Bottled Butter

My oldest daughter learned from a friend how to bottle butter for shelf storage, so I decided I wanted to learn this for myself. I am not one who wants to be without butter or eggs, so this was a perfect solution. We have our nine laying hens growing up in the backyard and will start giving us eggs in August or September, and now we will have REAL butter on our shelves in case we have a major catastrophe, or even one of our famous "summer thunderstorm power outages." The best part about bottled butter is that is can sit on your shelf for 3-5 years, and it will not melt either. What could be better than that?

The "Lighter" Version

Okay, first off, I owe a big kudos to my friend's husband for this post. It is here because, and probably only because of him. He about tackled me at my son's last basketball game to tell me that his wife had made "that chocolate cake", and that it was the best thing he had ever tasted. (That guy must not get out much!) He had asked if I had ever tried a lemon version of the cake, which of course, had NEVER even crossed my mind. So, this is for you Bill. By the way, "lighter" means as in color, not calories...sorry. Here's the recipe that I came up with:

Lemon Pound Cake

Cream together: 1 1/2 c. soft butter

3 c. sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

the zest and juice of 1 lemon

Add one at a time: 5 eggs

Add alternately dry and wet ingredients:

(wet) 1 c. sour milk (add 1 Tbs. vinegar to sour)

(all dry) 2 3/4 c. flour

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. baking powder

Grease and flour bundt pan. Bake at 325 for 1 hour and 20 minutes. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes. Invert onto serving plate. Either dust with powdered sugar, or glaze with a lemon glaze.

Hope you are NOT on a Diet!

I was talking to a good friend today and telling her how I was trying to cut down on my sugar intake, even though Michaela made my famous Chocolate Pound Cake last night. This cake is SO good that you don't even frost it, just a sprinkling of powdered sugar is all it needs and, mmmm boy is it good! Anyway...back to my friend. Before I could even finish what I was saying, she said "You need to post that recipe!" So here it is. By the way, if you are ever trying to watch your sugar intake and you end up making this cake, you'd better find some friends to share it with, PRONTO!! (And just as a confession...I am eating a small piece as I type this post. Tomorrow is a new day...)

CHOCOLATE POUND CAKE

Cream together:

1 1/2 c. soft butter (that's right, I said 3 cubes!)

3 c. sugar (that's right too)

2 tsp. vanilla

Add one at a time:

5 eggs

Combine all dry ingredients and add alternately with the milk. (Keep on a low mixer setting to keep the air in the batter. This helps make the cake moist and yummy)

3/4 c. cocoa

2 c. flour

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 c. sour milk (add 1 Tbs. vinegar to regular milk to sour it)

Pour into a well-greased bundt pan. Bake at 325 for 1 hour and 20. (That's right, but it's worth the wait) Cool on rack for 10 minutes. Invert onto a serving plate and dust with powdered sugar.

What a GREAT day!

Mondays have always been a good day for me, not that I always look forward to them. Who wants to let go of a Sunday? Everyone together, no work, getting to go to our Sunday meetings, starting fresh... Mondays always mean, "Okay, here we go again!" But for me it also means, no piano lessons or other obligations, getting the wash caught up (which I don't mind), a day for ME... So what could be better than waking up to a rainy, cloudy day with nothing to do but get my kids off to school, do wash, run some errands, read, and sew? Not much...unless it involved grandkids. So today that's what I did, with some warm, Baked Potato Soup thrown in for dinner. AND I got Connie's table runner done. That was the ONE thing that I really wanted to get done today. Probably the best, most relaxing, most enjoyable part of MY day was in the afternoon sitting on my family room couch, listening to Amy Grant's Greatest Hits, hearing Kevin typing away on his computer in the other room, knowing my children were safe at home, and hand sewing the binding on my new finished project! And I DID get to buy some birthday presents for little Marcelus, so grandkids were part of that fun too. Wow...Happy Good Day to you too!

BAKED POTATO SOUP

(this is a great way to use leftover baked potatoes)

3 bacon strips, diced

1 sm. onion

1 clove garlic, minced

3 Tbs. flour

1 tsp. dried basil

1/2 tsp. pepper

3 cups chicken broth

2 large baked potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 cup half-and-half cream

shredded cheese

In a pot, cook bacon until crisp. Drain, reserving drippings. Set bacon aside. Saute onion and garlic in the drippings until tender. Stir in flour, salt, basil and pepper, mix well to make a roux. Gradually add broth. Bring to a boil; boil and stir for 2 minutes. Add the potatoes and cream, heat through but do not boil. Garnish with bacon, cheese and parsley. You can add a little hot sauce too if you want to.

Blender Wheat Pancakes

Okay...I told you I'd post a yummy recipe, so here it is. This has ended up being one of my recent favorites because it is so easy and uses my wheat right out of the #10 can. My kids love them too, and I know that they are probably about as healthy as you can get with a pancake.

All right...so the bacon in the background isn't so healthy. I can't just make pancakes at my house. We always have something else with it, like eggs, or bacon, or something. The great thing about these pancakes, other than the fact that you are using your food storage items, is the fact that you mix all of the ingredients in the blender and poor the batter right onto the griddle after it's blended. Here's the recipe:

WHEAT BLENDER PANCAKES

1 1/4 c. water

1 c. whole wheat kernals

1/4 c. dry milk

1 egg

2 Tbs. oil

1 Tbs. sugar or honey

1/4 or 1/2 tsp. salt

1 Tbs. baking soda

In blender mix water, wheat, and dry milk on high for 3 minutes. Add the egg, oil, sugar, and salt. Blend for 20 seconds. Add the baking powder and pulse a few times. (At this point I add a little bit more water if I feel that the batter is too thick. Use your own judgement.) Poor onto a hot griddle.

I make my pancakes big, so I can't tell you how many it will make. I can usually get about 8 pancakes with one batch. You will get more if you make them smaller.

Happy Breakfast-ing!