It was a gooood morning!

Some cinnamon rolls made by my mom years ago. :-)

In Loving Memory of Aunt Helen

 

Psalms 116:15  Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.

In April of 2014 I posted a memorial to my great-uncle, Dana Mathna.  This past summer his dear wife, Helen Hoover Mathna, went to be with the Lord also.

I told a good deal about Aunt Helen and their family in the previous post, so I will not repeat it all here, but please to take the time to go back and read it if you can.  Uncle Dana was a great blessing also, and I mentioned a good bit about Aunt Helen there as well and various things that affected her life.

Added to the previous information, Aunt Helen was born on January 29, 1925.  She was the sister of my grandfather.  She is the last one on either side of the family from my grandparents’ generation.  Somehow that seems sad to me because we’ve lost a connection with the past that can’t be replaced.  But, this is one of the aspects of time that is unavoidable.

Uncle Dana and Aunt Helen were married in June of 1946 and Aunt Helen wore my grandma’s wedding dress.  I believe they planned their wedding for when my grandparents would be home (see picture at the other post).

Aunt Helen was primarily a homemaker and loved her family very much (you can see more pictures of them all at the post about Uncle Dana). 

She was a sweet Christian and a real prayer warrior.  She was also a member of the Shippensburg First Church of God for 78 years!  She worked in the nursery, taught Sunday School and served as a Deaconess for many years.  After Uncle Dana retired, she helped him with custodial work at the church building.

This is the old building of the Shippensburg First Church of God (Pennsylvania).  It was within walking distance from their house, which was convenient for church meetings as well as the custodial work.  I remember attending services there.

My mother always speaks lovingly of Aunt Helen.  She thought very highly of her.  Mom’s family visited them and Grandpa’s home church in Shippensburg whenever they came home on furlough, and those were happy times to her.

This is how I remember Aunt Helen.  She is the only great-aunt that I knew very well, and I’m very thankful I had that privilege. I remember her as a kind and gentle lady.  She didn’t always talk as much as some of the others when we were all together, but you could tell she enjoyed being with her family and she considered us as part of that.  We stayed with them a couple times that I can remember and it was a pleasure to visit there.  I plowed my way through a collection of her books one summer when we spent a couple of weeks there. :-)  She had one of the sweetest smiles, and my mom has inherited it from her dad and his youngest sister.

This is Aunt Helen with her mother, my Great-grandma Hoover.  Aunt Helen really makes me think of my own mother in this picture!

I love this picture of Aunt Helen having a meal (dinner?) with these ladies.  I know two of them were related to her, and the little girl is her daughter, Janet (wasn’t she a cutie?).  That was her sister beside her and her mother is the first on the left.  Please notice that all the ladies in this picture are wearing aprons!  :-)  I am SO happy we have this picture! (Thanks to my Uncle Jim’s notable efforts at scanning.)

One thing I remember about Aunt Helen’s house was that the food was good.  She was famous in our family for her Chicken Corn Chowder and Pineapple Bake, as they called it.

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I found this recipe from Aunt Helen in my mom’s write-in cook book.

Chicken Corn Chowder

Boil 2 C. water

Add:
1 envelope chicken noodle soup dry mix
1 Tbl. onion
1/4 C. rice

Cook until done.

Add:
2 C. milk
1 8 oz. can cream style corn
15 oz. boned, fully cooked chicken

Heat through and serve.

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I couldn’t find the following recipe in the book, so I looked online and was able to figure out what it should be.

Pineapple Bake

Heat oven to 350F.

Cream:
1 stick butter
1 C. sugar

Beat in:
4 eggs, one at a time

Drain and stir:
1 20 oz. can of crushed pineapple

Fold in:
6 slices day old white bread, cubed

Pour into a greased casserole dish (I think it was 2 qt.) and bake for 50 minutes or till top is golden brown.

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I can’t post many pictures of her from later in her life because they aren’t scanned into the computer, and the ones my parents have would be time consuming to locate.  Perhaps another day (or year) I may add some.  Here is one last shot of her, which I love.  This was taken in their back yard.

Random Thoughts On the End of November

 

So, November is over.  Another Thanksgiving week has come and gone.  Ours was different from any we’ve had before, but I suppose one could say that about many others we’ve had as well. :-)  This one…well, I’m glad it’s past in many respects!

The last week and a half of November certainly had some big challenges for me.  Things I’d been forewarned about that I knew wouldn’t be “nice” along with some surprises that were far from pleasant.  One surprise is a new health issue that I was hoping was a fluke, but apparently it isn’t.  (What is it about being in your 40s – all of the time new things popping up and not wanting to settle back down?)  There were also some trials that I’m not free to discuss, but that were emotionally draining nonetheless.  (At least they didn’t affect our household directly!)  Also, the evening before Thanksgiving the daughter/sister of some friends had a serious health problem which added a real burden to the holiday.  (Thank God she is doing well, all things considered, and is home from the hospital now!  She could have died!)

But, as my dad says, the Lord always balances our experience.  There were some sweet blessings from my Savior just when I needed them most to help me over the hurdles or pick me up on the other side!  I had some sweet emails and messages that were an encouragement.  We enjoyed the Lord’s supper with our church family the weekend before Thanksgiving.  We had visits with family and friends that were a blessing and a help.  There were times for self-examination that, although not pleasant, were useful and hopefully productive.  We had some interesting and busy times as well.  Some things got done.  Some friends joined us for Thanksgiving dinner and we had some food adventures too.  I thought it might be fun to share some of these things with you.

First of all, all three of the working men on the property were off the whole week, which was nice for all the families.  Also, the weather was beautiful most of last week – mostly sunny and warm.  The fall colors were splendid here!  There are oak trees on our property that put on a gorgeous show some or most years.

[Colors may appear brighter than they actually were. :-) ]

One day my brother and sister-in-law loaded up the majority of the metal junk we had sitting around waiting to be sold as scrap and actually took it in.  My husband helped them load the truck and rented trailer they used.  This was a happy thing because it got rid of some real eye sores as well as giving them a little income they needed for housing expenses (unexpected repairs)!  There were 6 defunct appliances sitting behind our well house!  Yeah, you might say we’ve had some lousy experiences with appliances on this property over the last 6 years!  On average, one dud per year!  I won’t try to explain why they sat there as long as they did.  :-)  But, they’re gone!  That’s the main thing. :-)

I also had the pleasure of seeing my husband use my rotary cutter and cutting board for the first time!  (I keep trying to tell him that he would enjoy some aspects of quilting.) :-)

He was cutting little fabric loops to hang some string lights in our bed room.  These lights are not for Christmas, but for ambiance.  They’ll be used all year.  Of course, this is the time of year to buy them and he wanted LED for the lower watts, so we picked some up when we were in Costco one day.

This is how he used the tabs.  The fabric blends quite well with the trim.

For various reasons, not everyone we invited for Thanksgiving joined us, but our friends who recently moved here did as well as my parents.  We were a smallish group of seven.  (I blurred the picture for their privacy.)

They are also all three not supposed to eat gluten, so SURPRISE – we had our first gluten-free Thanksgiving dinner! :-)

Chicken baked with coconut flour, butter and spices.
(This is something I had done before.)

Potatoes baked with coconut oil and herbs.

Tabouli made with quinoa, gluten-free pasta salad and rolls, two kinds of hummus, and watermelon rind pickles (made by me).

I’m sorry to say that I didn’t take a picture of the desserts.  They were mostly store-bought.  There was one pie and cookies and an interesting dessert my mom made with brown rice flour.  (It didn’t turn out the way we expected, but it was good.)

The gluten-free foods that were styled after traditional ones varied in goodness.  I’d say the rolls, tabouli and cookies were the best.  Everything tasted good, but some things had a different texture.  The food also affected my system a little differently than the usual gluten foods do.

Thanksgiving weekend is also my husband’s annual baking holiday.  He loves to bake bread, but he doesn’t do it much because of the time commitment that it requires.  So, he sets this time aside to try to bake at least one bread of some sort.  (Some years he does two!)

This year he made cinnamon rolls!  Yes!  He made them the Saturday after Thanksgiving Day and part of our local family joined us to eat them warm from the oven.  We had more the next morning when some of us ate breakfast/brunch together.

Maybe it’s been too long since I had cinnamon rolls, but even with all respect to my mom, I think these were the best I ever ate!  They were SO good. 

If you have a Kitchenaid stand mixer, he used the recipe in the cookbook that came with it.  He made some slight changes, the most significant being that he used half white whole wheat and half all-purpose flour (plain white).  He also used a different glaze recipe since we didn’t have the ingredients the cookbook called for.  He found one online that was made with butter, powdered sugar, water and a generous amount of vanilla.  It turned out great.  (But, they were more sugary than what we usually eat!)

Even with the extra work of having company (I did start early and pace myself) and all the extra things going on last week, my husband and I were still able to make it to church Sunday night.  (We usually go for the evening service since we drive quite a distance.)  I am very thankful for that since usually I wouldn’t have expected to be up to going!  Then the Lord brought these verses to my specific attention during the preaching of the word - 2 Corinthians 7:5-6  For, when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears. Nevertheless God, that comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us…

Praise the Lord for His kindness and for the many blessings! 

Biscuit Cinnamon Sticky Buns

 

Some time ago my husband made these cinnamon sticky rolls at my request.  He used his usual biscuit recipe, made them into cinnamon rolls and we put them in a pan that had melted butter, brown sugar and pecans in the bottom to bake.  (We used a 9X9 pan, but a 9X13 would have worked much better.  More below on that.)  We used them for a brunch, but they would be great for breakfast, tea or coffee time.

First he rolled the biscuit dough out in a rectangle.  (I suppose you could do this with canned biscuits too.)

He buttered the top surface, sprinkled it with cinnamon and sugar, rolled it up and cut it into enough biscuits to fit into the pan. 

We put them in a pan which had melted butter, brown sugar and nuts sprinkled in the bottom (which becomes the topping when you take them out of the pan).  You could do some variations on this.  Add some dried fruits of your choice.  Add coconut or use it instead of the nuts.  It might even be possible to use some apple pie filling mixed into the topping!  Yum.

NOTE:  We had them too thick because we used a 9X9 pan.  He should have cut them thinner and we should have put them in a 9X13 pan because the outsides got done before the insides, so we couldn’t get them fully done.

I don’t know how long we baked them as we were having a little trouble getting them done.  When you remove them from the oven invert the pan onto a heat proof plate or platter.

They were delicious!  Sometime we need to try them again in a larger pan. :-)

Quotes from Julia Child

 

You don't have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces -- just good food from fresh ingredients.

Always remember: If you're alone in the kitchen and you drop the lamb, you can always just pick it up. Who's going to know?

If you're afraid of butter, use cream.

The only time to eat diet food is while you're waiting for the steak to cook.

I just hate health food.

You can always judge the quality of a cook or a restaurant by roast chicken ... We never seem to tire of chicken in our house, even though I have fed my husband upon it for weeks, even months at a time … I can go on eating chicken forever.

The French are interested in vegetables as food rather than as purely nutrient objects valuable for their vitamins and minerals.

With enough butter, anything is good.

Always start out with a larger pot than what you think you need.

Never name a dish before you serve it. Your souffle falls in the oven? You’re now serving Fallen Souffle.

A party without cake is really just a meeting.

(Two of my favorites, so I’ll rerun them): 

How can a nation be great if its bread tastes like Kleenex?

It's so beautifully arranged on the plate — you know someone's fingers have been all over it.

(Quick and pretty – sliced papaya with half a kiwi and mint.
Be sure to peel both fruits.)

Whole Wheat Bread

 

While we were at my in-laws for Thanksgiving, my husband, Peter, made bread with his mom’s help.  He has made very good bread before, but always with our Kitchen Aid stand mixer to do the kneading for him.    This time he had the opportunity to learn to knead the bread by hand. :-)  The bread turned out so well that I decided to share the recipe with you.

The recipe actually came from an old copy of the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book.  (It was new at the time, anyway.) I have made some slight changes.

Whole Wheat Bread

Ingredients:
3 to 3 ¼ cups All-purpose flour
1 package Active dry yeast  (2 1/2 tsp.)
1 ¾ cups Water
1/3 cup Brown sugar
3 tablespoons Butter
2 cups Whole wheat flour (King Arthur Band gave the best results)

Directions:
In large mixing bowl combine 2 cups of the all-purpose flour and the yeast. Heat water, brown sugar, butter, and 2 teaspoons salt just till warm (115-120°), stirring constantly till butter melts. Add to dry mixture. Beat at low speed of electric mixer for ½ minute, scraping bowl. Beat 3 minutes at high speed. By hand, stir in whole-wheat flour and enough of the remaining all purpose flour to make a moderately stiff dough.
Knead on lightly floured surface till smooth, 8 to 10 minutes. Shape in ball. Place in lightly greased bowl; turn once. Cover; let rise in warm
place till double, about 1-½ hours. Punch down; turn out on floured surface. Divide in half. Cover and let rest 10 minutes. Shape in loaves; place in two 8½ x 4½ x 2½ inch greased loaf pans. Cover and let rise till double, about 1¼ hours. Bake in moderate oven (375°) about 45 minutes. If tops brown too quickly, cover loosely with foil last 20 minutes.
Makes 2 loaves.

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Here is Peter learning to hand knead from his mom:

Notice her cotton apron. :-)

The loaves turned out so well! (See top also.) 

This was his annual bread baking project that he likes to do at Thanksgiving.  Since we weren’t with my family, he did agree to make another batch for a family dinner we had to celebrate my mom’s birthday and my brother and sister-in-law’s anniversary.  The first batch (all in these pictures), turned out the best.  He used different (perhaps heavier) whole wheat flour for the second batch here at home, and also, someone (AHEM!) turned on the lower oven and overheated the upper oven while he was allowing the dough to rise in there, thus reducing the effectiveness of the yeast!  (Yes, that would have been me! Ack. Oops, and Oh, no!)  Thankfully, it was not a total wreck and was still edible.  He made half the batch into dinner rolls too, which was nice for our dinner.

Coconut Fruitcake

 

I’m pretty sure this is the Coconut Fruitcake since
I can’t remember making any other kind in recent years. :-)

This is probably my family’s favorite fruit cake.  The original recipe came from the Nov/Dec 1993 issue of “Country Woman” magazine but, as usual, we made some changes of our own. :-)  Here is our version.  (See my ideas for making in healthier at the bottom.)

2 C. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 lb. total candied cherries, candied pineapple and fruitcake mix
1 1/2 C. flaked coconut
1 C. raisins (golden or brown)
1 C. chopped pecans
1/2 butter
1 C. sugar (reduce to 2/3 C. if desired)
3 eggs, beaten
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. almond extract
1/2 C. orange juice
Additional candied fruit or cherries for top (optional)
Marzipan (almond paste) for cover (optional)  Note: Make sure it is as room temperature before working with it!

In a large bowl, combine flower, baking powder and salt.  Add all candied fruit, coconut, raisins, and nuts and mix till well coated.  In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugar.  Add eggs and extracts, mixing well.  Stir in the fruit and flour mixture alternately with the orange juice.  Pack into a greased 10-inch tube pan which is lined with waxed paper or baking parchment.  Or, you can pack into greased, lined loaf pans.  Bake at 250F for 2 to 2 1/2 hours or until the cake tests done.  Cool in pan for 10 minutes.   Loosen edges with a knife and remove from pan to cool completely on a wire rack. 

Garnish with candied fruit if desired, or roll the marzipan to a large thin circle, big enough to cover the cake.  Place gently over the top and cut out the center carefully.  Mold the marzipan to fit the cake and trim away excess around the bottom edge.  You may out candied fruit on top, or you may wish to put some flowers or fruit in the center of the of the cake.  You may also use nuts or molded marzipan to decorate the top of the cake.

For loaves roll the marzipan into rectangles that will fit the loaves.  Gently press it into place.

Yield: 12-16 servings

Store, well wrapped, in the fridge or freezer.

Note:  Next time I make this fruitcake I hope to add miniature chocolate chips to it as per a recipe we used to make.  I think it will make a nice addition. :-)

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This is a Coconut Fruitcake that I made for my dad’s birthday some years ago.  As you can see I covered it with marzipan and tinted the extra marzipan with food coloring. Then I molded roses and leaves to fill the hole in the center of the cake.

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Healthier:

For those of you who are are concerned about the high-fructose corn syrup and food coloring that is in candied fruits, you can make your own candied fruit!  My mom and I did it a couple years ago.  Here are two locations to find information: DIY Candied Orange Peel, and Food Network’s Candied Orange Peel.  My mom and I actually made it with a pomelo, so we got a lot of candied peel for our effort, but it took awhile to cook it too.

Also, when I make this fruitcake recipe next, I hope to switch out some of the candied fruit for good quality dried fruit.  I want to use the nicer kind of dried pineapple in place of the candied type, and I want to use some good dried cherries for the candied cherries.  I think it will give the fruitcake a more interesting flavor also because these types of preserved fruits taste more like they were meant to than the candied varieties.  I’ll try to let you know how this works out. :-) 

Brazil Nut Sensation

This was one of my Gramma Hoover’s recipes.  It was one of my dad’s favorites, but others of us like it really well too. :-)  It is rather pricey to make with the cost of Brazil nuts being what it is, but it makes a great rare treat.  I haven’t made this cake for some years now, and I interpreted her somewhat cryptic method of writing down recipes the best I could.

Brazil Nut Sensation

Sift together:

3/4 C. flour
3/4 C. sugar
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

In a large bowl put:

3 C. shelled Brazil nuts (whole)
2 8 oz. packages pitted dates
1 C. well-drained maraschino cherries

Sift flour mixture over nut mixture.  Mix with hands until nuts and fruit are well-coated.

In another bowl:

Beat until foamy: 3 eggs
Add: 1 tsp. vanilla

Stir this into nut mixture.  Spread evenly in 2 9x5x3 bread pans, greased and lined with waxed paper.

Bake: 1 hr. 45 min. (or 1 hour to 45 minutes?) – or until cake tester comes out clean.

Cool, wrap in aluminum foil and refrigerate up to 5-6 weeks.  (Or freeze.)

Italian Fried Egg Soup

Here is a simple soup you can make with leftovers from a pot roast – as long as you didn’t use the broth all up making gravy. ;-)  My dad first made this for us without the meat and he called it Italian Fried Egg Soup.  I think that he had it when they lived in Ethiopia.  (In case that puzzles some of you, know that the Italians invaded and held Ethiopia for awhile during WW II.  Some of the Italians liked it there so well that they stayed or returned.  Some married into the culture.  Some started restaurants. :-)  Hence the location of origin.)
This recipe doesn’t have specific amounts here because I usually make it with leftovers.  Even if you don’t have meat, you can make a meal that still has protein because of the fried egg. broth and cheese.
You will need:
1 fried egg per bowl
1 to 1/2 a piece of toast per bowl
1 thickish slice of cheese per bowl (about 1/8 – 1/4 inch)
Leftover beef and broth
Cut the meat into bite-size chunks.  Heat the broth and the meat in a pan.  You may add some oregano, basil and green onions if you like.  This will add a more Italian flavor and add a bit of color.  Adjust the seasoning to your taste.
Meanwhile, fry the eggs and toast the bread.  You may butter the bread if you wish, but it will be soaked with the broth so it isn’t actually necessary.  It would add a bit of flavor.  Place a piece of toast in each bowl and top with a fried egg and a slice of cheese.  (You may break the cheese in half if you wish and separate it slightly.)
Just before serving (or at the table), ladle the broth and meat over the toast-egg-cheese stack.  Eat immediately.  (You don’t want to do this ahead because it soaks in to the toast quickly and will become soggy.  So, it’s nicer to eat it right away.)
With some salad or fruit you would have a complete meal. :-)  It’s quite easy and fast when using leftover pot roast and broth.  Hope you enjoy it!

The thousand word project: The Fragrance of Her House

National Pretzel Day

My husband loves pretzels – soft or hard.  Since today is National Pretzel Day, I thought it would nice to share some photos of the pretzels he made for us last Thanksgiving.

For the past two years Peter has made a point of taking time to bake yeast bread on Thanksgiving weekend.  This is his annual baking fling, since it’s the only weekend in the year when he feels like he can take a real vacation and do something as time consuming as baking bread. :-)  And, the best part is that he is a good baker!

This past Thanksgiving weekend he made some yummy whole grain bread for our Thanksgiving meal (which we had on Friday) as well as the soft pretzels to share with the family on Thursday evening.

He wants to perfect his pretzel technique sometime and alter the recipe slightly.  Since I don’t know for sure what recipe he used, I won’t post it at this point, but I’m sure you can find some online that you might like to try.  My mom declared them the best soft pretzels she ever had, despite Peter’s hesitance. :-)  They were very good!

Here is a picture of the whole grain bread he made also:

By the way,  I’m going to try to remember to bake some frozen soft pretzels to go with dinner tonight.  They are not homemade, and not as good ingredient-wise, but Peter likes them and they taste good, especially with some butter on them. :-)

Irish Soda Bread

Here is a recipe we got from my Grandma Van Nattan.  She and Grandpa were missionaries in Ireland for some years.

This bread is pretty easy to make, and since it is a non-yeast bread it goes quickly, even though it is kneaded briefly.  You may change the spices to suit your own taste also.

This batch was made with part whole wheat, raisins and a Middle Eastern sweet bread spice for which I do not know the proper name.  I did not make it in this dish, but put it there to store it as the dish has a sealing lid.

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Irish Soda Bread

4 Cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon soda
1/4 Cup sugar (optional)
1/8 teaspoon cardamom or coriander (optional)
1/4 Cup margarine
1 egg
1 3/4 Cups buttermilk
In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, baking powder, soda, sugar, and spice.  Add margarine and cut in until crumbly.  Beat egg slightly and  mix with buttermilk.  Add to dry ingredients and mix until blended.  Turn out onto floured board and knead until smooth, about 2-3 minutes. 

Divide dough in half and shape each into a round loaf.  Place each in an 8 inch cake pan, or both on a cookie sheet.  Press down and make several 1/2 inch deep slashes in the top with a sharp knife. 

Bake at 375 degrees for 35-40 minutes.

Variations:
1.  Omit spice and add 2 Cups of raisins and 1 1/4 teaspoons caraway seed.
2.  Substitute 2 Cups whole wheat flour for 2 Cups white flour.
3.  2 Cups of raisins or chopped, pitted dates can be added.