Strawberry Jam

So I wanted to 'learn' how to make freezer jam...If I had known it was so easy I would have been making it for years! I tried a 'no cook' one, and then a friend came over and helped me with a cook one. They both taste really good. The cook one tastes more like a real 'jam' and the no cook one is more fresh. I like them both!

Here is the 'Cook' recipe I made with Megan

For every
1 C Strawberries
1/2 C Sugar
1/4 TBsp Lemon Juice

Clean and trim stems from your strawberries, pulse in your blender until it looks like jam.

Measure strawberries AFTER they are crushed. Stir all ingredients into a LARGE pot, bring to a boil, and boil until translucent looking (approx 25-30 minutes)

See that white foam? scrap that stuff out. Megan swirled it around and around and then she scooped it off of the sides.

Poor into jars, and put on the lids. Done and Done!!! Good for a week in the fridge and a year in the freezer, and it is super yummy.

Now the 'No Cook' Recipe

For Every:
1 2/3 C Strawberries (washed, hulled, and crushed/blended)
2 Tbsp Ball Instant Pectin (for freezing)
2/3 C Sugar

Stir sugar, and pectin in a bowl. Add fruit and stir for 3 minutes, pour into clean freezer jars.

coolest site ever:
http://www.freshpreserving.com/tools/reference/pectin.aspx

Practically Perfect Pizza Dough

Todd is THE pickiest person in the whole world when it comes to pizza dough. I think he just doesn't like my cooking, but c'est la vie. He didn't mind this dough, it wasn't 'perfect' but he thought it was better than most of the 'cardboard' recipes I have tried.

Ingredients

3 1/2 to 4 cups bread flour, (I started with 3 1/2 then added if I needed the other 1/2 C) plus more for rolling (Chef's Note: Using bread flour will give you a much crisper crust. If you can't find bread flour, you can substitute it with all-purpose flour which will give you a chewier crust.)

1 teaspoon sugar

1 envelope instant dry yeast

2 teaspoons salt

1 1/2 cups water, 110 degrees F

2 tablespoons olive oil, plus 2 teaspoons

Directions

Combine the bread flour, sugar, yeast and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and combine. While the mixer is running, add the water and 2 tablespoons of the oil and beat until the dough forms into a ball. If the dough is sticky, add additional flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the dough comes together in a solid ball. If the dough is too dry, add additional water, 1 tablespoon at a time. Scrape the dough onto a lightly floured surface and gently knead into a smooth, firm ball.

Grease a large bowl with the remaining 2 teaspoons olive oil, add the dough, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put it in a warm area to let it double in size, about 1 hour.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide it into 2 equal pieces. Cover each with a clean kitchen towel or plastic wrap and let them rest for 10 minutes.

Waffle Goodness

Ingredients:

1 1/3 C Flour

4 tsp Baking POWDER (don’t ask)

½ tsp Salt

2 tsp Sugar, heaping

2 Eggs, separated

½ C Butter, melted (one stick)

1 tsp Vanilla

1 ¾ C Milk

Directions:

1.        In a large mixing bowl whisk together all dry ingredients

2.     Separate the eggs, adding the yolks to the dry ingredients. Place the whites in a small mixing bowl

3.     Beat whites until moderately stiff peaks form.

4.     Add milk, vanilla, and melted butter to dry ingredient mixture and blend

5.     Fold egg whites into mixture. I watched a few YouTube videos to make sure I did it right.

6.      Ladle mixture into hot waffle iron and bake

Just for future pointers for me the 2/3 C filled twice makes a perfect waffle, and 1:45 after the waffle maker says it is done they are a perfect golden color!

Poutine, A Canadian Delicacy

When we were first married, before Corbyn graced us with his sweet little spirit, we ate this a fair bit. We honestly hadn't had it in at least five years, which is probably a good thing. This stuff is SO good, but you can literally hear your arteries clogging up. So maybe in another five years I will come back to this recipe and we can have some more poutine! 

Ingredients:

Cooked (and piping hot) French Fries

Cooked (and piping hot) brown gravy 

Mozzarella Cheese curds (that is the authentic way, we used grated Mozza cheese)

Directions:

Cook fries and gravy as per instructions. Layer fries, then cheese, then gravy. AND..... you're done! The more melty the cheese the better. Don't knock it until you try it! 

Momma Roe's Sunday Casserole

This recipe is a very 'technical' recipe...not! This is basically what ever veggie you have around add it to the crock pot, type of recipe. I grew up on this casserole. I swear my mom made it nearly every Sunday. I hated it as a kid, but thought I would be a nice wife and make it for Todd, he liked it and I even liked it! The veggies were soft enough for my brace face teeth!

Ingredients

1 lbs Ground Beef 

1/2 Large Onion (chopped)

Carrots (I used frozen)

Potatoes (peeled and sliced)

Corn (frozen)

Peas (frozen)

Cheese

1 Can Cream of Mushroom Soup (with milk/water added) Mom says she has used cream of chicken but she waters it down a bit more because it is so salty

Directions:

Brown ground beef with onion. Set aside. In a small bowl mix your milk/water with your can of soup. 

In crockpot add a layer of soup, then hamburger, then carrots, then corn, then peas, then potatoes, then repeat. Add whatever soup you have left over the whole casserole. Turn crockpot on low for 4-5 hours. Where there is about an hour left sprinkle a layer of cheese (or not) on top. 

 Don't mind our weird cheese, I think it froze in the fridge or something, it melted all funny. 

But it still tasted good! 

Gaufres De Liege

I am one of the lucky few who have been to Belgium and have actually tasted these bad boys in real life. On the streets of Charleroi I introduced them to Todd, and he agreed they are amazing! I have been looking for a recipe for years, literally since 2009ish. I found this one about a year ago, and decided I would save up for a better waffle maker, well I forgot to save up for one and last week I had a real hankering for a guafre. I had already bought some pearl sugar a while back and so I needed a waffle iron and quick! I am still going to save up for a better one, but they turned out pretty stinken good! They are LOTS and lots, and lots, and lots of work, but I followed the recipe to the T (other than the waffle iron) and these turned out amazing! It was like I was on the streets of Charleroi with Todd again, and my house smelled like the waffle place where we got them, it was a win win! (as a bonus they were almost better the second day reheated on the waffle iron, because the sugar wasn't so hard on my brace face teeth)
I got the recipe from here, and the guy is super hard core about his waffles. I am going to paste his instructions with a few of the pictures I took. If you have a few days where you aren't doing much, whip up a batch of these bad boys! ENJOY!

INGREDIENTS
makes 5 Gaufres de Liège (So I doubled it, because who goes through all that work for 5!!!)

• 1 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup scalded whole milk at 110-115 degrees
• 2 Tbsp. + 2 tsp. of water at 110-115 degrees
• 2 cups King Arthur Bread flour
• 1 large room temperature egg, lightly beaten
• 1Tbsp. + 1 tsp. light brown sugar
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 8 1/2 Tbsp. soft room temperature unsalted butter
• 1 Tbsp. honey
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 3/4 cup Belgian Pearl Sugar 

DIRECTIONS

1. Place yeast, milk, and water into the work-bowl of a stand mixer. Stir for a few seconds to moisten the yeast.

2. Add the egg and 2/3 of a cup of the flour. Mix to blend. Scrape down sides of bowl.

3. Sprinkle remaining 1 and 1/3 cups of flour over the mixture, but do not stir it in. Cover and let stand 75-90 minutes (at the end of that time, you’ll notice the batter bubbling up through the cover of flour).

4. Add brown sugar and salt to the work-bowl of a stand mixer. Mix on low speed (speed #2) – just to blend.

5. With machine on low, add honey and vanilla. Then add 2 Tbsp. of butter at a time. Mix 4 minutes at medium-low speed; scrape down sides once or twice in that period. Let the dough rest for 1 minute and then continue to mix for 2 minutes. If you measured your ingredients perfectly, the dough will be sticking to the sides of the bowl in the last minute of mixing and then, in the last 30 seconds of so, will start to ball-up on the paddle. If this does not happen, let the dough rest for 1 more minute and mix for another 2 minutes.

6. Scrape the dough into a large bowl, sprinkle lightly with flour, cover with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature for 4 hours. This step is crucial for developing the flavor.

7. REFRIGERATE FOR 30 MINUTES BEFORE PROCEEDING TO STEP #8. This is essential. The yeast respiration must be slowed before continuing.

8. Stir the dough down (meaning: gently deflate the gases from the dough, by pressing on it with a rubber spatula), scrape it onto a piece of plastic wrap, and then use the spatula to press the dough into a long rectangle. Fold that rectangle over on itself (by thirds – like a letter) so that you have a square of dough. Wrap it in plastic, weigh it down a bit (I put a gallon of milk on mine) and refrigerate overnight.

9. The next day, place the cold dough (it will be quite firm) in a large bowl and add all of the pearl sugar to a bowl. It will seem like a lot of sugar, but it’s supposed to be :) Mix it into the dough by hand until the chunks are well-distributed. Once mixed, divide the dough into 5 pieces of equal size.

10. Shape each chunk into an oval ball (like a football without the pointy ends) and let it rise (covered loosely in plastic wrap) for 90 minutes.

11. If you have a professional waffle iron (meaning: it’s cast iron and weighs over 20 pounds) cook at exactly 365-370 degrees (the max temp before sugar begins to burn/decompose) for approximately 2 minutes.** Give each waffle a few minutes to cool slightly before eating. No syrup or toppings are needed, unless you’d like to add some fruit or a dusting of powdered sugar; they’re quite sweet on their own.

** If you have a regular waffle iron, heat the iron to 420 degrees (hint: many regular waffle irons go up to and over 550 degrees at their highest setting) , place the dough on the iron, and immediately unplug it or turn the temp dial all the way down. Otherwise, the sugar will burn.

If you have a fabulous waffle iron, you basically wont have any sugar granules left. Ours were good with them in the waffle, but a better iron will caramelize all of the sugar, they were still pretty dang good! 

Corbyn LOVED them!

As a PS, wahoo! this is my 100th post! What a great post for 100 too!