The Crone Cooks

     If one wishes to eat, one should be able to cook. If one wishes to eat well, one should learn to cook well. It is an unending learning process, finding what you like, learning to make it better, a smidge more of this, a whisper less of that. Cook as directed or a little less or longer?  Here is where you'll find the stuff that works for me.

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Floating Eggs

 

      If you buy your eggs from a store you may never need to know this but, if you keep a backyard flock (or get your eggs from someone who does) this little trick can come in mighty handy! Sometimes hens can be pretty crafty when it comes to hiding their clutch or, if you forget to mark them, you can forget how old those eggs you collected are!

     Just remember, fresh eggs won't float. Put them in a pan and cover with water. Fresh eggs will lay flat on the bottom. Unusable eggs float! And when you have eggs that want to float but just can't quite lift off, well, those are the ones you want for deviled eggs! 

     Put those ones in a pan of water, bring it to a rolling boil, and keep it there for ten minutes. Then, pour off the hot water and immerse the eggs in cold water. In just a minute the water will be warm. Pour it off and replace with more cold, wait ten minutes, and those eggs will peel slick as a whistle!

 

 

Canning With an Inexperienced Crone

     I've wanted to can for a number of years but, because I wasn't willing to risk breaking my glass top stove, I didn't. I understood the process, had even helped teach canning classes, and I had the desire but not the ability. This Christmas my sons gifted me an electric pressure canner, and I've been having such a good time!

 

     This is a Carey, identical in every way to its sister machine by Nesco. Presto also has an electric pressure canner and was, in fact, the first one on the market. The Presto holds an extra jar but, being over a hundred dollars more expensive, I just don't think that extra jar is very important. I was thrilled to unwrap this baby! 

 

     The first thing I put up was potatoes. It worked perfectly! Never again will I have to pitch a pound or two of potatoes because they started to rot before I could get to them.

 

     Then I tried beef vegetable soup, with mixed results. The first batch died from "user error." I should have, but didn't, re-read the instructions, and I really should have. When the timer went off I manually released the pressure instead of letting it sit and decompress naturally. In case you're wondering, that's a big no-no! When you decompress quickly you get a reaction called siphoning - the contents of the jars are still pressurized and force their way out of the jar, and the jars won't seal. This is what siphoning looks like:

     

     See how the jars are partially empty? That's because the broth has been pulled out by the change in pressure. My first clue, even before I opened the machine and saw partially empty jars and dirty water, was the smell when I opened the vent; the kitchen was suddenly filled with the aroma of good soup. Lesson learned!

     I cleaned and refilled the two jars that didn't seal, decided to process an additional three pints, and started the process again. This time I did it right and (surprise, surprise!) the results were much better!

     I have no desire to recreate the pantries of my forebears who tended huge gardens and "put up" enough food to feed a small army for a year. I want to eliminate as much waste as possible (like rotting potatoes) and safely store large amounts of leftovers (such as soups and chili) to be used for other meals on other days. I also want to can things, that are cheaply made in the summertime when fresh produce is readily available, but disproportionately expensive to buy in the store. For example, I love salsa and pour it over almost anything, but to buy it in a store? Fifty cents worth of produce suddenly costs $4 or more and that frosts my frugal Scottish ass.  Spaghetti sauce, jams, pie fillings are other things I plan to fill my shelves with.

     The next order of business is to amass enough jars and lids to bring those plans to fruition. What I had on hand was just a few old jars and a pack of lids and rings I bought just to try this out. I know enough to know I want reusable lids, not the cheesy little one-time-use lids that are so popular now.  I've no desire to use a lid once and then send it on to the landfill. Ugh! Such a waste of money and resources!

Turtle Brownie Bites

     This one, found on Facebook of all places, is dead easy just as it's written, but a couple of tweaks will make it a whole lot better.

     Here's how you're supposed to make it:

     Prepare a box of brownie mix, as per directions, and put into mini muffin tins that have been sprayed with Pam, or another baking spray.

     Bake at 350° for 10-14 minutes. Remove from oven and place a Rolo candy on each brownie, top the candy with a pecan half, and press down. 

     Now - to take this "okay" nibble to "Mmmm, that's what I'm talkin' about!" - I'll be trying this the next time: I will make the brownie part with just one egg instead of two, which will give it a fudgier texture. The original recipe came up a little short in the caramel department so, rather than using Rolos, I'll just be using soft caramels. A fudgier brownie, combined with a little more caramel, and topped with a crunchy pecan, just has to be gooder!

Cherry Shortbread

  I don't do a lot of Christmas baking, sometimes I don't do any. This year, I made a couple family favorites and a couple new recipes. I picked this cherry shortbread because (one) I like maraschino cherries and, (two) they would look pretty on a cookie plate. I chose well! These were really quite good, but they could have been better. 

     Next year I'll replace the vanilla extract with almond - the draining and patting dry of the cherries robs these cookies of the maraschino flavor. I will also be sure to bake them a minimum of 12 minutes.  Because this was my first time, I picked the time in the middle and it left the cookies just a titch underdone. Not raw, mind you, but chewy not crumbly like a shortbread should be.

Cherry Shortbread

1/2 cup maraschino cherries, drained & chopped

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 cup cold, salted butter, cut into pieces

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pat cherries with a paper towel - they should be fairly dry - and set aside.

Preheat oven to 350° and line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Briefly whisk flour and sugar to combine. 

Using a pastry cutter, or two forks, cut butter into flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs.

Stir in the extract and the cherries. Dough should look crumbly, but not combined.

With clean hands, knead the dough until it forms a cohesive ball.

Form the dough into 1 inch balls and place on the cookie sheets.

Dip the bottom of a drinking glass into some granulated sugar and gently flatten each cookie. 

Bake for 10-12 minutes, remove from tray immediately and place on a cooling rack. Drizzle with melted chocolate if desired.

 

Mom Was Right Chili   

 Chili, or the making of it, has been a sore spot with me for years. I could never get it to come out "right" and experimented with a lot of different methods, mixes, seasonings, and whatnot. This, as it turns out, was due to my own stubbornness. My mother's chili was pretty good but it just rubbed me wrong that she made it with - gasp!- spaghetti sauce.      

    "Why," I asked her, "do you think flavoring a southwestern American dish with an Italian sauce makes sense?" She'd give a shrug and an "I don't know," and make it exactly the same way the next time.  It drove me crazy! So, I set out to learn how to make "real" chili. 

    Fast-forward forty years or so, and I've got the perfect recipe, at least, according to my firstborn child, Son-the-Elder. Care to hazard a guess as to the base? Yeah, you got it in one, spaghetti sauce. I guarantee Mom is cracking up in the other-world, chortling, "I told you so!"

    In the making of this, I did a couple of things I won't normally do. Because I didn't have any onions or garlic, I used powder. I think it could have used a little more heat so, next time, I'll either use the hot Rotel or use two cans of regular. For this batch, I just added a little red pepper flake.

 

 Mom Was Right Chili

2 pounds lean ground beef (I used 90/10)

1 jar cheap spaghetti sauce

3 cans beans (I used 2 cans of kidney and 1 can of pintos)

1 can Ro-tel, diced tomatoes and jalapenos

Garlic powder

Onion powder

Cumin

Oregano

Chili powder

Smoked paprika

Brown the beef to crumbles in a heavy skillet, seasoning generously with salt, pepper, oregano, cumin, garlic powder, and onion powder. If you're using a fatty blend, drain off the fat. Dump in the spaghetti sauce, Ro-tel, and undrained beans, stir to combine, and add a little smoked paprika (careful, a little of this goes a looong way!)and a couple of tablespoons of chili powder, or more, to taste. 

I like mine served with a little grated cheese and a handful of Frito's corn chips, but you do you!