Winter in all its Glory

This winter has been beautiful in our back-country location.

Most days looked like the image below.

Recently, the snow was gently falling in medium-sized flakes...

There was no wind and the air was pleasantly chilly but not frigid.

I wanted to share something with my readers that my husband and I have been really enjoying this winter.

It's a drink made for days just like this!

Wintergreen Woods Loose Leaf Tea

Pictured above is our new glass teapot, diffuser and bubble cups.

The drink itself might not look like much...but it is an experience in subtly.

We just adore this tea, given to us by my lovely friend Samantha Phillips.

Straight from the loose leaf tea guys at David's Tea in Kingston,

this variety is called Wintergreen Woods.

The ingredients are as follows:

• Wintergreen leaves
• Cedar greens
• White Pine needles
• Red Sumac berries

If winter had a flavour...this tea would be it!

It is subtle, refreshing and slightly sweet.

My husband is now obsessed with recreating this tea from foraged ingredients.

(I would almost feel badly about that, but David's Tea discontinued this variety!)

Just about everything can be found in our backyard...with the exception of wintergreen leaves...

It is my goal to have this tea replicated, foraged, dried and stored by next winter.

(fingers crossed)

Wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens), also known as Eastern Teaberry, is a great forage in the winter.

Both the berries and leaves are edible...but the berries can be harmful in quantities for young children.

The leaves make a wonderful trail nibble.

Wintergreen leaves have been used as a substitute for tea during depressions or hardtimes when tea was scarce.

Wintergreen leaves carry medicinal qualities, such as the relief of pain and inflammation (as in gout and arthitis).

Native Americans are said to have brewed a tea from the leaves to alleviate rheumatic symptoms, headache, fever, sore throat and various aches and pains.

Oil of wintergreen has been used for many things, such as flavouring toothpaste.

(for a serious list of its many many uses, check out the link below)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wintergreen

Not to mention the great section in the book "Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild (and Not-So-Wild) Places" by Master Forager "Wildman" Steve Brill

  

In short, wintergreen is soothing & tasty,
but this tea takes the flavour to a whole new level.
The cedar, pine & sumac add light notes of what I can only describe as a taste of winter in Canada.
Perfect for relaxing with the ones you love on a quiet winter's afternoon.

What is your standard cooking bible?

Let's get to know our blogger, shall we?

Seriously, I've been getting asked questions on my facebook group and page.
I thought I would answer some of them publicly.
Hope it helps shed some light on me as well as knowledge to you.

I have been asked which standard cookbooks I typically use for everyday items.

To be perfectly honest, up until recetly, I sucked at cooking and didn't enjoy it.

I thought that someone like me just scored when I married a trained cook.

What they don't tell you, is that someone who does something for a living is NOT going to want to do it when they come home from work.... 

The fact that I don't enjoy preparing food collides with the realization that one must prepare food if one wants to survive and be healthy.

Since I had no interest in learning to cook in my youth, I floundered with my health and suffered for years because of it.  Too much processed food and fast food options caused numerous trips to the emerg with random ailments related to too much refined sugar and not enough fruit and vegetables in my diet.

In terms of cooking for my family, I believe that as long as its home made, I can make a more nutritous, balanced diet while controlling the ingredients and preservatives that enter our systems.

Since my cooking education was pretty much starting from the beginning...I thought I better have

a guide on how to do the most basic things in cooking and baking.

In my husband's extensive cookbook collection, I found my salvation.

I could not live without the following cooking manual:

I say cooking manual because this isn't just a collection of recipes.

The above book is a collected work of the most basic recipes and techniques for a multitude of cultures and cuisines.

The go-to recipes I use in this text are the following:

-apple crisp

-basic rolled biscuits

-any kind of meat I haven't cooked before...this book talks about how to prepare most cuts of meat in a variety of ways

-pancakes from scratch

-spazel

My husband is more familiar with the cook book text book from his college days:

This tome intimidates me...so I prefer to stick with something more published for the masses.

My sister swears by the Fanny Farmer cookbook from our childhood.

Everyone has their standard...or if not...you really should invest in one.

Hit a local bookstore and search the cookbook section.

Ask a relative.

See if the book has recipes with which you are accustomed.

While I find that the internet is fantastic for searching for new recipes with old ingredients,

but there is something to be said for the old stand-by you reach for when you need something familiar.

For example, we made ribs the other night

(which is something I never used to make, but its quickly becoming a family favorite)

and needed a side dish.

Page 17 of the Joy of Cooking illustrates ideas for whole menus.

I found a section on what goes great with BBQ...and I found hushpuppies.

The Joy Of Cooking usually has a short blurb before the actual nitty-gritty of the recipe.

This one was no exception:

As found in The Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer:

Hushpuppies

Fishermen used to fry this savory corn batter in the same lard as the catfish.  (which was funny when, upon smelling the hushpuppies in the frying pan, my husband thought I was making fish).  Legend has it that they threw some to the clamorous dogs with the admonition "Hush, puppy". 

mix together in a bowl:

1 2/3 cup cornmeal

1/3 cup flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp ground black pepper *

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/8 red pepper*

whisk together in another bowl:
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup buttermilk**
1/2 grated onions***

*i used a bit more than a tsp of mixed red, white, green and black peppercorns
** i used  milk, but would probably try cream next time
*** i used chopped onions

• add to the cornmeal mixture and stir until the dry ingredients are moistened.
• heat 1 in of veg oil or shortening in a skillet
• use a tablespoon to measure out and gently drop the batter in the oil
• adjust the heat so that each side becomes golden brown and crispy in approx 60 sec
• use a slotted spoon to flip them over and repeat on opposite side
• transfer to baking sheet lined with paper towl and keep warm in a 200 degree C oven
• repeat with remaining batter

Serve warm - Goes great with BBQ!

BBQ Ribs with Green beans and Hushpuppies

These babies ended up tasting like a deep fried corn bread biscuit.
Great dipped in the home made BBQ sauce, but
VERY HIGH IN FAT.
Definitely different, but I'm not so sure how often I'd be serving these up
for health reasons.



What is YOUR standard cooking bible?
(and what do you use it for mostly?)



A couple o Taters

 Potatoes can be so many things.

They can transform and make different additions to any meal.
I have raved about potatoes on this blog before...so I won't rehash the details.
(but you can search on the right hand side for any posts relating to potatoes)

I have been enjoying some potatoes this winter.

Potatoes are one of those foods you can store all winter long given the right conditions.

If you follow my Facebook group or page for this blog, you

will have seen me show off meals with chopped or diced potatoes

fried up with other veggies or roasted with other roots.

Potatoes can be so versatile...and good for you!
Most of the carbs associated with potatoes are found in the starch content.
Starches are very important to our functions...as they turn into the sugars that feed our brain.

I thought I would show you

a few more ways we've been enjoying this amazing tuber.

A close up on the crispy texture of the hash browns.

The recipe I used can be found at the following link:

http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/crispy_hash_browns/

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Another way I have been enjoying potatoes is below.



Soft and Savory!!

For the full recipe, click the link below:

http://www.food.com/recipe/leftover-mashed-potato-pancakes-9054

Serve with steamed greens or with a salad.

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Furthermore!

We also love a good creamy potato soup...we liven ours up with

wild leeks we picked, washed and froze for winter use.
This soup is great in the winter with frozen leeks or in the spring with the fresh picked leeks.

Potato & Wild Leek Soup

by Lisa Pedersen for this blog

This one is so simple...I just do it from memory...

12 large potatoes

8-10 wild leek bulbs (the white part)

1/2 cup chopped wild leek greens (optional)

1 tsp chives (fresh or dried)

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp onion powder

4 cups chicken or veg stock

2 cups water

S & P to taste

• simmer leeks in 1 tsp butter or oil until softened
• add potatoes and simmer a few minutes
• add water and stock
• bring to a boil and simmer on med - high for 10-15 mins or until potatoes are softened
• add spices and simmer for another 5-10 mins
• either add by cup to a food processor and blend until desired consistancy or mash with a potato masher.
• top with bacon pieces if desired

This soup is so thick and hearty that I don't bother to serve it with biscuits.

You could just as easily serve it with crackers or toast points...but that would have to be a big hungry belly!

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If you are going to start storing vegetables, I would recommend the potato first.

Its versitile and lasts all winter long.

By spring, the tubers that are no longer edible

will be ready to plant for another successful growing season.

Cooking for the End of the World...AKA a million soup recipes...

I love books...especially reference books...

It's gotten so bad I actually have to limit my exposure to Amazon.com...

I could literally spend a small country's national debt on that site alone!!!

One of these books from Amazon was all about storing food for emergency purposes.

A large part of this book was about reconstituting dried foods for cooking.
I was intrigued.  We do store a lot of food, but drying isn't one of the ways we usually do it.
(It's one of my resolutions for 2013...to become more comfortable with drying food)
Mostly we just freeze or jar our food.  In the fall, I aim to make a bunch of soup when the fall veggies are ripe and freeze them in Becel containers.

We have bags of dried beans, but I prefer to work with canned.
The big problem I have with canned beans is that they are packed in salt or preservatives.

So I decided to try reconstituting for the first time!

I soaked 4 cups of mixed beans over night....kind of anti-climactic...

Those above are the beans after I had soaked and rinsed them.

I looked up several recipes online in places like cooks.com seaching under the tag "mixed bean soups".

I found LOADS of recipes to choose from...but many of them called for a pork shank.

I didn't want to rely on having a shank laying around...that and the beans themselves are full of proteins already....why add more?

I found a few recipes that didn't call for a pork shank...just to mix thing up a little.

I had both varieties of soup going at the same time....one in a slow cooker and one of the stove in a pot.

MOM'S BEAN SOUP
2 cups beans  4 cups water 1 chopped onion 1  1/2 tsp. chili powder 1 tsp. cumin 1 tsp. garlic salt Soak beans overnight - or - boil for one hour. See Soaking Dry Beans. Rinse beans. Add all ingredients and bring to a boil. Simmer for 2 hours or until beans are tender. Serve with chips, cheese, sour cream if desired.

TEN BEAN SOUP

1 1/2 c. Ten Bean Soup Mix
4 c. water
2 (10 oz.) cans chicken broth
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 lb. smoked sausage, thinly sliced (i used mild italian spiced turkey sausages)
1 lg. onion, chopped
1 (14 oz.) can tomatoes, chopped

-Sort and wash beans, place in large Dutch oven and cover with water 2 inches above beans.

-Soak beans overnight.

-Drain beans, add 4 cups water, chicken broth, garlic and pepper.

-Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer 1 1/2 hours or until beans are tender.

-Add remaining ingredients and simmer an additional 30 minutes. Yield: 2 1/2 quarts.

Of the two bean recipes, the sausage one turned out to be more of a crowd pleaser.

You can't always see what everyone will like until you try it.

My only advise for that is don't make 16 servings of anything until you've tried a portion of the recipe to start.

It feels like a waste of ingredients and a lot of space in your freezer.

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Here are some other recipes I made this fall for the freezer...

They are great to make ahead and hearty for the whole family.

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Mean Green Broccoli Soup

1 large stalk of broccoli

2 cloves of garlic, pressed

1 sm onion chopped

2 tbsp sharp cheddar cubed

1/4 cup wild & brown rice cooked

6 cups chicken or veg broth

2 tbsp lemon juice

S & P to taste

pinch of hot pepper flakes for fun!

-cut broccoli stalks from tops, peel fibrous outer layer and chop coarsely.

-Cut off flowers and set aside

-In a pot, combine stalks, garlic, onions and broth.

-bring to a boil over high heat.

-reduce heat and boil gently for 10 mins, covered.

-add flowers, hot pepper flakes and cooked rice and simmer for 5 mins longer

-in a blender, puree a little at a time until smooth (or desired consistency) and return to pot

-stir in lemon juice, S & P (and milk if you like) and let simmer but not boil.

-dish out into bowls and add cubed cheddar just prior to serving

Another great recipe!

I got it from some grocery store handout for quick and easy lunches. 

 Make it while you have broccoli around...then freeze it for long term use. 

It works great for a winter warmer-upper!  Thick and healthy too! 

The heartiness comes from the rice instead of using heavy cream.

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Chunky Chicken Vegetable Chowder

4 packets vegetable bouillon

3 cups water

1 cm onion

2 tbsp butter

1 cup each diced potato(stored from garden), carrot(stored from garden), beans (frozen from garden), peas(frozen from garden), cooked chicken cubed

1/2 tsp dried basil

1/2 cup frozen corn (cut from cobs in the fall and frozen)

1 1/2 cups milk

3 tsbp corn starch

-dissolve bouillon in water as per directions, set aside.

-in large pot, cook onion in butter until softened.

-add bouillon, vegetables, chicken, and basil, bring mixture to a boil

-cover and simmer on med heat 20 mins or until tender.

-add corn, and simmer 5 mins longer

-in a cup, stir corn starch into milk until smooth

-add to pot stirring slowly, bring pot back up to a boil. 

-boil 1 min to thicken

-add S & P to taste and serve with biscuits or bread

This recipe is great to freeze if you save the milk until you reheat it.

It "sticks to the ribs" as they say.  Great for after a day outside ice fishing or sledding.

I originally got it from a box of Bovril packets but have made it many times with many different veggies.

See below where we served it with fresh homade bread from the bread machine and also our homemade white wine from the concord grapes in our backyard!

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A current favorite of mine is venison Guiness stew.

It is very hearty and full of vitamins and a lean source of meat.

Venison Guinness Stew

venison

1 cup of carrots peeled & chopped

1 sm onion chopped

2-3 garlic cloves pressed

1 sm potato chopped & peeled

1 cup beans & peas

4 cups of beef broth

4 cups of water

1 tsp steak spice

1 tsp worchestershire sauce

2 tbsp Guinness beer (or other dark lager)

S & P

-Brown Venison in a pan and set aside, discard juice.

-Fry in oil onions and potatoes in a pot until tender.

-Add carrots to pot and simmer for 5 mins.

-Simmer in beef broth and steak spice.

-Add meat, peas and beans.

-Add worchestershire sauce and beer.

-simmer all ingredients in a pot or slow cooker for 2 hrs.

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A new favorite I found this fall is the spicy pumpkin soup!

This one is a variation on traditional soups made with squashes, 

but freezes really well!

Spicy Pumpkin Soup Recipe

Ingredients

4 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 medium yellow onions, chopped
2 teaspoons garlic pressed
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
2 teaspoons curry powder
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
Pinch ground cayenne pepper (optional)
3 (15 oz) cans 100 percent pumpkin or 6 cups of chopped roasted pumpkin
5 cups of chicken broth or veg broth
2 cups of milk
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream

1 Melt butter in a 4-quart saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onions and garlic and cook, stirring often, until softened, about 4 minutes. Add spices and stir for a minute more.
2 Add pumpkin and 5 cups of chicken broth; blend well. Bring to a boil and reduce heat, simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.
3 Transfer soup, in batches, to a blender or food processor. Cover tightly and blend until smooth. Return soup to saucepan.
4 With the soup on low heat, add brown sugar and mix.
(if you are going to freeze the soup, don't add the milk or heavy cream)
5 Slowly add milk while stirring to incorporate. Add cream. Adjust seasonings to taste. If a little too spicy, add more cream to cool it down. You might want to add a teaspoon of salt.
Serve in individual bowls.
Sprinkle the top of each with toasted pumpkin seeds for a nutty aftertaste.