Category: Recipes

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Making Plain Old Fashioned Lye Soap

Lye soap

I started my soap making adventure back in the early 1990s. My first batch was plain lye soap. Back then I could make a year’s worth of soap for about $8. I have continued to make soap for many years.  A few years back I took some of my soap to the flea market where I was selling books. I sold a lot of soap. People especially liked my soap in the spring when they were clearing undergrowth or cutting down trees and had the possibility of coming in contact with poison ivy. They told me they would wash in lye soap and they would not break out. I have never broken out from contact with poison ivy so I do not know if it works.

I am not sure where I got this recipe but the first recipe I got came from a magazine called Gentle Spirit. 

Plain Old Fashioned Lye Soap

1 can Red Devil lye (10 and 3/4 oz.  can)

2 1/2 pints of distilled water in a glass jar

10 cups lard or beef tallow (I have always used lard for this recipe)

Slowly pour the lye into the water (remember it will get very hot) Do not breathe this!!!

Set in the glass jar into cold water to cool down or set aside away from children.

Measure the lard and melt slowly on low. It will be easier to cool to the right temperature if you do not overheat.

 

After these are both done you need to check the temperatures.  When the temperatures are between 95 and 98 slowly pour the lye water into the fat and stir until trace. (Or use a stick blender)

If it is not getting thick after stirring a while then leave it alone for 10 minutes or so and stir some more. Usually, I have no trouble with this one it traces very fast.

After it traces pour it into your mold (I use a box lined with plastic) and cover with a board and blanket and set in a warm place for 24 hours. Uncover it if it is set then turn it out on a protected surface. It will eat up your table if you do not protect it well! Cut with a sharp knife and allow it to cure for two weeks. It will now be ready to use.

Lye soap
Lye soap
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New Lentil Tamale Pie

Have you ever eaten lentils? If not, this is your opportunity!  I do not remember eating lentils until I was an adult. I have made Lentil Tamale Pie (original recipe below) for years and I have really been wanting lentils. I decided to create a new Lentil Tamale Pie and this is what I came up with.

 

1 cup cornmeal

1 cup gluten-free flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cumin

2 cups water

2 cups frozen corn

2 cups lentils, cooked

2 cups shredded cheese (Mexican blend, cheddar, or jack) DIVIDED 1 cup for topping

1 cup chopped turkey or chicken (great use of leftovers)

2 eggs

10 oz. red enchilada sauce

1 cup chopped onions

Mix the first 5 ingredients and then add all but 1 cup of cheese.  Pour into an oiled pan. I thought this would fill a 13X9 pan but it was too much. I ended up with a 13X9 pan and a 9-inch loaf pan.  Bake 350 oven for 1 hour. Enjoy! You may want to top with chopped tomatoes, cilantro, salsa, green onions, sour cream, black olives, etc.

Original Lentil Tamale Pie (from Pam Liebelt)

1 Onion, chopped

1 cup lentils, cooked

2 ½  cups water

2 cups canned tomatoes or tomato sauce

1 can corn (do not drain)

2 eggs beaten

1 cup grated cheese

1 cup cornmeal

Chili powder, cumin, salt to taste

Optional: 1 can olives, chopped; 1 can jalapeno peppers, 1 can green chilies, chopped

Combine all ingredients. Pour into a greased 9X13 pan. Bake 350 for one hour. Serve with sour cream or yogurt, chopped green onions, salsa. Or you may choose to pour into a gallon freezer bag and freeze for later.  If freezing remove the bag from the freezer and thaw and then follow the regular instructions for baking.

Let me know if you have another favorite lentil recipe!

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What Do You Do With Leftover Turkey?

What to do with leftover turkey.
What to do with leftover turkey. Turkey butternut squash soup!

What do you do with leftover turkey? Do you need some ideas?  In my area, a turkey was .59 cents a pound leading up to Thanksgiving. So why do I mention that? Because my family will be eating a lot of turkeys even after Thanksgiving Day. I thought it might be interesting and helpful to share what I have made with leftover turkey and maybe just maybe if I am lucky a few of you will share what you make. With 8 turkeys in the freezer, I might need some help!

Turkey Tacos/ Nachos ( no recipe) I just shredded turkey and seasoned it with taco seasoning. We had a nacho bar for dinner.

No-name Mexican casserole in my large iron skillet. I chopped leftover turkey, added some homemade salsa, black beans, kidney beans, white hominy, and topped it with cheese. I baked it in the oven until it was hot and bubbly. It made a quick and easy meal.

Turkey Stir-fry. I chopped onions, peppers, garlic, carrots, broccoli, and turkey for a stir-fry meal. I used a bit of hoisin sauce and soy sauce to flavor it. One of my kids cooked rice to go with it using bone broth instead of water! Yummy!

White Turkey and Sausage Chili.  I used a Publix recipe for this. You can find it at http://www.publix.com/aprons-recipes/white-turkey-and-sausage-chili

Turkey Wild Rice Soup I started making this soup several years ago. The recipe is from http://www.kitchenparade.com/2010/03/chicken-turkey-wild-rice-soup-recipe.php 

Turkey Broccoli Casserole. This is very similar to the freezer meal that most of my friends and  I have made for years called Chicken Broccoli Casserole. You may top the mixture with cheese and serve over rice or top it with a boxed stove top stuffing mix and bake until hot and bubbly. If you really need a recipe for this I will be happy to share it.

My creative husband also made Turkey Cakes similar to Salmon Patties.

Homemade Bone Broth is easy to make and has many health benefits. We make ours in the crock-pot by covering the turkey (or chicken) bones with water, we add some celery leaves or a stalk or two, some onion, carrot, and a Tablespoon or two of vinegar. We cook it on low for almost 24 hours. Take out the bones and strain it with cheesecloth or a fine mesh colander. Put it in jars and refrigerate.

Let me know what you make with leftover turkey!

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Update on My Kombucha Making

What is Kombucha? Kombucha is a fermented drink. Non-alcoholic! Fermentation has many benefits. It breaks down hard-to-digest substances; it leaves beneficial lactic acid and other healthy substances, it preserves food and makes it taste better. It benefits our overall health.

In August I took a Kombucha-making class from Ann Green, of Bread, Stock and Barrel. I have now divided my first SCOBY ( an acronym for Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast) and I have started three more batches of Kombucha. I let my first batch go a little longer while I looked for jars* that would be appropriate for my other batches. My first batch was a little on the vinegar side. The earlier you drink it the sweeter. I think my favorite has been to drink it after 8-10 days of fermenting.

I used most of the first batch to make second fermented kombucha. I added kombucha to my bottles**, added some juice, left some room at the top and sealed it. I left it in a dark place for a week. Fizzy Kombucha! For my next batch, I decided that I would strain the Kombucha I put in the bottles for a second fermentation. I think I prefer that. The pressure can really build up so do not forget your second fermented batch. Two weeks max at room temperature and then refrigerate for up to a year. So far grape is my favorite and tastes like sparkling grape juice. I think most of my family prefer the plain Kombucha second fermented. I really like it too.

Here is the recipe I received in my class.

Kombucha

1 gallon-sized jar preferably with a large mouth

cotton cloth and rubber band

SCOBY

2 Family sized tea bags, 6-8 regular, or 3-4 teaspoons loose (green or black preferably organic)

1 cup of sugar (any you prefer)

1-gallon filtered water (no chlorine)

Brew your tea with 6 cups of water. Steep 10 minutes and add 1 cup of sugar (don’t skimp) and stir until dissolved. Allow your tea to cool to room temperature to avoid killing your SCOBY. When it is cool pour your tea into your jar and fill with your SCOBY and 1 -2 cups kombucha from your previous batch. If needed fill the space with your filtered water leaving 1-2 inches from the top. Your SCOBY may sink to the bottom but will float back to the top in a couple of days. Place the towel over the top and secure with a rubber band, NOT THE LID. Place the container in a warm, dark place and leave it for a week or more. If you like it sweeter, leave it for 1-2 weeks. If you like it more vinegary leave it for about 3-4 weeks.

I am feeling more comfortable with my Kombucha making. It is very easy to make.

If you have any questions please post them below. If you are a Kombucha maker please chime in with your tips, favorites, or any recipes.

 

* The best gallon size jars I have found are at Walmart with pickles in them 🙂 A gallon jar of pickles is half the price of an empty gallon jar.

**Also, for the second fermenting I bought bottles on Amazon, Grolsch swing top bottles and a couple of bottles from Bed, Bath, and Beyond.

You may reach Ann Green at  www.breadstockandbarrel.com

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Thai Chicken Vegetable Soup

 

Thai Chicken Vegetable Soup
Thai chicken vegetable soup is delicious!

Thai chicken vegetable soup is delicious! A couple of weeks ago I saw this Thai Ginger broth on the clearance rack at Publix. I found a wonderful recipe on the back for Thai Chicken Vegetable Soup! So I am sharing it with you right off the back of the box because I wouldn’t want you to miss out! It is very simple and quick to make. The broth is a bit spicier than I anticipated but suited our family very well. To accompany our soup we made rice. Using our homemade bone broth for the liquid in the rice adds a lot of flavors. I had a bit of onion and zucchini left from other cooking so I sauteed them in a bit of olive oil and then added the bone broth and the rice and covered it until it was done. Some of us ate ours over the rice and some ate the rice separately. Either way, it was all good.

Swanson’s Thai Chicken Vegetable Soup

1 Tablespoon cooking oil

1 medium carrot, cut into 2-inch matchstick-thin strips

1 medium red pepper  cut into 2-inch matchstick-thin strips

1 cup mushrooms ( I used baby Bella)

1 quart Swanson’s Thai Ginger Flavor Infused Broth

2 cups shredded chicken

1 can unsweetened coconut milk

2 Tablespoons of lime juice

2 Tablespoons of chopped fresh cilantro

Heat the oil in a 4-quart saucepan over medium-high heat. Add carrot and pepper and cook 5 minutes until slightly tender. Stir in mushrooms. Add broth to the saucepan and heat to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low. Stir in chicken, cook 5 minutes until it is hot. Stir in coconut milk and cook until the mixture is hot and bubbling. Stir in lime juice and cilantro.

Thank you, Swanson’s for making a great broth meal starter!

Swanson's Thai Chicken Vegetable Soup
Swanson’s Thai Chicken Vegetable Soup
Swanson's Thai Chicken Vegetable Soup
Swanson’s Thai Chicken Vegetable Soup

 

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Cooking Without Recipes

I enjoy looking in my fridge or for that matter other people’s too! I have a friend who likes me to cook with her. So when I am at her house we look in her fridge and pantry and create something from what we find. We have a lot of fun in the kitchen pounding chicken breasts and cutting up veggies. I have been creating meals using whatever was on hand since childhood. It helped that I grew up on a mini farm and we had a lot of choices. Although sometimes too many cucumbers 🙂 We didn’t run to the store all the time either. I love to cook and sometimes I get in my head a certain thing I want to cook. It may not make sense at the time if I have a fridge full of food and meals which have been planned.  I try to practice self-control. This year we have been blessed to meet Farmer John! He is new to farming and has tried several things. We take some of whatever he has. As the season is nearing an end I was looking at what we had purchased from Farmer John and decided to create some meals using those things.

I did not write down a recipe but I will share what I did do. I did NOT measure anything.

First I will share the ingredients I had. Mini eggplants, zucchini, onions, green peppers, fresh basil, store-bought pasta sauce, ground beef, mushrooms, mozzarella cheese, parmesan cheese, rice, etc.

Preheat the oven 350°. I cooked the ground beef with onions, green peppers, and mushrooms and drained it after it was done. I placed pasta sauce in the bottom of two pans. Then to one pan I added a layers of slice baby eggplants, zuchini, meat mixture, sauce and cheese. On the top I spread sauce and mozarella and sprinkled the top with paremsan. I baked it in the oven for a while and then took it out and covered it with foil. I cooked it for about an hour total. I wish I had covered it from the beginning and taken the foil off for the last 15 minutes. I also wish I had added more sweet basil. It turned out YUMMY!!

 

For the second pan. I cut the tops off of the green peppers I had and cleaned them out. I placed them in the bottom of the second pan. I added some cooked rice to the leftover meat mixture and stuffed the peppers with the mixture. I then covered them with sauce and sprinkled with parmesan. I baked it in the oven at 350° for almost an hour. Remove the foil. (See I learned something !) Sprinkle more parmesan on top! Enjoy!

 

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Easy Communion Bread – 4 Recipes

Learning to Make Communion Bread is Easy

Easy Communion Bread? Yes, it is easy. Today, I will share recipes I have collected over the years. It all started with Campaigns Northwest 1979 and a special sister, Madge. I was blessed to be a part of Campaigns Northwest. Little did I know that this would be a life-changing experience for me!  I worked in West Seattle, Washington for 3 weeks.

After our mission was over I stayed an extra day to spend time with a couple of the ladies from the church. One was Madge Boubonik (I am sure the spelling is butchered). I remember this day very well. I was so excited. Madge and I walked around her sunny yard with flowers growing and some rhubarb too! We talked and visited but I was there for a purpose.

Madge made the communion bread for the church and she had agreed to teach me how to make it! I was very excited to spend the day with her. She treated this with great respect and thoughtfulness. She used olive oil because she felt that was most likely what was used in making unleaved bread. I thoroughly enjoyed spending the day with her and that was almost 40 years ago. I  never saw her after this day but she lives on in my memory and I hope to walk in heaven with her one day.

Aberdeen Washington

In 2011 we moved from Spanaway to Aberdeen, Washington to work with the Aberdeen Church of Christ. We hosted a VBS day which was about the Tabernacle. We had loaves of unleavened bread leftover from that day. One of the ladies asked if we could use that for communion and so we did. Our son James started making it for the church after that. He was 11 years old. He enjoyed making the bread and helping to fix communion each Sunday.

Today I am sharing three recipes * that have been used in various places I have worshipped (from homes to buildings to church camps). The first one is the one our family has used for many years. I am not sure it is the original one I received from Madge, if not it is very similar.

Our Family Communion Bread
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup olive oil
1 cup of water
pinch of salt

Mix the dry ingredients and add the wet ingredients and knead a little until it easily forms a ball to roll out. I roll mine out into about 6-inch circles. This recipe makes about 16 small loaves! You may want to half the recipe. Bake at 350° for 10 – 15 minutes until lightly browned on the bottom. I usually do mine by smell 🙂

Our family recipe

Delano Bay Christian Camp Communion Bread
1-quart whipping cream
¾ lb. of butter
5 cups flour

Mix ingredients and divide into 4 sections and roll them about 1 inch thick each. Poke holes in batter with a fork, and bake at 325° until no longer doughy. This makes a big batch of communion bread. Enough for 100 campers at least.

Susan’s Unleaved Bread
1 cup all-purpose flour ( use ½ whole wheat)
1 Tablespoon sugar (brown or honey)
¼ teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons olive oil
¼ cup of warm water

Mix dry ingredients. Cut in 2 Tablespoons olive oil and ¼ cup warm water, Knead. Roll into a circle. Next, you prick with a fork and fry in a nonstick pan until both sides are light brown.

Communion Bread
Communion bread

*A Fourth ADDED (3/15/2020) Lee’s Communion Bread

Here is a fourth recipe I received from my friend Lee. With her notes.

1 cup of unleavened flour (all-purpose)

1/4 cup olive oil

3 Tablespoons cold water

Preheat oven to 400°. Be sure to wash and dry your hands first. This is holy bread. Use clean utensils and a mixing bowl to mix the ingredients. Gently knead the dough and roll out flat to about 1/16 inch thickness. Using a biscuit cutter or other round object cut out circles of bread. Lay on an ungreased cookie sheet and score with a fork or rolling piercing tool. This represents the body of Christ. Bake for about 20 minutes. They should not be sticky or brown. Let them cool completely. Store in an airtight container and they can be kept in the freezer.

Please send me your communion bread recipes and I will update this collection as time allows.

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Peanut Butterfinger Bars

Sometimes good things come unexpectedly. Around 2:30 on Sunday afternoon I remembered that I needed to make cookies for the connect time after church. (Church starts at 5!)  I almost sent my kids to the store to get something for me to bake with but decided to use the ingredients I had on hand. This is what I created with what I had on hand. I was really surprised that so many people asked for the recipe. So here it is!

Peanut Butterfinger Bars

Ingredients:

1 cup peanut butter crunchy

6 Tablespoons butter softened

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 eggs

1 cup all-purpose flour

6 oz. Butterfinger Baking Bits

Instructions:

Preheat your oven 350° and spray your 13X9 baking pan with cooking spray.

Cream peanut butter, butter, and sugars, then add extract and stir in eggs until well blended. Stir in the flour. ( IT DOES NOT HAVE BAKING SODA OR POWDER)

Spread batter in pan and sprinkle with the Butterfinger bits. Press them lightly into the batter. Bake 350° for 20-25 minutes. Cool and cut into bars.

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A Stain Remover that Works!

Recently I was in the kitchen dishing up plates at Emily’s Mystery Menu Dinner when I got bumped and spilled coffee down the backside of Esther’s WHITE pants. She had also dropped blue jello on her pants. I had also worn my white apron and gotten berry stains on it.  I discovered someone had washed them both.  I am thankful I found them before they went in the dryer. I decided to try a combination I had seen on Facebook recently before throwing her pants away.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

4 Tablespoons of Dawn dish soap

4 Tablespoons of peroxide

2 teaspoons of baking soda

I mixed up these three ingredients in a small jar and rubbed it on the stains and waited for a while before washing them.  I am happy to report the stains came out! I am very excited to have made this new discovery!

Let me know if you try this out!

 

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Taffy Bars

I have been making taffy bars so long that I cannot remember where the recipe came from. Probably more than 30 years. One thing I like about this recipe is how fast it is! It mixes and bakes fast and uses just a few ingredients.

Ingredients:

Crust:

1 cup shortening

1 cup brown sugar

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 egg

Topping:

12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/4-1/2 cup of finely chopped nuts

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Directions:

Mix together and pat crust into a jelly roll pan or cookie sheet with an edge.  Bake at 350° for 10-15 minutes until lightly browned. As soon as you remove it from the oven, pour 12 oz. of semi-sweet chocolate chips over the crust. Let it set for a few minutes until soft and spread over crust and sprinkle with nuts. Cut into squares. I get at least 32 squares. These are rich and you may wish to cut them smaller. The chocolate needs to set a bit before serving. You may wish to cool 5 minutes in the fridge or freezer to speed this process up. 

 

Update:  My favorite pan size is actually 17X11. Here is a picture of it with the taffy bars just made.