My Pantry

I got a comment on my last post that made me go to Dawson's photoblog since I've not looked at it in a couple days, and there it is - My Pantry! So click on the above link to see it. His wide-angle lens took a couple great pics. View it in the slideshow format.

I just finished cooking up a batch of All-Purpose Basic Ground Meat Mix to freeze in six portions. When first married I had the Make-A-Mix cookbook in two books, now in one, and I got one for Travis and Sarah, and now Heather. That's where I'm getting ideas from. And I'm now going to start making a lasanga and will freeze the rest of it after we have some for supper tonight, along with the cheesecake I made, from my Hearth&Home cookbook (are you getting hungry?! ;^)

Heather has not had her baby. She's having contractions regularly tho ...

Old Fashioned Caramel Frosting

I've loved the flavor of spiced cake and caramel or maple frosting since I was a kid, so my mom always made it for me for my birthday. I carried on that tradition, making it for me from scratch for my birthday since I got married. And like I said in the last posting, where I wrote the cake recipe, my daughter Heather made it for me for this year's birthday when Monte and me arrived at her new home in Texas. She left for me, the frosting to make. 

It's considered a Boiled or Cooked Frosting, and I've been making it from the Joy of Cooking cookbook all these years. But when we moved to 8000 feet elevation in Evergreen, Colorado from Tucson, Arizona, the recipe did not work and I had to do a lot of reading and figuring.

Old-Fashioned Caramel Frosting

In a medium saucepan heat and stir until sugar is dissolved:

2 c packed brown sugar

1 c heavy cream

Cover and simmer for 2 minutes. Spoon down any sugar on the sides of the pan and cook uncovered, hardly stirring, until the syrup reaches 238 degrees. Remove from the heat and add, without stirring:

3 Tb butter (unsalted if you have it)

Set aside, without stirring, until the mixture cools to 110 degrees and stir in:

1 tsp vanilla.

The 238 degrees is where I had to change the recipe (and it has an optional addition of rum flavoring which I don't like). It was in the Joy of Cooking's "Know Your Ingredients" chapter, and maybe under making candy, and maybe even canning, that I figured it out. Cooking and canning temperatures and timings are set for sea level. At 8000 ft I had to lower the temperature to 18_ degrees (I'm not at home with my cookbook and notes. But at my elevation, boiling water temp is at 186, which means 20 minutes of waterbath canning time stretches out to 46 minutes for me! And I think when making candy, that soft-ball stage at 238 has to lower about 2 degrees per thousand ft or is it hundreds?)

Once the frosting is cooled and vanilla added you beat it with a hand mixer in the pan (or you have to transfer it to a mixing bowl) till it gets thickened creamy.

The recipe actually makes more frosting than the cake needs, but my kids always wanted the extra to add to their cake slices or spread on ginger cookies or graham crackers. Yummm ....

In Ogema, Wisconsin, Monte's Aunt Ruby makes this cake frosting. Even last year she had it at an event and I recognized it and we talked about it. She says it's everybody's favorite. Aunt Ruby is the only other person I know who makes it. She raised her family on a dairy farm, so you know her cream had to be the BEST ever! 

Spice Cake

I've been asked several times for the Spice Cake recipe I use for my favorite cake - My favorite birthday cake since I was a kid. I've been making it for years from The Joy of Cooking cookbook. But, as usual, I don't do the exact recipe...

First off, I have to say, I am not a cake person. I've never loved cakes for dessert, preferring pies, cheesecakes, and now Tiramisu. Also, I rarely eat desserts. I have to choose the types of carbs I consume carefully. I'm pretty good at avoiding store bought desserts and processed flour products. Since the only place my body can grow is out, when I take in foods, they are nutrient rich, phytonutrient rich choices. I even have to limit my homemade breads.

So when it comes to foods with flour, I make everything from home-ground grains. That way I know they are nutrient rich and at their optimal. So I've made all my pie crusts, cookies, and cakes from ground whole wheat. I use either pastry berries or white wheat, not the red winter wheat berries.

When I look at cakes, all cakes made from cake mixes have a plasticky sheen to them. Maybe it's just my self-conscious seeing things. Maybe my baked goods aren't as light and fluffy, but that's what's been built into our likes from the era when processed flour was introduced as a 'rich mans' food, just like processed white sugar was coveted in the same way.

In the Joy of Cooking, it's the Velvet Spice Cake, 

but here's my version:

I start by beating

4 egg whites 

1/8 tsp cream of tartar, till soft peaks form and gradually add in

1/4 c sugar, till peaks stiffer, but not dry.

I scrape this mixture into another bowl to add in at the end.

Next I beat 

1 1/2 sticks butter (12 Tb) in my Bosch mixer bowl, with the butter (usually unsalted if I have it) sliced in pieces so the whips don't get bent. And add in

1 1/4 c sugar

Beat in 3-4 lg egg yolks

Adding in the dry ingredients:

2 1/4 c whole grain flour (and I never sift either)

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg (I do have a cute nutmeg grinder)

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp grd cloves

1/2 tsp salt

Fold in beaten egg whites.

(The eggs can be done whole, without mixing them separate if you don't mind the cake being denser.)

Pour into greased and floured tube or bundt pan, and it works in a 9x13.

Bake at 350 degrees about 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool about 10 minutes to invert the cake out of the pan (or just leave it in the 9x13 if you want).

I always make a boiled brown sugar frosting for it. I don't have time to post it right this minute, so will do it later.

Just a side note: The Joy of Cooking has changed over the years and I don't know what's still in the newer versions. I heard it talked of on a program. Mainly editing out some of the details and maybe ingredients or recipes that people today don't stock. Hopefully it's still making everything from scratch.

January?

Calendar Girl me is doing pretty much nothing this month. I'm not home and some things I see I posted last January are not on my computer calendar. So if you're curious about some church calendar things and more, click on January 2008 in the side bar. Like I posted about Thomas Aquinas, John Bunyan, St Anthony the Desert Father ... 

And I don't even think I mentioned I had a birthday this month. We arrived here in Texas the day before my birthday and Heather had made my favorite cake - spice cake from scratch, leaving me the boiled brown sugar frosting to make. I hadn't made it for myself for awhile, so it tasted good!

Will Heather and Bill's baby be born in January or February, the month that holds my mom's birthday. It's looking like it will be February. We went to the military hospital OBGYN today and they checked on the baby's heart and amount of fluid and all's okay, and she's having regular mild contractions, but hardly any cervix softening. So unless the baby chooses to come soon, her midwife scheduled us to go on Tuesday for inducing since she'll be 2 weeks overdue. Heather really wants the baby to come when it wants to, so we'll see. We've been walking, and the other day was in FRIZZLE!! - little blades of ice hitting our faces! 

January is the month I love sitting with all the garden catalogues that have poured in and dream and plan my gardens. I usually order seeds now. BUT, we joined for another year a somewhat local, organic farm - weekly produce starting in June thru mid December. They can grow so much more than I can at my altitude, and we loved it last year. So what do I want to plant this year is the question. I'll probably start certain flower favorites soon. Probably still grow broccoli, snow peas, green beans ... there's still stuff I like to walk out and pick and eat! I still have my herb bed and of course tons of perennials! Thinking ...

Waiting ... More time to read and knit. Nothing else to organize, just some sewing to do, and I found Heather had a bunch of stitcherys done, so got some frames for them. Still cooking, thinking big for extra to freeze.

Bill's safely in Kuwait, or Iraq by now. He calls and emails Heather daily. We'll mail stuff to him tomorrow - lots of flat-rate boxes I can help her carry. The next, last, big thing, will be his guitar - we'll mail next week.

So I'm not flying home on January 31st. Don't know when yet ...

Happenings, and Still No Baby

I just came back to my computer to look for the Roasted Brussel Sprout recipe I often do. Though I could search for it, it's easiest to look at my blog, where I posted it in 2007 November.

Heather's not had her baby yet. We've heard probably all the wives tales. Don't think we'll do the castor oil Kerry; we have been walking most everyday, sometimes with errands, but a brisk walk in her neighborhood, sometimes with her dog, every other day. Habaneros Travis? Heather says "NO"! (She did have some spicy Chipotle food Sunday.) She still does her exercise video too, since it helps her back.

I've started sewing her window valances/curtains. The rods (and blinds) are already there (everything is white!), and I just want to add some color! When I get some of them done, I'll post more pictures. I did get her bed skirt done. I'm still organizing her craft/sewing stuff. The rest of the house, with her knowing where all is filed, Bill's tools are and what some of them might be needed for, instructions on all appliances and baby stuff in one place ... and the kitchen, are all pretty much organized and functioning well.

Now I've been cooking large-amount suppers so I can freeze some extra meals for her. Bill is over in Kuwait for a bit and calls Heather daily, sometimes twice a day, and emails a lot. Once he gets his headphones mailed to him, they can do the camera thing and 'talk' to one another. We joke about having the baby on her lap so he sees and hears "Dada".

Weather report? Last Thursday and Friday when I was outside painting, it was pleasantly in the upper 70's, low 80's - I loved it! (It's been freezing in Evergreen and snow showers.) BUT now, here in mid-Texas this week, it's cloudy, drizzly, and cold! Looks to be sunny after today. Good, or I'd get that SAD depression.

Pictures and Patience

Still no baby. Monte's here at Heather's home again, but leaving tomorrow. Since no baby yet, I'm probably going to be staying longer. I feel so fortunate to be able to stay longer. The only thing I really feel committed to, in returning to Evergreen, is starting seeds in my greenhouse for this years veggie garden, and flowers. If that's the main thing "calling" to me, I guess that shows one of my main loves in life. I'm able to read here (once I'm not so organizational focused) and knit (tho the main project I brought I've taken out several times - I'm at the point of thinking the pattern is wrong!). The weather's nice for outdoor activities, like walking, and we may get a garden going.

I posted some pictures on two days.

Happenings, and Still No Baby

Okay, I'm sore (actually better now that I sat knitting watching a good oldie movie). I painted all the parts of 4 windsor style chairs and table dark olive green. Tomorrow I'll finish up the flat horizontal surfaces blue. My getting-older-body does not straighten as easy after scrunching and sitting and stretching in all sorts of angles. Gotta finish before it might rain Friday.

Rain? That means the barometer will be changing ... that's one of those possibilities for bringing on babies. Monte left this morning for a few days, so it's me that'll be off to the hospital with Heather (the military hospital is only 1/2-1 mile away). So every night before we go to bed I think about clothes, phone and camera in purse, and my knitting ready.

Heather has a piano. At home she used to play the piano almost daily, so we knew it would be something that she'd really enjoy this year, and Bill wanted her to have one too. Monte and me had seen a decent one, minus a bench, at a second hand store ... is it okay? ... then the hassle of getting it here ... So Sunday morning at church Monte talked with the pianist (Heather sometimes went to her house to play her piano), she called us while we were eating out after church, with a phone number of an older man she's used for piano tuning for years. Monte called him. He had gotten a good piano in the day before, tho he no longer has his store. We went and looked at it with Heather Monday. It had a cute little screw up piano seat. And you know what?! He was coming to the base the next day to tune all the school's pianos while the kids were on break! So Heather got her piano the next day! 

Gotta let the dog Max in for the night and go to bed. Oh ... while painting, besides listening for a dove (I finally did hear one, but there's so much excavation for a new neighborhood nearby all you hear the most of is the back-up beep-beeps of trucks and tractors)(Heather's got a large "live"[green year round] oak tree in the front yard with lots of birds), I was analyzing the social psychology of dogs in a neighborhood of many dogs - at what do they bark?!

No Baby Yet

Today is Heather's due date, and no baby yet. When we got here, we were expecting Bill to be deployed the next morning, but that was extended out to Saturday, and now he's for sure leaving tomorrow morning.

____________________

So the above is what I wrote Sunday morning minus a lot more, but the internet wireless connection I pick up from some neighbor was so spotty yesterday that it didn't post.

Bill is off to Iraq and no baby came on her due date. We were up last night at 1am to drive Bill to his check-in and wait in a gym sitting on bleachers watching the 2 units come together. We ate grilled hot dogs at 2am and the 4 buses of guys drove off at 3am. I was fine till I saw a maybe 12 year old boy walk away with his mom with red, teary eyes, after saying their goodbyes at the bus. Heather stood by Bill's bus window till it drove off. She's sad.

3/4 of the people around here when we're out shopping, eating, and in church are military family peoples. And there's a great mix of so many varieties of people at church and everywhere- from Oriental, Hispanic, Blacks and all. It all feels so healthy and whole. We feel Heather will be surrounded by people who are familiar with long separations and are a great support to one another. She's looking forward to next year's return and helping out with all the homecoming events, which is really a big deal around here.

On base you hear trumpet tunes at 6:30am, 5pm and taps at 11pm. It's not loud, so if the home's not quiet, you miss them. I'm starting to look at clocks at 5 to check their timing, and it's a nice sound. We need ID's to get back on the base when we leave, and because I didn't check in with Monte at the visitor center, or I might need my own vehicle rental, I can't go off by myself without either Monte or Heather. I guess this will help us feel that Heather will be safe here alone.

Gotta go. Monte and me found an old town street last Friday that had lots of used furniture stores and we've found some great bargains for some of the cozy needs around here. So today we paint them. I'll try and post pictures some time soon.

Velveteen House III

I'm all packed. Monte and me are flying out tomorrow morning to Texas to stay with Heather and await their baby. We're wanting to be there sooner than later, since Bill is being redeployed to Iraq for his fourth time, before the baby is due.

Yesterday, I had a felting class all day. I've not done one all day there before. It worked! Customers at the shop were very interested in what we were doing, and there may be demands for more classes. One of my students printed "Birth Certificates" for all the students to fill out and keep, since the main part of the class is creating a 'person' - I was to sign it as the 'Midwife'. That student originally came thinking she was going to create a Molly. "But they often create themselves" I said, "and what if 'it' wants to be someone else, and you are not letting it be itself?!" Her person altered to a Priscilla, and finally an Ethel (really hilariously cute - I took a picture of it with my iPhone).

This morning we put meat in the crockpot and got out tortillas, chilies, etc from the freezer. Travis and Sarah arrived this late afternoon with three other couples, to go skiing in the morning. Dawson will take us to the airport, rent telemark skis, and join them skiing.

Good thing we keep pads in the bunk house for overflow of sleepers. So a couple is in the guest room, another in the laundry room, another in the living room and another in the great room.

They basically threw the supper together (and cleaned up) while I was finishing up laundry and packing. Now extrovert Monte is visiting with them while they play a game.

I'll be writing from Heather's. How will upper 50's - low 60's feel with 90% humidity (what to pack)? I plan on cooking simple, exercising - like walking Max the dog a lot (my exercise belly-dance DVD didn't come), reading, and knitting. Heather wants me to help her look at her home and help organize it better and make it cozy. Monte will do some geology and not be able to stay as long as me. 

Intimacy Quotes

A current benedictine monk said, "Naked we come into this world, and naked we shall return. But not quite: our hope is that when Christ receives us, he will recognize his own image in our hearts."

Which reminds me of another quote I read several years ago in the book Deep Unto Deep. "When I stand before Him face to face one day soon, when I meet His eyes for the first time, will I experience a memory in that gaze? Will there be familiarity?"

Oh do I yearn for this intimacy as I live this life, rather than just knowing about God.