Use What You Have: Maple Seeds

(Sorry, no pics with this post, just to see how it feels.)

Now, I have mostly a lot of love for Mother Maple, she who graces our backyard and fair skin with copious amounts of dark, cool shade and provides us with feather soft autumn leaves in which to plunge our lazy bodies. But. BUT. In the springtime, I find it a bit difficult to appreciate the... blatant fecundity of Old Mama Maple. There isn't one spot on our property (I exaggerate not) that isn't blessed with the bearing of one of Mother Maple's progeny. In other words, I end up weeding a whole heckuva lot of maple seedlings from my garden.

Only now... Now I know. Now I know how to beat Mama Maple at her own game. Tonight found me hanging lazily from branches and scaling that rough, shaggy trunk of hers to gather those green little whirlybirds. And then? And then I ATE THEM. Yes I did.

I'll admit, this is one of those situations where, in caloric terms, I'm not sure the end justifies the means. It took a loooong time to split the husks off of each of those little seeds. This is very slow food we're talkin'! You get a big pile of green husks and a little itty bitty pile of food. Still, there're going to be fewer maple saplings to remove from the garden this year...

In regards to preparation:
-Break off the green outer husk (they're still edible if the hulls are brown, but I've read that they get bitter at that point)
-Snack on a couple to see if they're sweet enough or if you have to boil off the tannins
-If bitter, boil and dump the water. Repeat until bitter taste is gone.
-Otherwise, boil until tender (mine took ~15 minutes).
-Season with salt, pepper, and/or butter to your fancy.
-Ingest.

I have no experience with this, but you can also roast them or even dry the seeds and ground them into flour.

In regards to taste: I actually preferred them raw. The larger seeds seemed to be more bitter than the smaller ones. It's best to get 'em young, I guess. I boiled some, and they were good but quite bland. I salted them and smothered them in butter. All in all, for free food, it was good!

Menu Plan Monday

I can't believe I forgot to do my Menu Plan Monday post last week! I'll blame it on pregnancy brain and a sick 5-year-old. ;) We're getting ever closer to D-Day here, so I'm making extras with every meal and popping some into the freezer. Only 6 weeks to go!

Monday: Breakfast-- Cheesy Scrambled Eggs on Buttered Toast
Cinnamon Applesauce
Dinner-- Spaghetti with Meat Sauce, Mixed Greens Salad

Tuesday: Breakfast-- Banana Pancakes
Dinner-- The Husband's Choice

Wednesday: Breakfast-- Baked Oatmeal
Dinner-- One-Pan Chicken Dinner

Thursday: Breakfast-- Breakfast Burritos
Dinner-- More-Peas-if-You-Please Penne

Friday: Breakfast-- Chunky Monkey Oatmeal
Dinner-- Chili and Romaine Salad

Saturday: Breakfast-- Apple Cinnamon Muffins
Dinner-- Yummy Broccoli Soup and Homemade Bread

Sunday: Breakfast-- Baked Oatmeal
Dinner-- Homemade Pizza

You can check out what everyone else is eating over at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

Stovetop Popcorn-- Frugal, Fast, and Fun

We're still just buried in snow here, and we've been having fun with it. A kid gets thirsty? They open the back door and scoop some snow into their cup, take it to the table, watch it melt, then drink all that cold goodness down. Somehow, water always tastes more magical when it started as snow, don't you think?

Along with our free and fairydust-imbued drinks, we decided to pop some popcorn on the stovetop. The truth is, Mommy hasn't been out to the store in nearly two weeks now, so we were running low on "snack foods." We've been keeping popcorn in the pantry though, so out it came! Heather did a wonderful tutorial on stovetop popcorn over at The Simple, Green, Frugal Co-Op (the rest of that post is wonderful too!). I know that it sounds as if it takes a lot more time and effort than popping a bag of kernels in the microwave, but it really doesn't take much time at all. I use bacon grease to pop ours in and test to see if the oil is hot enough by dropping in just one kernel. When that single kernel pops, I pour in enough popcorn to cover the bottom of the pan with a single layer of kernels, usually about 1/2 cup. This 1/2 cup of unpopped kernels makes enough popcorn to split into two batches for my three littles.

Which saves me from having to head to the store for yet one more day. ;)

There are a million and one recipes for jazzing up your popcorn. Just type "popcorn recipes" into search engine and you should be able to find something to suit any occassion. I grew up in the land of bland popcorn though, so we don't add anything at all to ours. The bacon grease alone gives it enough flavor to suit us (well, except The Husband).

Can anyone guess what we'll be munching on while watching the Superbowl? :)

Menu Plan Monday

Unfortunately, I didn't get to make most of the dinner dishes from last week's menu because two of my littles got sick, and when my kids are sick there's only one meal that they'll have: homemade chicken noodle soup. So that's what we had for dinner Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I did manage to sneak the Tortellini in Broth with Escarole into their bowls, but none of the kids would touch the escarole. I thought the dish was delicious though! If you can't find escarole or just want a substitute, spinach or nettles would be wonderful.

I'm sure Monday at least will be another chicken noodle soup day, but here's the plan for now:

Monday: Breakfast-- Cheesy Scrambled Eggs on Buttered Toast
Cinnamon Applesauce
Dinner-- Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

Tuesday: Breakfast-- Walnut Pancakes
Dinner-- The Husband's Choice

Wednesday: Breakfast-- Baked Oatmeal
Dinner-- Pork and Green Bean Stir-Fry with Rice

Thursday: Breakfast-- Breakfast Burritos
Dinner-- Roasted Chicken Breasts with Carrots and Onions

Friday: Breakfast-- Chunky Monkey Oatmeal
Dinner-- Chili and Romaine Salad

Saturday: Breakfast-- Raisin Oatmeal Muffins
Dinner-- Spaghetti with Meat Sauce and Italian Salad

Sunday: Breakfast-- Baked Oatmeal
Dinner-- Homemade Pizza

Don't forget to join us for Menu Plan Monday!

First Menu Plan Monday

One of my goals for last year was to begin planning our menus to cut down on grocery costs, junk food purchases, and pantry nonsense overload. It's really transformed our grocery bill, and I love the stress relief that comes from not having to hunt for something to make each meal. This year, I thought it might be fun to participate in I'm an Organizing Junkie's weekly Menu Plan Monday event. Not only might I pick up a few new, yummy recipes or menu planning tips, but I hope to pick up a few new friends too!

So, welcome to everyone that is visiting from the Organizing Junkie's blog. Please feel free to comment! I can't wait to see your menus.

Just a note on my menu method: I will include breakfast and dinner items, but not lunch. We generally eat leftovers for lunch, so there's no need for me to plan for it. If there are no leftovers (happening a little too often with this pregnant mama around *ahem*), we have either harboiled eggs with whatever fruit/veggies are available or peanut butter sandwiches with aforementioned fruit/veggies.

Monday: Breakfast-- Cheesy Scrambled Eggs on Buttered Toast
Cinnamon Applesauce
Dinner-- Cheese Manicotti and Romaine Salad

Tuesday: Breakfast-- Banana Pancakes with Peanut Butter
Dinner-- The Husband's Choice

Wednesday: Breakfast-- Baked Oatmeal
Dinner-- Tortellini in Broth with Escarole

Thursday: Breakfast-- Cheesy Scrambled Eggs on Buttered Toast
Cinnamon Applesauce
Dinner-- Pork and Green Bean Stir-Fry with Rice

Friday: Breakfast-- Chunky Monkey Oatmeal
Dinner-- Roasted Chicken Breasts with Carrots and Onions

Saturday: Breakfast-- Apple Cinnamon Muffins
Dinner-- Chili and Romaine Salad

Sunday: Breakfast-- Baked Oatmeal
Dinner-- Homemade Pizza

Yummy Broccoli Soup

Yes, I'm the worst food photographer ever. I promise to work on it if I'm going to keep posting food pictures.

Anyway, I promised my lovely readers that I would post a good recipe from my ventures into Rachael Ray menu planning land, and here is my favorite so far: broccoli soup. I actually made this recipe in early December when the weather here was still mild and broccoli was still readily available. Some of you with greenhouses or in warmer climes may still be able to make this with fresh from the garden veggies, but I'll have to wait until the spring broccoli crop comes in. My mouth is watering just thinking about it! I didn't make many changes to the original recipe really, but I like a potatoier soup (how's that for making up new words?), and I didn't have any shredded Swiss on hand so I had to adjust things a bit.

Broccoli Soup (adapted from Every Day with Rachael Ray)-- 4 adult servings

2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

1 large onion chopped

salt and pepper

4 small yellow-fleshed potatoes, finely chopped (I didn't peel my potatoes, though the original recipe calls for it)

1 bunch broccoli, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1/2 cup heavy cream

3 1/2 cups water

In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion, season with salt and pepper and cook until softened and transluscent, stirring often. Add the chopped potatoes and 3 1/2 cups water and bring to a boil. Then lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Next, add the broccoli, cover, and cook just until the broccoli is tender, about 7 minutes. Remove half of the soup to a blender and puree; recombine with the other half. Stir in the shredded cheese and then the cream. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve warm.

All in all, it took me about an hour to prepare this soup. Not bad at all. I garnished the kids' bowls with extra shredded cheese and served it with crusty bread (not the "Ham-and-Swiss Toasts" included in the Every Day menu plan because I have an extreme dislike of mayonaisse). Next time, I may puree the portions for the 5-year-olds completely. They are a bit put off by broccoli. The 2-year-old was no problem though, and she happily dipped her bread in and chowed down. I had a much larger bowl than I should have for dinner and an equally large bowl the next day for lunch. The next time I prepare this soup, I think I'll double the recipe and see how well it freezes.

Changin' Up the Menu

One of my goals for awhile now has been to vary our lunch and dinner menus. The Husband is an extremely picky eater, not to mention the two 5-year-olds I have to cater to. Oh, did I forget the toddler? She's actually the easiest to please if that gives you any indication as to what I'm dealing with here. Seriously, my husband only eats pizza, plain cheese burgers (that's just meat and cheese), a touch of spaghetti with meat sauce, lasagna, or manicotti, and the occassional sub sandwich. It's not exactly bliss for my palate. I remember those days long, long ago where having pizza each Friday night with my mom and brother was awesome, and I never seemed to tire of it. Now, if I never see another pizza in my life, it'll be too soon. Par example, when my mom died, The Husband and I stayed with my step-dad and brother for about two weeks to get everything settled. Daniel ordered a pizza from Tiffany's every single day for lunch and dinner. (Best pizza in Monroe, Michigan BTW, if you're ever in town...) The first couple of days my step-dad and brother found it a bit odd but were game. After five days, they were wondering why I was with this guy. :-) They thought for sure he'd give up after one full week of pizza, but no...

But I digress. I was talking about our current menu. Being in my third trimester now, the tomato-based diet was absolutely killing me. The heartburn... Ugh. So I decided to look around the web and see what other people were eating, how they planned their menus, etc. Eventually, I decided to take the super-duper-uber-easy way out and use the weekly menus put together at Every Day with Rachael Ray. Some of you will know her from her 30-minute Meals gig. Not all of the dishes in the offered menus can be prepared in 30 minutes, but I'd rather have slow food anyway. As I looked around at the menus, they did a fairly good job of keeping things seasonal, and most of the ingredients are already in my very limited pantry. If I have it, I bet you do too!

Unfortunately, as easy as the dishes have been to prepare, they haven't all been big hits around here. Not by a long shot. The first recipe we tried was the Pumpkin Ravioli with Toasted Pumpkin Seeds. I traded the wonton wrappers for homemade ravioli following Rhonda's tutorial, and as I was rolling out the pasta dough sans pasta machine (yikes!) I kept thinking how many of these ingredients could be homegrown and/or homemade. A few chickens would cover the eggs, pumpkin puree is simple enough, even I've done toasted pumpkin seeds before, cream and parmesan cheeses can be homemade even by folks without their own dairy animals, and the butter could at least be home churned, right?

And then I took a bite of my ravioli. The ravioli that took me hours to make. And it was DREADFUL. I barely choked down one entire ravioli and couldn't manage a second to save my life. It wasn't the pasta part. That was good and light, even being hand rolled. The filling though? Blech. It was like I cut open a pumpkin and started chowing down. I like pumpkin, but this was a bit too much for me. Perhaps I didn't cook the ravioli long enough, though they were all floating when I began spooning them out. Needless to say, the kids wouldn't eat it either. I think The Bean ate one or two raviolis, but that was it.

I'll admit that after all the time I spent on this dish, I almost gave up completely on the Every Day menu. Very luckily, though, the very next day produced a meal as fabulous as this one was horrid. But that'll have to wait for another post. ;-)

Our Ohio

I'm not a magazine person. In fact, I don't have a single magazine subscription in my name (The Husband and the kids are a different story). "Our Ohio" is sent to us as a benefit of membership in the Ohio Farm Bureau, however, and I thoroughly enjoy its bi-monthly editions. It's a great way to learn about various local farms, vineyards, businesses, and events. It also has a recipe feature with each edition, where one ingredient (usually seasonal) is featured.

The reason I'm sharing this little treasure of information with you now, though, is because the November/December issue featured a couple of "alternative cooking" methods that is right up the alley of any homesteader. The recipe theme was campfire recipes (which you can find online at Our Ohio), which was preceded with a short, sweet article entitled "Fun With Campfire Cooking." There's also another article called "Fire it Up" about hearthside cooking lessons in Lucas County.


Unfortunately, I won't be doing any hearthside cooking anytime soon. That loverly picture to the left is my "hearth," a non-functioning, capped gas fireplace which we haven't even come close to restoring yet. After a dreadful Yuletide ice storm in our apartment years with 1-year-old twins in which our electricity (including our electric heat) was knocked out for days, we purposely looked for a home with a fireplace... just in case. Once we had it, however, The Husband was so worried that the twins would be burned that he had his step-dad cap the gasline going to the fireplace and remove the fixture. Then the worry was that the twins would climb the chimney, so our fireplace was turned ever so stylish with the addition of a lovely baby gate to the front. That was a long way of telling you that I don't have the proper equipment for hearthside cooking. ;)

Annnnnnyway, check out "Our Ohio" if you have the chance, especially if you happen to, uh, be in Ohio. If you don't have access to the mag but the idea of hearthside/campfire cooking has intrigued you, check out The Magic of Fire by William Rubel for another jumping off point. Happy cooking!

Popcorn Isn't Just for Popping

Sharon over at Casaubon's Book is adding a wonderful new weekly segment to her blog called "Food Storage Quickie" that will concentrate on one aspect of food storage and one non-food item. This is great for me because I have trouble breaking emergency preparedness down into smaller goals, get overwhelmed, and do nothing. 'Tis my way.

This week, Sharon writes about pasta, popcorn, and matches. Pasta and matches are obvious choices for me, but I hadn't really thought about the popcorn. My thoughts quickly drifted to my Depression-raised grandma who always had popcorn in her pantry because it was a cheap source of calories. Hmmm... not a bad idea. Then I remembered a recipe for Popcorn Pie I'd seen in Mother Earth News. After reading it, I'd desperately wanted to grow popcorn but ended up opting for sweet corn instead. There's always next year, right?

Anyway, in case there are others out there not so sure that popcorn deserves a place in your food stores, I thought I'd dig up a few more recipes for you:

Thai Peanut and Popcorn Crusted Chicken
Popcorn Salad
Popcorn Soup
Popcorn Stuffing-- An actual recipe, not the joke
Popcorn Stuffed Peppers

A quick Google search will net you hundreds of links to dessert-type recipes, gourmet popcorn recipes, and more popcorn ball variations than one cook could possibly use. Now I'm off to add to my food stores!

Grandma Dorothy's Fried Squash

I promised that I'd post the recipe for my grandma's fried squash while I was showing off the mystery squash, and I finally got around to making it tonight. This was absolutely the only way I'd ever eat squash as a child. It may not be the healthiest method, but I don't mind making it for a treat once in awhile. You'll have to forgive the dreadful food photography. That is something I have yet to master. The recipe is as follows:

2-3 small summer squash, sliced into 1/4in. rounds (you can substitute zucchini if you'd like)
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 cup milk
1/2 cup flour (plus more, just in case)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon (or your favorite seasoning/herb)
enough oil to cover the bottom of your pan thickly


First, slice your squash. 1/4in. is an approximation, of course. Just use your best judgement. You're frying these in a batter that will cook much faster than the squash itself, so they need to be thin enough that they'll be softened during the frying process but not so thin that they're difficult to handle or they get mushy from overcooking. Uniformity is the key.


Combine the eggs (slightly beaten beforehand), milk, flour, salt, and cinnamon in a small bowl. I use a fork to beat mine together because my kitchen is woefully devoid of "tools", but you can use whatever works for you. This batter is your only chance to add flavor, so feel free to experiment with your favorite spices. I am completely in love with cinnamon for those crisp autumn days where you want something to warm you up, but during the summer, I often omit it and use anise or something that feels a bit more cooling to me. While you're doing the mixing, you can put your oil on to heat up. Test the oil for readiness by letting a drop of batter fall into the oil. If the batter sizzles a bit, your oil is ready.


Next, dip each slice of squash into the batter and drop it into the pan. I always do one test slice first to make sure that the batter has sufficient flour to adhere to the squash. If it's too runny, I add flour a tablespoon at a time until the consistency seems right. I've seen some people who make this dish let the excess batter drip off of each piece of squash, but that's not how Grandma did it, and it's not how I do it! I dunk and cook immediately. Be sure to add only enough squash to the pan that you have a single layer. If they're all crammed into the pan, they'll stick together and make flipping difficult.


Fry the squash until brown on one side, then flip and let the other side brown. You don't want these to be a nice golden color. You want BROWN. Otherwise, your squash will still be crunchy. I don't like mine floppy and mushy, but I want them to be just soft enough to chew without trouble. When they're done, they should look like this:


Serve immediately. In fact, the babies you see in the picture were devoured right out of the pan, despite my scalding mouth. Mmmmmm...

Enjoy!

Literature Inspired Food

If you haven't noticed before (perhaps in this post or that one), raspberries and I are an inseparable pair, especially during pregnancy when they both nourish me and inspire great feelings of nostalgia. It's my way of connecting with the woman who birthed me and who never got to see me give birth myself. One of the things that both my mother and I loved when I was growing up was Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery. We raced each other to get through the books and watched the movies together at least once a year. I used to make fun of my mom for crying during the movies, but I'm sure she'd be chuckling now to see how misty-eyed I get just at the first notes of the movie's theme song. Yes, Mom. Now I understand. I really do.

Back to the raspberries. I was drinking my raspberry leaf tea this morning and my mind began to drift to the scene in Anne of Green Gables where Anne mistakenly gives Diana red currant wine instead of the permitted, non-alcoholic raspberry cordial. Oh, the mayhem that ensues! Bosom buddies ripped apart! Again, I'm being diverted. The point is, I kept wondering just what raspberry cordial was and how wonderful it must taste and how transported I would feel to roll the bright pink liquid over my tongue. I googled recipes, and lo and behold! Apparently, I too can learn how to make P.E.I.'s traditional raspberry cordial. W00T!

It was about this time that I remembered another literary favorite that's inspired food traditions in my family: Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House series. There's a chapter in Little House in the Big Woods where Ma and Pa bring in some fresh snow from the first snow of the season and allow the girls to make maple syrup candy, 'cause "maple sugar never hurt anybody." I had poured through boxes and boxes of books in the attic (before the big declutter, of course) in order to find my worn copy of Little House in the Big Woods on a whim, and after that chapter I waited desperately for the first powdery drifts of the winter to come. When it did, I surprised the kids with the making of this little treat. Thus was born a brand new (to us) first snow family tradition. You can bet that we'll be doing it again this year, and I'll be blogging about it too!

Raspberry cordial and maple syrup candy are just bits and pieces of the culinary traditions held within these favorite books of mine. Tomorrow we head to the library to pick up the two cookbooks featured above (thank goodness for the home internet accessible Marion Public Library catalog), and hopefully my morning sickness will give me enough of a break to whip up some delicious, literature inspired eats. Not only will my body and unborn baby be nourished, but so will my spirit and my inner child.

Do you have any favorite foods or family traditions inspired by literature? Please share if you do!