Chicken Soup With Secret Ingredients**

 

 

Our son is not feeling so well and I want to take something nourishing and digestible.

 

AAAANNNNDDDD  I want a record of what I put in it.

 

9 Chicken Thighs Roasted at 350 degrees for 75 minutes, cool and chop

5 Russet Potatoes Roasted at 350 for 45 minutes, cool and chop

 

Sautee in one cube butter and a tablespoon of bacon fat

5 carrots diced

1 large Walla Walla Sweet Onion, diced

1/2 Bundle of Celery, diced

One Tablespoon Dried Rosemary **

1 Large Black Fermented Garlic, chopped **

Salt

Turn off heat and add:

1 Tablespoon Bragg Nutritional Yeast Seasoning**

2 teaspoons Raw Coconut Aminos**

 

Thicken flour and water.

 

1 lb bacon cooked and chopped 

Add everything together and warm in a pot before serving with corn bread.

 

 

 

Lemon Muffins

Huckleberry Pie, Individual Size

 

This was the wrong ratio of crust to fruit.   I don't recommend individual pies.

I made a mistake.  I should have tossed the berries with flour before adding in the butter.  

Big whoops.  It turned out okay in the end. 

 But as you can see from the photo above, I had reason to be concerned.

 As you can see from the final photo, I do not recommend making 

fruit pies in Demarle (Now Boncook) silpan products.

 

As you can see from the photo below, there was a big mess on the oven liner.  

Thank goodness there was one.  But it burned and smoked the house up so much.

To solve this problem, I had the big fans going and doors and windows thrown wide open which of course resulted in an afternoon of fly swatting.

Brunch Tarts: Hashbrowns, Bacon, Eggs

Today we are going to see a treasured 92 year old friend who is in Hospice care.  She has no appetite.  Her caregivers do.  We wanted to take something to share, but the grocery stock is not as plentiful as I would like.

What DO we have on hand?  Baked potatoes (several), one onion, 3 eggs and some dairy items such as sour cream and whipping cream.  And later in the project, I found some precooked bacon too.  And in the garden, the cilantro is ready.

Years ago I sold French bake ware called Demarle.  Since then it has changed names to Boncook.  A favorite treat for our family is to make individual tarts or pies.  And this thought came to me today.  How fun it would be to deliver savory tarts.  And even more fun if I could use what I have on hand without a trip to the store.


I started with chopping and frying the onion in lots of butter.  When those were golden brown, I added 4 grated baked potatoes left over from last night's supper.  Those too were sauteed until golden brown.

Meanwhile, I started the pie crust from scratch.

7 ounces unsalted butter, cut in chunks.  Very cold!
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 /2 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon raw apple cider vinegar (Bragg's)
1/2 cup ice water

The butter and dry ingredients were cut together with a pastry cutter until the mixture resembled small pea size particles.  Then added the wet ingredients.  Mixing it just until it hung together.

Rolled out and cut with the cutter that matches the Silform tray with 12 individual pie shapes.  I think it's called the large Silform tray.  Mine is years old and it is not currently available on the website.

Here is an equivalent product which I would love to own as well:

https://cindy4bonbite.boncook.com/products/5529-silform-fluted-square-tray-12.aspx

Continuing on with the savory tart filling while the potatoes and onions are frying...

I started placing ingredients in a mixing bowl which included:

3 strips of bacon, precooked and chopped
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
3 eggs, 1/4 cup whipping cream
1/4 teaspoon salt
grated pepper

And sent a child to the garden to pick a cereal bowl full of cilantro.

When the potatoes and onions were finished, I stirred those into the mixing bowl too.

Then I filled the 12 individual pie crusts with this filling and topped with cilantro and left over grated cheese.

Oven was set to 375 degrees and were finished baking at 18 minutes.

 Photo below from old cell phone camera
 

Photo below from good camera with good lens.

Lemon Poppy Seed Sourdough Waffles

This is the first waffle off the griddle.  They went like...well...waffles.  I was going to say hot cakes...but you know, they aren't hot cakes.

 

We made a batch of lemon cream cheese frosting (next photo) to add to the waffles.  

Some of us tried these with regular syrup too and liked it better.

Personally I thought the frosting was too thick and too sweet.  Here is the recipe:

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

4 oz. of cream cheese, softened

1 tbsp. of lemon zest

1/4 cup of lemon juice

2 cups of powder sugar

1. Mix the all the ingredients together until smooth and creamy.

This recipe is rather fantastic as frosting for lemon pound cake.  

Last waffle came off the griddle and we let the frosting melt in.  Ugh!  Too sweet.

The next photo shows the recipe.

Next time I would double the poppy seeds and lemon zest/juice.

And about the lemon glaze for a topping...it was too thick and too sweet for this application.  It was the recipe from the Italian Lemon Cream Cake which is back a couple years on this blog.  And just right for the cake.

We made these waffles because someone important to me wanted to experiment with these particular flavors.  We grew our own poppy seeds.

Whiskey Pecan Pie

A year ago I committed to a birthday pecan pie for my son-in-law.

This week that was belatedly fulfilled.

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies in Minature

Nordic Bakeware Lemon Buttermilk Bundt Cake Mix

 In the winter I was shopping in Klicker's and another lady came in and bought several of these cake mixes off the shelf.  I noticed and questioned her about it.  She was friendly and let me know her family requests these for the holidays.  She was stocking up.  So I bought one to try.

Then it never happened and my husband pulled it out of the cupboard a couple weeks ago and encouraged me to complete the project.

It calls for a 10 cup mold and mine is 8 cup.  So I had some batter left over and made 5 fancy cupcakes which I gave away to friends.

Then this week, we were back in Klicker's and they had one mix left.  I had several children along and we made it the next day but instead of the bundt cake shape, we used other shapes (see Boncook) that were smaller.  So those are pictured below.

 

 

They were very good.  I highly recommend.

Sourdough Rosemary Crackers

We were visiting Klicker's and one of the children wanted "Organic Sourdough Flatbread Crackers."  Rather than buying them, we came home and started proofing our sourdough.

Our friend gave us a sourdough cracker recipe years ago and we got it out.  We also went to the garden and picked some fresh rosemary to put in this recipe.

Here is the final result.  We forgot to pierce the dough with fork tines so it puffed up, but we liked the variations in these crackers.  We broke it apart and ate it while still warm.

Twenty minutes baking time was too long.  Twelve minutes was about right.  And we decided to make it a flatbread instead of small individual crackers.

 

The children enjoyed rolling it out.

Ready for the oven.

Four Creative Aprons

In August 2019, I attended a wedding as a server where I knew many of the guests.  I figured I needed a silent way to communicate with people I knew that I was not free to visit.

 Old aprons available to me were not suitable or worn out.  So I took an old rayon and cotton table cloth with a hole in it and made this assymetrical apron.

Back view.  Made with a button for a closure instead of a tie.

****************

 Next is an apron I started in November 2019 which was a result of answering a facebook advertisement for a bag of buttons offered at $15.00.  When I went to buy the buttons, the lady asked if I would be interested in other sewing supplies.  Of course I would be.  She was responsible for her mother's estate and her aunt's estate.  Both those ladies were seamstresses.

There was a pile of Christmas holiday inspired fabrics that were left over scraps from someone's project...probably runners or tree skirts or place-mats.  I started with a pocket and built around it; First finishing the vertical row and then adding the two horizontal pieces:

 

Then I needed a skirt piece to put it on and found a scrap that was about 1/8 yard.   When cut in half and sewn together the other way, it became the skirt of the apron.  It's the background of red poinsettas with gold outlines. 

There were many, many of those partially finished triangular shapes with about 1" strips. 

So I added more to make this at the bottom of the apron:

The mottled cream/tan was another strip of fabric that was just right for separating the darker colors.  You can see this apron is evolving little by little.

I did not start with a plan other than to make an apron.

The next step was to make the skirt part wider as it was just not quite wide enough.  So I cut and pieced until I had enough for each side of the apron like this:

It isn't likely you thought this was a quick project.   You would be right about this.  I did have fun letting it evolve day by day though.  It took a few weeks of working on it here and there to complete.

Now comes the part that really took a long time...the bib section:

And the neck strap.  All pieced and pieced and pieced.

And the small fabric piece showing a stocking was especially placed to hold the strap rings.

And this is the finished front view:

 Even the waist ties are pieced from scraps.

And the back view.

The back lining was a splurge.  I wanted to finish this and wear it for the holiday so I went to the fabric store and bought a backing fabric:

I kept wearing this through Valentine's Day.  Now it is put away for next year.

****************

This next apron was designed and made for a friend.  Kauai postcard fabric obtained from www.VickysFabrics.com

I am excited about the parts I found at the fabric store to make the neck tie adjustable without tying or using a set of rings.  I will repeat this.

Waist ties, neck strap and lining are from this blue/white pineapple fabric also from www.VickysFabrics.com (Kauai). 100% cotton.

******************

And the forth creative apron is a version of the white rayon/cotton assymetrical apron shown first in this post.

This next one was made of 100% cotton from www.VickysFabrics.com and it is reversible.  I thought this would be easy.  And it was not.  Looks simple, but I ran into difficulty at every turn.

And after much reworking, I was rewarded with something that works.  Such is the life of a pattern designer hobbiest.

 

Last time I used adjustable neck strap hardware I said I would do it again.  It worked on the second try.  The first try turned out too long.  After cutting off 5 inches it was successful.

But I like it better if I have to cut something off rather than piece together something that was too short.

Also, this neck design turned out to be about 3 inches too high.  But I did not discover it until it was all sewn together including the neck strap which just would not turn out at the correct angle.

So it took me much of a day to renovate it.

And a pocket.  Now this pocket looks perfectly innocent and one would think it would turn out just fine the first time.  Think again and again.

Maybe this was over the top, but I wanted to match the florals on the pocket to the rest of the front of the apron.  Success!

 

The white apron this one was modeled after did not have a button tab.  It had a button and a button hole on the main part of the fabric.  But this one turned out too small so adding a tab seemed to make sense.

And the tabs slant wrong.  And that's how it will stay.   I had to go back and open up the seam to add the tab.  Thankfully the top stitching was not done yet.

And in the photo above and below, you get a peek at the reversible feature of this lovely apron.

 

And here is the reverse side of the same apron:

One of the unforeseen challenges is that the dark purple on the reverse side of this apron showed through the yellow.  So it started the sequence of renovations.  I cut up a white sheet to sew between the two layers.  It became a three layer apron.  Which means it's not the best weight for summer.

Next time, I will be more careful about choosing colors that do not show through each other.

But then it made the yellow layer heavier and with the bias shape here, the two sides did not match.

So back to the drawing board so to speak to shorten the yellow and white layers to match the purple layer.  And the top stitching was already in place by the time I figured it out. So it was a lot of picking to get back to the point I could start over.

 

Next is the pocket for this side of the apron.  I wanted to match the floral pattern here too, but in order to do it, I had to piece the fabric.  

Not my first choice, but I did not have enough extra fabric to work with.

I ended up stitching this pocket on by hand so it won't show on the other side.   Next time I would sew the pockets in place before sewing the front and back together.  But it was an after thought to add a pocket to this side of the apron.

And finally, the back view: