5 Minutes for Mom Christmas Give-a-Ways

Hello!
Yes, I am still here.
There have just not been enough hours in the day for me to get on the computer very much.
I know...I'm a broken record.
My son wanted me to look something up for him, & as I was bringing up the Moose A. Moose & Zee balloon math counting game, he asked me if I remembered when I went to 5 Minutes for Mom. LOL! How did he KNOW this or REMEMBER this?! So as I laughed, I clicked on over.
And I saw that they have a big Christmas give-a-way, that ends TONIGHT, if I'm reading it correctly. They also have an Under the Tree program for needy families.
So click on over to 5 Minutes for Mom (if ya see this in time) & enter to win some cool prizes!
I have added to linked buttons on the right hand side of my page, since I can't figure out how to add it in this post. LOL
You can click on my links or the buttons!
Hope ya win something.
:)

Fully Loaded Baked Potato Soup

I got a great new comfort food soup recipe this month. I got it from the sample lady at our locally owned grocery store. This store is what used to be considered a large grocery store, but that was in the days before the gigantic super WalMart super de duper mega ultra stores.
I have to get our regular groceries at WalMart, just simply because of the prices. BUT, I will not get our meat or produce there anymore. I just simply refuse to now. This "little" grocery store just has what I need. Good food. Plus, an older lady who comes in on Saturdays to pass out samples. And it's not just product samples. It's almost always something homemade. And she has copies of the recipe for you to take along with your sample. Isn't that just really neat? One day it was chicken bbq pizza, another it was a hamburger & rice casserole. Last fall I remember trying a 3 bean chili that I really liked ( I even made it & took pics...I wander where that went to...I'll have to find that & post it!). Well a few weeks ago it was this potato soup. I took the recipe copy & after making sure I had all the ingredients, I took it home & made it that day. It was THAT good.

Fully Loaded Baked Potato Soup

Approx. 2 pounds potatoes, scrubbed & cubed fairly small (don't peel)
1/2 pound bacon, sliced into small bits
4 C. chicken stock
4 green onions, sliced
2 C. milk
1/4 C. flour
2 C. cheddar cheese, shredded
1 C. sour cream
salt & pepper

Cook bacon in a large soup pan until just crisp. Add cubed potatoes & cook on medium for about 10 minutes until they begin to cook. Add stock, green onions, & pepper. Continue to cook until potatoes are tender. Whisk together the flour & the milk until combined. Add to pan & stir while heating & thickening. Add shredded cheese & salt, & more pepper if you need it. Once all cheese is melted, add the sour cream. Server garnished with bacon bits & green onions.

This really is SO GOOD! I've never thought of a loaded baked potato as a soup before, but really, it works! And it's great on these nippy fall days. Look how much it thickens up in the frig overnight.

I just had to include this picture of the potatoes cooking with the bacon.
Nuttin' like taters & bacon cookin' in a cast iron skillet. :)

I hope you enjoy this comfy potato soup. We sure did.

Zucchini Custard Pie

Here is a new zucchini recipe! You know how I am about zucchini...
An older lady from church gave me this recipe. Actually, she made this pie using zucchini I had given her, & then she called & asked for more zucchini to make another pie! She had told her sister she would save her a piece of pie, but then she got company & she served the rest of the pie to them. She told me her sister was mad at her, so she wanted to make another pie for her sister. I told her I must have this recipe! She gave it to me at church a few weeks ago.


As you can see from the picture, you put little pats of butter on the top when you put this in the oven. I don't think I'll do that again, it really doesn't need that. It was good, but I just didn't see the need of it, really. This is a wonderfully creamy, custard pie. And to be honest, you can't even taste the zucchini. So if you didn't want to tell anybody that it has a cup of zucchini pulp in it, you really don't have to. I didn't tell my family it had zucchini in it until we were nearly done eating it. *snicker*
Here's a picture of the piece I ate.


Zucchini Custard Pie
1 cup of zucchini pulp (peel & seed a zucchini. Cut it into chunks & cook in water until tender drain well. I used my hand mixer to turn it into pulp.)
1 C. sugar
1 C. evaporated milk ( like Milnot)
3 T. flour
2 eggs
pinch of salt
1 t. vanilla

Blend all ingredients in blender (I used my food processor) for 1 minute, put in pie shell. Top with cinnamon & add about 3 pieces of butter in chunks. Bake 375 for 45 minutes.


This was very tasty. It's a nice old fashioned custard. I had my pie cut into 8 pieces. I would say that my family of 4 really liked it, because there were only 2 pieces left.

And we had to split these last two pieces up the next day so we could all get another piece. :)
When we had this for dessert after supper that first evening, it was still a little warm. But I have to say that I thought it was even better really cold. Oh! it was delicious!
I want some more!

Sweet 'N Sour Beef 'N Cabbage

I know I'm a week late, but I would like to submit this to Tammy's Recipe Swap. She featured cabbage last Wednesday, & I've thought all week that I'd like to get on here & post this recipe.

I found this recipe in an old cookbook that I was getting ready to donate to the library. I went all through it first to see if there were any recipes that I wanted to copy. This recipe jumped out at me! I love cabbage & I love cabbage rolls, though I haven't had them in years. This cook book is titled, Better Homes and Gardens All-Time Favorite Hamburger & Ground Meats Recipes. It was published in 1980, so the cover photos look a bit dated. It's funny, but back in the late 70's & early 80's I don't remember things looking this dated. LOL

Sweet 'N Sour Beef 'N Cabbage
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1/2 C. chopped onion
1/2 C. chopped celery (opt.)
1/2 C. chopped green pepper
2 T. quick-cooking rolled oats
2 T. chopped parsley
2/3 t. salt
1/4 t. garlic powder
1/8 t. pepper
1 medium head of cabbage
1 15 oz. can tomato sauce
1/4 C. cider vinegar
3 T. brown sugar
1/2 t. salt
dash pepper

In slillet cook ground beef, onion, celery, & green pepper till meat is browned; drain off fat. Sprinkle meat mixture with rolled oats, parsley, 3/4 t. salt, garlic powder, & 1/8 t. pepper.
Core cabbage; cut into six wedges. Place atop meat. In bowl combine tomato sauce, vinegar, brown sugar, & the 1/2 t. salt & a dash of pepper; mix well. Pour over cabbage & meat. Cover & simmer for 15-20 minutes or till cabbage is tender. Serve at once. Makes 6 servings.

This is really good. It has a wonderful sweet 'n sour flavor that is perfect with the cabbage.
I made this again a few weeks ago & my cabbage was pretty large. I cut it into more than 6 wedges, but I still had to cook it a little longer. I also go just a bit heavier on the seasonings too.

I hope you try this & enjoy it as much as we do!

Homemade Ketchup

Yes, I made homemade tomato ketchup!
I have to say, that for years we've joked about it. I've heard more than just a couple people say that their moms made homemade ketchup once when they were kids. And they made a bit of an 'icky face' when they said it. LOL And, if you've ever watched the "Vacation" movies with Chevy Chase as Clark Griswold, there's the scene where they are having a picnic with Cousin Eddie & his family. Ed is fixing hamburger helper (on the grill!) without any hamburger, & Ed's daughter Vicki is stirring the cool-aid with her hands. Trying to be polite, yet showing a bit of sarcasm, Clark fixes his "hamburger" & as he dips a thick red substance from a jar he says, "Reeeal tomato ketchup Ed?" LOL!

I found a recipe & I thought I'd just try making it once. It's a small recipe (& I even halved it so it would be smaller), so I figured it wouldn't be too much work or too many tomatoes wasted if we didn't like it. But, if we did like it, well, great!
I found this recipe here.
It's a nice link that tells about canning tomatoes. It's also where I got one of my spaghetti sauce recipes, but that's for another day...or two.

Tomato Ketchup
24 pounds ripe tomatoes
3 cups chopped onions
3/4 teaspoon ground red pepper (cayenne)
3 cups cider vinegar (5 percent)
4 teaspoons whole cloves
3 sticks cinnamon, crushed
1 1/2 teaspoon whole allspice
3 Tablespoons celery seeds
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup salt

Yields 6 to 7 pints

Wash tomatoes. Dip in boiling water for 30 to 60 seconds or until skins split. Dip in cold water. Slip off skins and remove cores.
Quarter tomatoes into 4-gallon stock pot or a large kettle. Add onions and red pepper. Bring to boil and simmer 20 minutes, uncovered. Cover, turn off heat, and let stand for 20 minutes.
Combine spices in a spice bag and add to vinegar in a 2-quart saucepan. Bring to boil. Remove spice bag and combine vinegar and tomato mixture. Boil about 30 minutes. Put boiled mixture through a food mill or sieve. Return to pot. Add sugar and salt, boil gently, and stir frequently until volume is reduced by one-half or until mixture rounds up on spoon without separation. Fill pint jars, leaving 1/8-inch headspace. Adjust lids and process.

I processed mine in a hot water bath canner for 15 minutes.
Also, I really wasn't sure how I felt about using so many tomatoes for this in case we didn't like it, so I halved the recipe. My yeild was 5 pints.

Here is a picture of the juice. This is after you have cooked the tomatoes & have added the vinegar that has been seasoned & then run it through your colonder or food mill, so it's actually ketchup flavored juice.

And here it is after it has cooked down by half. It took me a few hours of simmering to get it to cook down by half & become thick enough. I couldn't get a good picture because of the steam.
My 5 pints are in my new water bath canner in this next picture. One of my very best friends sent this to me. I actually have no idea which one sent it, but I do know that it was 1 of 8 lovely ladies that have been my very best friends for years. Or maybe all of them sent it! Thank you ladies!

(There's some jars of tomato juice next to my stove that I hadn't found storage space for yet. And behind those jars sits my jars of my dried herbs. )

I forgot to take a picture of all my pints of ketchup until we had already opened one, it's the one in the middle with a different lid.

And here's a close-up. See, it does really look like real ketchup.

Oh! I forgot to mention this, & it's really important!

We really like it!

The first time our daughter tried it, she dipped a french fry into some. I watched her with intent anticipation. As she ate, I said, "Well????"

And she paused, took another bite, & then said, "It tastes like....ketchup."

To which I threw my arms above my head & yelled, "YAY!"

LOL

So, I am glad I made this ketchup. Since I halved the recipe, I only used about 12 pounds of tomatoes. It does take a lot to cook down to get 5 pints. But, it tastes good, so it was worth it.

Now while eating supper somebody just has to say, " Reeeeal tomato ketchup?"

LOL

Tomatoes

This is what I am doing today:

Today I'm making 2 different recipes for spaghetti sauce. I've never canned spaghetti sauce before, so this is new to me. I have enough tomatoes here that I'm sure I'll be canning some more juice today too. One recipe calls for 4 gallons of tomatoes, so that's why I have some tomatoes in that 5 gallon bucket. That was the best way I could figure to measure 4 gallons of tomatoes.
Last night I made 5 pints of ketchup. I have never done that either. I wanted to try it. We'll see how it tastes in a day or two. If it's good I'll post the recipe.
And I'll post about today's spaghetti sauce too.
The house smells AMAZING.

Sorry I haven't been on here much, I'll try to do better! :)

Baby Corn

We had a nice little harvest of baby corn along with our regular corn this year. Actually, it was the biggest amount of baby corn we've ever had.
Baby corn isn't just corn that's not ready yet. It is little bity ears of corn that grows with a larger ear of corn. Not every ear has baby corn on it. Sometimes there will just be one, usually there's two, but every now & then there's three! I picked up one ear to shuck & it had four! As soon as I started shucking it, I realized I should have taken a picture of it. It was really amazing looking. So the next ear that had three babies on it, I snapped this picture. You can see that everything about the baby ears is a miniature of the big ear. And you can see in the background to the left are the regular ears that have been shucked, & to the right is the growing pile of baby corn that has been shucked.

Also, sometimes the baby corn doesn't grow on the outside of the big ear, but on the inside, just under the first few layers of husk. So you may think you have two baby ears, & then start shucking to big one only to find one or two more on the inside!

Our baby corn filled a WalMart bag full. You can see that there's one piece in there that's not actually baby corn. It had produced a few kernals, so it was just an immature cob. Immature cobs do not taste good. It snuck into this bag, but it did get tossed out.
Here's what a nice bowl of cooked baby corn looks like. You can either boil it or steam it. Add a few tablespoons of butter & some salt & pepper when you serve them. They are pretty good. They don't taste anything like regular corn. I think you have to have a taste for them. My husband doesn't like them. I like them, & our both our kids LOVE them.

I fixed one bowl for supper that night, & then blanced the rest (boil for 6-7 minutes then submerge in ice water) & fill up some quart freezer bags. We've never had enough to freeze before. I usually just cook up all we get to be a side dish with our supper, & if it's a large batch there's enough left overs to have again the next night. But this year I got 6 freezer bags full!

To think that years ago I used to just toss these babies out when I was shucking corn!
If you get a chance to grow corn, don't throw the little babies out, steam 'em up & eat 'em.

They're delicious. That maybe didn't sound quite right. But you know what I mean. LOL