming home and enjoying our homemade supper :o)

Since it was snowing outside...

We decided to make homemade whole cracked wheat bread and with the remaining whole wheat flour we made noodles for lasagna for supper tonight!
These were still rising( then photo was taken), and now are baking in the wood cook stove and look and smell wonderful. I'll slice some thick and make garlic bread to go with the lasagna.
We love whole or cracked grain breads, they have such a nutty/ rich flavor.
We've certainly made prettier noodles, but guess what they all taste good!
If you click on the photo, you'll see the whole wheat pieces. Ummmm, Ummmm. :o)
See what I mean about not so pretty noodles, but we were in a hurry and multi tasking*wink*