Grandma Jan's Tasty Treats

08/10/2020

Alrighty we are done. Well, they have to sit for 4 days and be shaken but it's over folks sweet pickles or bust. First we dumped the vinager then we poured 5 cups of sugar on them and stirred left them sit for 2 hours and I checked on them to see what was happening. The science of it is the sugar pulled out the vinager from the pickles and made a syrup. Pretty cool huh. Here is the part I was iffy on. I put them in sterilized jars and poured syrup over cleaned my rims but according to alot of 7 day sweet pickles you dont water bath. They say they are good 1 year. If they are water bathed they get soft and they are stable because you pickled them and cooked them threw the process. So I am going to give it a chance and see.

08/07/2020

Alrighty look its day 4 and we are moving right along on this is my science lab. 7 day sweet pickles or bust. So tonight we measured out 1/4 cup pickling spice and wrapped it up in cheese cloth and put it in almost a gallon of cider vinegar brought that up to a boil. Drained out the alum water and poured in the vinager on the cucumbers with the spice pack. Now we sit like this on day 4, 5 and 6. So on sunday right???? ( I am loosing track of time here and I'm tired tonight ) is our final step to the sweet pickles. I'm moving on tomorrow to fermented hot sauce in the labatory or just plain old vinager base hot sauce. I have 24 hours to think this threw. Stay tuned and I will let you know. Have a great night guys. See you sunday.

08/06/2020

Ok guys I have to say day 3 is here on the weird science of making sweet 7 day pickles. First let me tell you when I dumped off the water it threw me for a loop. Kinda jellied like hope this is the process. Smells fine so on to day 3. Almost a gallon of water and 3 tablespoons of alum boiled and put on the cucumbers. See ya all for day 4 tomorrow.

08/04/2020

Ok folks its day 2 in the science lab today. 7 day sweet pickles or bust. We drained the water and boiled up almost a gallon of new water with 1/4 cup canning salt poured it over the pickles and covered. What work I almost didn't think I could do it lol. So wait it gets better tomorrow we get to use the big guns. But you will have to stop by and see on to day 3.

08/04/2020

So I'm on a adventure this canning season. I love sweet pickles. Not bread and butter just plain old sweet pickles. So I'm on a quest to make 7 day sweet pickles. So come join me on my weird science experiment to make sweet pickle slices. DAY 1 = 5 pounds or so of pickling cucumbers soaked in cold water for 30 min. Then put in the bowl and covered with a gallon of boiling water. Check done and done.

07/16/2020

Have you ever made homemade pickles? This recipe for Bread and Butter Pickles comes from my great-grandmother’s farm kitchen and has been passed down for generations. They are easy to make and you’ll be loving the flavor! Nothing says summer more to me than making a batch of these delicious pickles! We grow our own pickling cucumbers, but you can certainly buy some at a local farm stand or farmer’s market.

It is said that these delicious pickles got their name because during the Great Depression, they were an inexpensive staple in households. People used them in sandwiches of Bread and Butter because that’s what they could afford. Many things during that time were rationed too, so they made many things from scratch.

Start by washing your canning jars..

Then you will need
4 pounds 4- to 6-inch cucumbers, cut into 1/4-inch slices
1 large sweet onions, thinly sliced
½ cup canning salt
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoons mustard seed
2 teaspoons turmeric
2 teaspoons celery seed
1 teaspoon pickling spice
1 teaspoon peppercorns
3 cups vinegar I use half regular and cider vinegar
4 Ball® or Kerr® Pint (16 oz) Jars with lids and bands

Combine cucumber and onion slices in a large bowl, layering with salt: cover with ice cubes. Let stand 11/2 hours. Drain; rinse; drain again.
Combine remaining ingredients in a large saucepot; bring to a boil. Add drained cucumbers and onions and return to a boil. Pack hot pickles and liquid into hot jars, 1/2-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Wipe rims, Adjust two-piece caps.
Process 10 minutes in a boiling-water canner, adjusting for altitude. Wait 3 weeks to open your first jar to get the full taste of your bounty.

08/30/2019

Next time you are feeling down... we say try some cake!

05/29/2019

Okay so my neighbors have been complaining that my dogs have been barking non-stop. I hate the electric zapping bark collars, so I went to Petco and purchased a humane citronella collar. When a dog barks, it shoots a blast of citronella under their nose and apparently, they don't like it.
This morning I was getting the collar ready and filled it with the citronella liquid. And that's where my morning should have ended. But no, it's me, and I begin to become curious as to “how” the collars actually work.
So, I'm standing by my back door "barking" at my dog's collar. Nothing happens. I make sure it's turned on, check the fill level, and go through the "getting started" check list one more time. Again, I bark. Nothing happens. Now I'm not quite sure, why I had this next thought, but I did...I put the collar on. I seriously extended the band and fit the growl box against my throat and barked. Apparently, the collar only works if it feels vibrations, because I immediately received a blast of citronella to the face.
I began coughing, which only caused the collar to continue squirting bug spray over and over into my nasal cavity. I'm now on my hands and knees in my back yard, trying to breathe, and to make matters worse, the damn dog is barking. So, between coughing and yelling at him to shut up, I've emptied over a dozen blasts of citronella to my face. During all of this ruckus, I'm trying to undo the clasp of the collar, which has somehow managed to weld shut during this whole fiasco.🤬😡
I finally get the collar off and threw, yes, I threw that inhumane thing across the yard, and lay in the grass sucking in the cool morning air. In the middle of thinking this is probably the dumbest thing I've done in a while, I hear laughter. MY NEIGHBOR SAW THE WHOLE THING! 🤦‍♀️😱😰He was laughing so hard he couldn't breathe. Between gasps, he tells me, "I was gonna come help, but every time I started to climb over the fence, you'd set it off again and then I would start laughing and couldn't make it." So now, not only are my eyes red, but my face and ears are too. After checking to make sure I was ok, we parted ways and I went in to shower so I wouldn't smell like ode de' Tiki Torch.
Lesson learned: next time (yes, there will always be a next time with me) make sure that:
1. Don't fill the collar before trying to set it off. 🤦‍♀️🤷‍♀️
2. Remember your neighbor is not a good source of help in a comedy crisis situation.😊
On the plus side, I won't have a mosquito problem for a few days!
Even though this does sound like something I'd do, I hate to break the news that it's a copied story that gave me a good laugh so feel free to do the same.😛

Thought everyone could use a great laugh today! Ok so this is not food related but I thought it would make you smile.

02/13/2019

My favorite version of churros is a tie between the traditional Spanish churros sold at a nearby restaurant and the notoriously addictive ones that I was told was sold at Disneyland. If these are Disney's then the chewiness and body of Disney’s churros is the stuff of dreams; while the crunchy, textured outer crust of the Spanish churro makes my mouth water. So, which recipe do I use? One with eggs? Butter? Oil? Milk? There were so many recipes for churros that I didn’t know where to begin. Ultimately, I decided to forge my own recipe by process of elimination – which ingredients were a constant? Which ingredients were okay to swap out? And which ingredients would be needed to keep the recipe simple, yet still yield the results I was looking for?
After making 6 or 7 different batches, I’m happy with (and a little fatter because of) the recipe I created. The best news for you (other than the fact that you don’t have to endure my trials and errors) is that the best-tasting churro was also the easiest to make. The ingredients are so basic that they’re a high chance you probably already have them lying around your kitchen. The methods are simple and require no special tools to save one (that can be found for $0.99 at your local craft store). Churros are not only easy to make but are also easy on the wallet. Yay!

1 cup water
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
½ tsp. salt
1 cup flour
½ cup sugar
1 tbsp. cinnamon
1-quart vegetable oil (for frying, not pictured)
At this point, you’re thinking, “No way! Magic like that is not supposed to be this cheap and simple.” Oh, but it is!

Pour 1 cup of water into a saute pan, preferably one with a thicker bottom. Set the heat to medium and add your oil in.
When the water comes to a rolling boil, turn off the heat and add the flour and salt. Stir carefully; the flour will stick to the sides and the bottom quickly.

Your ball of dough will form after stirring for a minute or two. Keep stirring and gathering the parts of dough sticking to the pot into the ball until the dough becomes a little less sticky and slightly glossy with no lumps. Set the pot aside so that the dough can cool before you handle it.
Before we jump to the next step, heat your frying oil on medium (350ºF), in either a large pot or a frying pan with raised sides. If you use a frying pan like I chose to, make sure the oil is at least an inch deep — you need to be able to mostly submerge your churro for even cooking and great texture.

While the dough is cooling and the oil is heating up, it’s time to create our bag, take a pastry bag and add large star tip. Scrape your now-cool dough as best as you can from the pot and into your pastry bag. The best way to do this is to hold the bag as if it were an ice cream cone, then to add the dough with a spoon like you’re scooping ice cream into a cone.

Now it’s frying time! Next, place the tip of the pastry bag above your oil (I hover my bag a few inches above the frying pan). Start squeezing the dough from the top of where you initially twisted the bag – the most bulbous part of the bag at this point – and the dough will drop directly into the oil. Draw a straight line toward you while applying the same amount of pressure on the bag until your dough is 6-8 inches long. Then, use your finger or a knife to separate the stick of dough from your piping bag; this will drop the end of the dough into the oil as well. The oil should mostly cover your churros; if not, make sure to flip them over as you see the ridges start to brown.
I fried three at a time, but feel free to handle even more at once if you prefer!
Once your churros are golden-brown (~ 1 minute), use a pair of tongs or chopsticks to carefully remove the churros from the oil and onto a plate lined with paper towels.
Pour the 1/2 cup of sugar and 1 Tbsp. cinnamon onto a plate (I used a baking pan with raised sides) and mix! Using chopsticks or tongs, roll the churro from side to side to coat it in cinnamon sugar. Make sure to get sugar in all of the nice ridges, nooks, and crannies.

Now eat.. Yummy dip them in melted chocolate...😋😋😋😋

02/10/2019

Can someone tell Mother nature to make up her mind. In the last 2 weeks we have snowed, had rain and thunder, we have taken off our winter coats for a 2 day heat over and then had frozen rain and freeze now back to snow. My poor chickens don't know what is going on they are scratching their butts and leaving me no eggs.

Since today is a stay inside day and we are all broke around here, I am on the baking craze. First off the bread we need for the kids lunches and of course Chocolate chip cookies for the snack. I decided to make up a garlic cheese knot for dinner for a treat. This my friends is my own created version of what I think will be good. I went threw the internet and looked around but everything had canned biscuits, or canned pizza dough and none of that was working.

Taking my old pizza crust recipe and tweaking it a bit and I will let you know how this works. I know most people test and show only what works, but I'm pretty sure anything that has pizza crust, parmesan and garlic and mozzarella will be good. So as my dough poofs here it is in the raw version. I will let you know how it works but I think it will come out fine. I'm also renaming it.

Garlic Kiss Twists

Pizza dough

4 Cups bread flour
1&1/2 teaspoons salt
1 Tablespoon of olive oil
1/4 cup warm water
1 teaspoon sugar
1 & 1/4 cold water
1 pouch yeast or 2&1/2 teaspoons
1 teaspoon garlic powder ** only for this recipe

You need a food processer for this

1- pour flour into processer pulse salt in and oil (garlic powder)
2- pour sugar, hot water into bowl and add yeast let proof.
3- measure out cold water.
4- add yeast to flour and pulse then pour water in slowly and keep pulsing till it forms a ball. It will trust me.
5- Pour out and do the old fashion kneading thing. Little flour on the board and knead.
6- grease bowl cover with a towel and let it rise till double. Punch down and do it again.

KNOTS

1 Stick salted butter
2-3 Garlic cloves minced small.
parmesan cheese (what you have on hand )
Mozzarella Cheese sticks. cut into 4
Italian seasoning ( if you want)

1-Take your dough and make 18-24 equal pieces.
2-Melt butter with garlic and let it sit 5 minuets to soften garlic.
3- roll each dough ball into fat short log and in the middle put the piece of cheese cover and tie the knot on top to keep it cheese covered. If you want to shorten this just leave 18 balls and put the cheese in the middle of the ball...
4- Brush on garlic butter leaving some garlic on the roll. sprinkle with herbs and parmesan.

Bake 400 degrees till brown and 195 degrees inside dough about 15-25 min.

Bake/ Love/ Enjoy

01/29/2019

OK if I have to be stranded at home with snow that covers my chickens and below zero zooming in the near future I need to find an outlet to calm my grandma nerves that cant take another verse of baby shark.

For those that don't know what it is, your lucky. Its a child's song that has a way of getting stuck in your head and you sing it all day long. In your head of course, In my kids time it was Barney now I have visions of baby sharks swimming in my head. I dare you to listen to it and see if you to will be singing it all day long also

But on to my pie, the word possum for a pie, curiosity was immediately piqued by the name possum pie. As soon as I saw this on a list of popular recipes I was simultaneously repulsed and intrigued.
Did it really have possum in it? Do people really eat roadkill in the South? Truthfully, I was both relieved and a little disappointed to find out that possum pie is NOT a meat pie made with actual possum after all, but rather a delicious dessert recipe with a pecan shortbread crust and layers of cream cheese, chocolate pudding, and sweetened whipped cream.

Possum pie
Ingredients

Pecan Shortbread Crust

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup pecans, chopped
Cream Cheese Layer
6 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons heavy cream

Pudding Layer

1 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder
3 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Pinch of salt
3 egg yolks
2 cups whole milk
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla

Whipped Cream Topping

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
grated chocolate

Instructions
Crust
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Melt the butter, then combine the butter, flour, brown sugar and pecans by stirring with a fork.
Bake for about 15-20 minutes, just until the crust begins to brown around the edges. Remove from oven and cool completely.
Cream Cheese Filling

In a medium bowl, mix the cream cheese, powdered sugar, and heavy cream using a hand mixer until smooth. Spread over bottom of the cooled pecan pie crust.
Chocolate Layer

Combine the sugar, cocoa powder, cornstarch, flour, and salt in a medium saucepan and whisk well.
In a separate bowl, combine the egg yolks and milk and whisk well, then add to the sugar and cocoa powder mixture in the sauce pan, whisking to combine.
Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly until pudding begins to thicken and bubble, about 7-10 minutes. Remove from the heat and add the butter and vanilla, stirring just until the butter is melted and combined. Transfer the chocolate pudding to a shallow bowl and cover with a plastic wrap directly on the surface of the pudding to prevent a skin from forming, then refrigerate for 30 minutes to help the filling cool down.
When the filling has mostly cooled down, remove the plastic wrap and stir, then spread over the cream cheese layer. Cover the pie with plastic wrap, then refrigerate for 4 hours until set.
Whipped Cream Topping

Beat the heavy cream with the powdered sugar and vanilla using a hand mixer until whipped cream forms and holds it's shape when betters are removed. Spread the whipped cream over the top of the chocolate pudding layer and sprinkle with chocolate shavings.😋😋

Bake - Love - Enjoy

01/28/2019