Laura's Lemon Bars

A while back I had to put together a dessert on short notice, but didn't have time to run to the store. It was then that I happened upon this recipe for Easy Lemon Bars, but I was missing a few of the ingredients, so I changed it... quite a bit. :)

They were a hit! So here's the recipe for you:

Laura's Lemon Bars

• One lemon cake mix
• 1/2 cup oil
• 1 egg

Mix these three items and reserve one cup of this dough before pressing in a 9x13 baking dish and baking at 350 until puffed for a crust. Don't quite let it brown, since it will bake again.

• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup yogurt (I used home-made)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. lemon juice
• 1 egg
• and 1/2 cup of reserved dough (save the last 1/2 cup for topping)

Blend this and pour over par-baked crust. 

• 1/2 cup reserved dough
• 1/4 cup flour

Mix until crumbly and sprinkle over as a top layer. Bake until golden brown around the edges, cool and cut into squares; drizzle with vanilla almond bark.

Today I'm joining a blog hop over at:

I hope you get over to see all the fun recipes!

©2012-2013 Loving and Learning on the High Plains. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://www.homeschoolhighplains.blogspot.com

Canning Tomatoes 101

I'm no expert in all things domestic, but I am wild about trying and trying until you get it right. I've been canning tomatoes and salsa since my mom taught me when I was a young girl. Even so, I learn new things all the time. This past week I've been dealing with the bountiful (albeit late) harvest of tomatoes we are finally getting. I planted everything late, so I'm thrilled that our frost held off 2 weeks past our usual "first frost" date.

This time I decided to compare the cold/raw-pack method vs. the hot-pack method of canning tomatoes. The first steps are the same, so lets go over them:

Blanching, peeling, and dicing tomatoes (or slice, if you prefer).

To peel your tomatoes easily, blanch the skins. This is SO easy, just wash your tomatoes, and I usually work in  batches of 6-8 (whatever fits in your pot). Prepare boiling water and a pot of icy water as well. Carefully immerse your tomatoes in the boiling water for about 60 seconds, then transfer to the ice water using a slotted spoon. Once they have cooled, they are very easy to peel. The peels come off in just a few pieces, even easier than peaches.  Here's a video of peeling, for those of you who wonder if you can do it:

Ok, so you have your tomatoes ready; do you hot pack or cold pack? To hot pack is essentially to boil the tomatoes and then can them into sterilized jars, and then you water bath only a short time. To cold (or raw) pack, you fill sterile jars with the tomatoes as they are, and then water bath for a longer period of time, to cook through.

For both situations I washed the jars and then boiled them in my water bath canning pot briefly. I also added a tespoon of sea salt to each jar. Filling each jar to 1/2 inch from the top with no air pockets, and wiping the rims to ensure they are clean, then capping with a new lid and ring. I also dip the lid in the boiling water to soften the rubber seal.

So, the raw packed jars then went into the canning pot and were covered with water (over their tops by about an 1"), and boiled for 35 minutes for pints and 45 minutes for quarts. Also, you need to add time for your elevation, so I added 5 minutes. While those were going I prepared the hot pack jars, boiling the tomatoes and then ladling them into the hot jars, sealing, and processing (boiling them in the canning pot, covered with water again) for 10-12 minutes (adding a minute or two for elevation).

The results were: The raw/cold packed tomatoes actually cooked down more, and separated more of the pulp from the juice. If you were shooting for firmer diced or whole tomatoes, this may not be your best choice. They could be shaken up once cooled, but it was still a looser mix. Great for soups and stews. The hot packed were already a bit soft from boiling first, but didn't process as long, so overall stayed firmer. There will be good for casseroles and such, where I want to see tomato chunks.

All processing times are from the Better Homes and Gardens Home Canning Cook Book, and are only my retelling of my own experiences. Be sure you know how to approach home canning safely, and always be careful when working with food preservation, not to mention working with boiling water. :)




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©2012-2013 Loving and Learning on the High Plains. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://www.homeschoolhighplains.blogspot.com

Breakfast To Go: single serve yogurts!

We recently went on a quick road trip, sadly to attend a funeral for hubby's great grandmother. Long story short, we never made the funeral because, 350 miles into the trip, our van died. We spent a day stranded in a city we were towed to, and then were able to stay in a hotel with hubby's folks as they returned from the funeral (150 miles further down the road). It was a crazy trip, and we ended up buying a new vehicle there, but we started it out with the best of intentions.

Knowing we'd have to leave really early that morning, I had prepared a cooler full of quick and healthy foods for the trip. Little did I know what a life-saver these would be while waiting for the tow-truck in 100 degree weather! God was really watching out for us that day.



So here's the quick recipe... in a mason jelly jar, layer:

• 3/4 full of plain homemade yogurt
• 1 Tbs. of your favorite jelly or jam
• and top off with home made granola.

...be sure to pack a spoon!

It is a wonderful thing to have all the convenient protein and pro-biotics, without all the sugar and preservatives of commercial yogurt.

Here are the recipes for the home-made goodness you use to assemble this. We make this all the time!

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Yogurt:
I've been making yogurt for our family for a couple of years now, and my kids LOVE it. If your kids are accustomed to Go-gurts, this may not be for you. But if you've been paying $4 per quart for plain Greek yogurt to go with your granola and blueberries... It's time to make yogurt! It's a huge savings for us. I usually make a batch of 5-6 quarts and my total cost is $4 for the milk plus $1 for the yogurt starter. This is a potential savings of $19 for each batch!

When buying the milk, look for milk produced closer to you and from more local type dairy names. The farther the milk has to travel, the more it was homogenized. The more processed your milk is, the less likely your yogurt will turn out. I could go into all kinds of facts about Organic, non-processed, raw milk, but I'll leave it at this: Try different kinds and see what you like. If you heat your milk as we will in the first step, it should turn out fine even if you started with raw.

Moving on... For the yogurt starter, buy some at the grocery store. I've made yogurt with ultra-cheap strawberry yogurt from the mini-mart, but by far the best results came from a good plain Greek yogurt with live active cultures (the more the better! check the label to see what cultures are in it.) a 4 oz container will make 4 quarts of yogurt, so get two if you're doing more.

Here are the tools you'll need: jar tongs, mini whisk, thermometer (that at least ranges from 90 degrees to 180F), and a tablespoon.

Yes, that's a Pampered Chef Mini Whisk, and a candy thermometer.

To start with, make sure your jars are nice and clean and fill them with fresh milk. Put them in a pot with water around them up to about an inch from the tops. Heat over med-high heat to bring the milk up to temp. I put a lid on the pot to get there faster, but you won't want to put caps on the jars so you can check the temps. Just be sure you don't spill water into them. (don't mind the hard water lines on my canning pot. It's clean, we just have VERY hard water here.)

Heat until the milk reaches 175F. This ensures you've killed any bacteria that may have been in the milk, or your jars. We want to be sure we are only growing the cultures we add, not anything else. :) This is a great time to dip all of your tools in the boiling water as well to sterilize them.

175F

Use the jar tongs to set the jars out onto a towel to cool a bit. They will take a while come come down to our target temp of 95-108F, so be patient... or set them in an ice water bath, like I do. But do not skip the 10 minutes of cooling on the counter before your hit the ice bath, or your jars may crack.  This time I had one crack, so don't be surprised if it does. Just keep going with what you have.

10 minutes of rest before the ice bath

bring down to 95 to 108F range

Watch them closely, once the temp starts dropping it can drop fast and go right past your target temp, and then you may have to warm them up. It's not as complicated as it sounds. :)

Once they are in the 95-108F range, add 2 tablespoons of the store bought yogurt to each jar and mix well. I've heard you shouldn't mix too much, but when I did that I had a jar that was solid on the bottom and liquid on the top. So mix well, but don't get crazy. :) This is where I love my mini whisk!

Then quickly cap all of the jars and put them in a picnic cooler lined with a clean bath towel. Add jars filled with hot water from your pot (no caps) all around them, or in a staggered pattern, until the cooler is filled. My cooler holds 8 jars, so this batch was 5 jars of yogurt and 3 hot water jars. Cover with the towel and close up the cooler. Set it someplace it won't be disturbed overnight.

In the morning, check your jars by tipping them to the side and seeing if they "slosh". If they haven't set up yet, add more hot water  to your water jars and close it up for another couple of hours. It's not hard to do, and you will get the hang of it quite quickly!

set up nicely, with a little whey to pour off

Granola:

my granola for sale

I make my own (special recipe!) and sell it at the local farmer's market. It was actually recently featured in the newspaper! 
But here's a great recipe for another granola.

Jelly:
We used our favorite, Chokecherry Jelly. :)


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©2012-2013 Loving and Learning on the High Plains. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://www.homeschoolhighplains.blogspot.com

Home Made Hummus

This week we tried something I've been wanting to do for a while, make hummus. I'd bought the dry beans a while back and cooked them up, but I tossed the in the freezer because I didn't think I could pull it off. This week we have been enjoying all kids of great veggies from our bountiful baskets delivery, and I decided we might as well add home made hummus to the mix.

This recipe comes from HERE. (of course I've tweaked it.)


 2 1/2 cups cooked garbanzo beans
1/4 cup water
3 Tbs. tahini
 1/4 cup lemon juice, or juice from one lemon
 1 teaspoon salt
 2 cloves garlic, halved
 1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tsp cumin

Place the garbanzo beans, tahini, lemon juice, salt and garlic and cumin in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth, adding olive oil as it blends. I also added a 1/4 cup water. Transfer mixture to a serving bowl.
Drizzle olive oil over the garbanzo bean mixture.

Now my biggest trouble is keeping the kids from eating it all!


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©2012-2013 Loving and Learning on the High Plains. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://www.homeschoolhighplains.blogspot.com

Emma's Peach Pie

My sweet Emma helped me make a couple peach pies with our peaches from Bountiful Baskets. They were wonderful. You should really take a moment to admire the crust details Emma did all by herself. :) She also took this photo:

Peach Pie Recipe:
1 unbaked pie crust
5 regular sized peaches, blanched, peeled and sliced
3/4 cups sugar
2 Tbs cornstarch
1/4 cup water
1 tsp cinnamon (optional)

Crumble topping: We used granola, but you could do 1/2 cup sugar, 3/4 cup oats, 1/4 cup flour, 1 tsp cinnamon, and 4 Tbs butter and mix until crumbly.

Mix the cornstarch well with the sugar, stir in water, then mix with the peaches. Cook the mixture in a saucepan until the peaches are tender and sauce is thickened. Place in prepared crust and top with crumble or a top crust. Bake at 350 until the crust is done. Let cool completely to set.

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©2012-2013 Loving and Learning on the High Plains. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://www.homeschoolhighplains.blogspot.com

Dairy Free "Frog Eye" Salad

We love this salad for picnics because so little in ingredients can make SO much. My kids love it because it has a cool "gross" name. ;) I love it because it includes healthy fruits and can be made in advance and refrigerated. My hubby loves it, but had trouble with the dairy in the original version. We found a way to switch it up and give it a nice tropical boost.

Dairy Free "Frog Eye" Salad

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 Tbs. flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2/3 cup pineapple juice
• 1 egg (beaten)

Stir dry ingredients together,in a small sauce pan then add the juice and egg.  heat over medium heat until thickened. Remove from heat and add:

• 1 tsp. lemon juice

Let cool. In the mean while, cook:

• 1 box of Acini Di Pepe pasta (16oz). 

When done, rinse with cool water and drain. Stir in the juice sauce and:

• 1 can of coconut milk
• 2 (11oz) cans of mandarin oranges
• 2 (20 oz.) cans of crushed pinapple
• 2 cups mini marshmallows

Mix and Chill. Will fill a large salad bowl. Optional stir-ins include:

• 1 cup flaked coconut
• maraschino cherries
• nuts

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©2012-2013 Loving and Learning on the High Plains. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://www.homeschoolhighplains.blogspot.com

M is for Muffins

We tried this recipe I found in the newspaper last week. I tweaked it a bit, using soured raw milk, and it turned out AWESOME. Hubby loved it, so will be making again and again. :)

Einstein Blueberry Muffins from Mary Hunt

Muffins:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup white sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

1/3 cup sour milk or buttermilk

1 cup fresh blueberries

Crumb Topping, mix with fork until crumbly:

1/2 cup white sugar

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup butter, cubed

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and  line 12 muffin cups with paper liners. In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Add oil and buttermilk. Beat egg slightly with a fork. Mix this with flour mixture and fold in blueberries. Divide among the 12 muffin cups, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture, about a Tbs of topping per muffin. 

Bake for 20-22 minutes or until done, which means when a toothpick is inserted, it comes out just barely clean. Caution: Err on the side of under baking for the yummiest, moistest muffins.

Mary says:
"he called them blueberry muffins, but I call them Einstein Muffins. That’s because every time I make them, I feel like a genius. And you can feel like a genius, too—provided you follow these recipes exactly. "

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©2012-2013 Loving and Learning on the High Plains. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://www.homeschoolhighplains.blogspot.com

Home Made Fried Chicken

There is nothing quite like home grown chicken cut up and fried. :) This week we'll be ordering our next batch of fryers... this time not so many (last year we did 115!) just enough for us to take a couple to the fair. So to remind myself it's worth it, I pulled a chicken from the freezer and made fried chicken again... and of course, tweaked the recipe a little more. ;)

I used a Food Network recipe from Paula Deen, and made some adjustments. 

Ingredients:

3 eggs

1/3 cup water

1/3 hot red pepper sauce 

2 cups flour sifted with 1 Tbs. baking powder

1 package of crushed saltine crackers (my addition)

1 teaspoon pepper

1 (1 to 2 1/2-pound) chicken, cut into pieces

Oil, for frying, preferably peanut oil, but I used Canola with good results

House Seasoning:
3/4 cup salt
1/4 cup black pepper
1/4 cup garlic salt
1 Tbs. onion powder
Mix ingredients together and store in an airtight container for up to 6 months.

Directions

In a medium size bowl, beat the eggs and mix with the water and enough hot sauce so the egg mixture is orange. In another bowl, combine the flour, crackers, and pepper. Season the chicken with the "house seasoning". Dip the seasoned chicken in the egg, and then coat well in the flour mixture.

Heat the oil to 350F in a deep pot. Do not fill the pot more than 1/2 full with oil.

Fry the chicken in the oil until brown and crisp. Dark meat takes longer then white meat. It should take dark meat about 13 to 14 minutes, white meat around 8 to 10 minutes. Keeping the oil temp at 350F was important. I also preheated the oven to 350F, keeping a glass baking dish in there to hold the pieces that came out of the fryer as I worked in batches. I fried the dark meat first, then moved it to the glass pan in the oven, then I fried the white meat second. It worked really well that way. :)

For more on our chickens from last year, and how to cut up a whole chicken, see my original post here. 

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©2012-2013 Loving and Learning on the High Plains. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://www.homeschoolhighplains.blogspot.com

Review: Simplified Pantry

Over the past several weeks I've had a fun time reviewing three products from Simplified Pantry:

• Simplified Dinners, a PDF download that sells for $12.99. Here is a FREE SAMPLE
• Simplified Dinners Gluten Free/Dairy Free, a PDF Download that sells for $12.99, Click here for a FREE SAMPLE.
• Paperless Home Organization, also a PDF Download (or for Kindle) that sells for $3.99. Again, here is a FREE SAMPLE

Be sure to read this whole review, as I've got a great coupon code to share. :)

I encourage you to read all of the other reviews (see the banner link below) to get a better picture of the Paperless Home Organization. I have not had the opportunity to try it out yet, but I have been hearing great things from the rest of the crew. If you have a tablet or a smartphone, you can begin organizing your life without another scratch paper list to lose!

I loved the opportunity to get a free copy of the two cookbooks, Simplified Pantry and Simplified Dinners: GF/DF. While no one in my house is gluten free, my hubby is dairy intolerant. We try and limit or avoid the dairy. My hubby usually has to suffer through, because cooking without dairy is so foreign to me. You can then see that having a list of simple and basic dairy free recipes was a wonderful resource.  Also my niece and nephew are gluten free, and we eat together as families regularly. I knew it would be wonderful to be able to plan meals that are "normal" but allergy friendly for the whole crowd. The gluten free and dairy free version of the Simplified Dinners was very similar to the regular version, but with more gluten free and dairy free options on the same menu items. Also some of the desserts were completely different, like the Coconut Milk Chocolate Mousse. YUM! Of course, the shopping list of GF/DF ingredients was a big help, as well as the tips about hidden allergens.

The premise of the book is that the meals are gluten free by their basic design rather than by specialty flours and attempts to replicate gluten-full meals. Keeping the menu simple, focusing on good proteins and lots of great veggies and fruits, made gluten free grocery shopping easy to stay on budget. The regular simplified dinners cookbook was very similar to the gluten free and dairy free version, as these were very easy and basic meals with lots of flavor variation.

I used the cookbooks for two weeks each. As you know, I like to meal plan, and to shop only once every two weeks. To really try these out, I took the basic pantry list from the front of the book, and shopped my way through it. We then knew we would have all the ingredients to make whatever was in the book. Having used it now, I can put better quantities on the ingredients on the shopping list. For example, I didn't buy soy sauce because I knew I still had some. I didn't realize that it was in SO many of the recipes! Aside from that, I really liked the shopping list for both books, and I had an easy time getting everything.

I then wrote out a basic list of the meals that interested me best, so I could have a bit of a meal plan to stick to, as I wanted to think ahead and defrost meat. Many of the meals were good slow-cooker recipes, so they required a little fore-thought. I also liked the variety offered. There were things on the list that I don't usually buy and cook, and my family loved  the change up. Some of the recipes we loved were:

• Slow Cooker Roasts
• Stovetop Pasta
• Foil-Packet Fish
• Taquitos

The recipe sections of both books are done a bit differently. First is a set of basic instructions, and then several recipes for ingredient variable combinations, to be applied to the instructions. For example, there was a recipe for slow cooker chicken, with every step of the process given. Then there were about 7 different recipes for the marinade or glaze for the slow cooker chicken.

The author notes in the front of the book that: "The primary purpose of these recipes is not so much to provide recipes as to give reminders of the general method of certain standard family dinners. . . . Making dinner is play. Play with what you have on hand and play with your audience." I think she accomplishes this very well with Simplified Dinners!

What I liked:

• New menu options, even in allergy free cooking. I am always stumped for "what to make for dinner."
• Easy recipes.
• Shopping Lists, so you know you will have all the ingredients.
• Yummy flavor combinations I'd never tried before.
• Allergy free cooking was not as hard as I had imagined. 

What I didn't like:

• No quantities. While I like to make it up as I go when I'm cooking, I like measurements when I'm following a recipe. It was hard to know how much of each ingredient to buy, not knowing how many of the recipes use each ingredient. 
• The format of the recipes. See the samples.
• No lunch or breakfast menu ideas, so you will need to plan that on your own and add it to the shopping list. (As you see in the photo above, we tried some GF waffles on our own!)

Bottom Line:
Overall we had a great time trying it out, and I know we will be revisiting these recipes and methods again. I would probably copy my favorite recipes off onto regular recipe cards in the "ingredients-then-instructions" format that I'm accustomed to, with quantities/measurements that I know will work for my family. To see the recipe format and the master pantry list, be sure to use the links above to download a free sample.

And for a special treat, the author, Mystie Winckler, is offering a 30% discount on all of her e-books with the code: TOS2013 from now until June 3rd, 2013. Thank you Mystie!

While I did not get a chance to review Paperless Home Organization, many others of the Crew did, as well as both cookbooks. Be sure you read about it all on the Crew Blog!


©2012-2013 Loving and Learning on the High Plains. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://www.homeschoolhighplains.blogspot.com

*Prices and links are accurate at the time this is published, and are subject to change.

Black Bean Chili

Nothing can have a better start than bacon, can it? As you may know, I love cooking with beans, and I recently got a great deal on some dry black beans. (Clearance shelf at Safeway!) So I cooked them up using my usual overnight method, and froze them in bags. Having that all done made this a quick and easy soup to assemble. My hubby declared it one of his new favorites. *score!*

Ingredients:

1/2 pound bacon
1 onion
1/4 cup flour (or corn meal if gluten free)

1 quart of black beans fully cooked and frozen (or 3 cans from the store)

1 quart frozen sweet corn (or 2 cans creamed corn)

1 can diced tomatoes with green chilies 

1 Tbs. chili powder

1 Tbs salt

2 tsp cumin

4-6 cups water

cheese or  sour cream to garnish

In a large kettle: brown bacon over med heat, and when crispy, remove bacon and set aside. In bacon fat, cook the diced up onion until opaque. Add flour and mix until all grease is absorbed and flour begins to brown a little. Add beans, seasonings, corn, and tomatoes, mixing well after each addition to blend with the flour. Add 4 cups water. Return to boil and then turn down to simmer. Ladle about half of the mixture into a blender and process until smooth. Return to pot. Add remaining 2 cups of water as needed for desired "soupiness". Simmer at medium heat for 20 minutes. Just before serving, crumble the bacon back in, and garnish with cheese or sour cream.

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©2012-2013 Loving and Learning on the High Plains. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://www.homeschoolhighplains.blogspot.com

Frugal Tip: Make your own Sour Cream

This past week I tried something new, home made sour cream. Because I trust the dairy where I obtained my raw milk, I had no trouble souring the cream right on my counter top. For really good instructions on the how and why of home-made sour cream. Please visit this link. :) I couldn't say it better myself, so I won't. (Plus, I'm no expert!) I will say this, the sour cream was SO easy, and so yummy, I will not be buying sour cream at the store again.

How is this frugal? Considering I pay $4 for my milk, and get about a quart of cream each time, I paid about $1 for my quart of sour cream. Generally, a pint of sour cream costs about $2 on a good sale, so I saved 75% making it myself.

Don't have access to raw milk or cream? I tried this one from allrecipes, and it worked just fine. It just didn't taste as yummy as the sour cream from raw. I will use that pint for baking. :)

Wondering what to bake with sour cream? Here's a favorite one from my grandma:

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©2012-2013 Loving and Learning on the High Plains. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://www.homeschoolhighplains.blogspot.com