food

4 Moms: Cooking with leftovers {linky}

Current giveaway: Grandpa Jake's Campfire Cooker

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May 3, 2012 By kimc

4moms35kids 4 Moms: Cooking with leftovers {linky}
This week, the 4 of us are talking about cooking with leftovers. Alternatively, some of might be confessing that our cooking with leftovers mostly amounts to cooking with eggs laid by chickens who enjoy our leftovers. Would that count? I’m speaking hypothetically, of course, but you might also like to know that feeding forgotten leftovers to the chickens is a great way to soothe the conscience of a frugal housewife who feels like a failure when she fails to use leftovers in time.

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But I always use my leftovers. And I never exaggerate. And my kids always obey. Shall I go on?

Using leftovers is a lot like shopping from your pantry. One of the biggest hurdles to overcome is simply remembering to use what’s there. Do that by:

Exploring before you shop so you can plan some meals around what you already have in the fridge, not just the pantry.
Exploring before you make lunch, and serve a smorgasbord of leftovers.
Exploring before you proceed with tonight’s dinner plan, and be flexible if you find something you can or should use.

Some leftovers are easier to use than others. Rice can become a delicious rice pudding for dessert tonight or breakfast tomorrow. If you are Southern, your leftover breakfast grits can be sliced and fried in butter. Top with butter, salt and pepper for a savory side dish with supper, or top with butter and syrup for tomorrow’s breakfast. If you are not Southern, you probably wouldn’t know a grit if it bit you – or else you put sugar in your grits, bless your heart. That’s ok. Some of my kids put sugar in their grits, too. We just call them Yankee grits.

Cooked grains like rice, oatmeal, and grits can be added to breads: muffins, pancakes, banana bread, even yeast breads. Kitchen Scrap Cookies are fun and versatile. You can google recipes using cooked grains, or you can experiment on your children. Either way works. If you experiment, start with a proven recipe and add just a cup of cooked grains. If that works well, try adding more next time. Expect the results to be denser and more moist than usual.

When it comes to non-breakfast foods, casseroles are the standard answer. That may sound boring, but the possibilities are limitless! Frugal Hacks had a 5 part series on creating casseroles that appeal to your family and use what you have on hand. Each includes one or more recipes to get you started:

Leftover meats can also be chopped and seasoned for use in Mexican or Italian recipes like tacos, chimichangas, lasagne, spaghetti, alfredo, etc. Cooked veggies are a no-brainer in soups, stews, fried rice, and many other recipes that call for vegetables in any form.

I think a key is to consider the leftover as an ingredient: if you have cooked broccoli, look for recipes that call for broccoli in any form. There’s a good chance that you can tweak the recipe slightly and use what you have on hand.

Allrecipes is my favorite source for recipes. One feature that I love and use often is the ingredient search. Just fill in the ingredients you want to include and hit the search button. This is a great way to use up several leftovers at once or find new combinations for what you have on hand.

Here’s what the other 3 moms say:

Connie at Smockity Frocks
Headmistress @ The Common Room
Kimberly @ Raising Olives

What about you? How do you use up your leftovers? Link up with us!

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Easy Homemade Pizza Sauce

Current giveaway: Grandpa Jake's Campfire Cooker

April 25, 2012 By kimc

I won’t try to convince you that my recipe is super-healthy, but it’s much better for you than what you buy in a can and it’s far cheaper. We like ours to taste a lot like prepared spaghetti sauce: a little tart and tangy, a tiny bit spicy, but with no veggies other than tomatoes. If you like yours different, it’s easy to tweak the flavors.

Since I cook for 12, I like to make this in bulk. I start with a huge can of tomato paste from Costco (less than $4) and scoop it equally into 12 small (pint) ziplock bags. Then I add the seasonings to each bag, seal and freeze. No need to mix them up, since that will happen when we use them. I don’t add water until I’m ready to use the sauce, so it’s very compact in the freezer. It’s a quick and easy process that the little ones to love to help with – if I’m up for the mess!

Easy Homemade Pizza Sauce

makes about 20 oz, enough for 4-6 large saucy pizzas or more if you’re stingy

6-8 oz. tomato paste
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. basil
1/4 tsp. granulated garlic (better yet, use fresh: as much as you dare!)
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. sugar
1 Tbs. vinegar

Combine in a small saucepan. If you’re in a hurry, add 1 1/2 cups of water and heat to a simmer. Use immediately.

If you have a little extra time to let it simmer, the flavors will blend and mellow and you’ll have a happier pizza. If this is the case, add an extra cup of water. Let simmer until reduced and thickened to desired consistency.

See? I told you it was easy.

Filed Under: food 10 Comments

Black bean brownies for morning sickness

Current giveaway: Grandpa Jake's Campfire Cooker

March 13, 2012 By kimc

It sounds weird, and it took me a while to get up the courage to try. But you know what? They’re really good. No hint of bean flavor with unsalted homecooked beans. Just a rich chocolatey brownie – and if you’ve had them before, mine are probably more chocolate-y because I tweaked the recipe to my own liking. Mostly, that means more chocolate-y goodness.

The texture is a little different from normal brownies, probably because there’s no gluten to bind them. Some of the kids think it’s a good difference, some don’t, most don’t even notice. A bit on the crumbly side if you overcook or let them dry them out, but there’s an easy solution: eat faster.

For a better texture, add 1/3 cup of flour, 2 more tablespoons of oil/butter and an extra egg. They’re not gluten free if you do this, but the flavor and texture are almost indistinguishable from traditional brownies. If you’re extremely sensitive to texture and still think you can tell the difference, or if you’re just looking for an excuse to add chocolate chips, do it. You won’t be sorry.

If you suffer from morning sickness like I do, you might find that eating a few bites of beans every time nausea threatens is a magical cure for morning sickness. If so, you really should keep some of these brownies on hand, because you’re going to get very tired of burritos 19 times/day.

Come on. Don’t be a chicken. Just try them. You know you want to.

Pregnancy Brownies (Gluten Free Black Bean Brownies)

makes 8 2×4 brownies, 223 calories, 10 grams fat, 9 grams protein, 5 grams fiber. Yes, those are really big brownies. You might feel better about it if you cut them in 2×2 squares and eat 2.

1/2 cup cocoa
2 tbs butter or oil
3 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup black beans (no salt), thoroughly drained and rinsed
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp instant coffee
1/2 cup walnuts

Combine all ingredients except walnuts in blender or food processor until smooth. Add walnuts and process briefly. Spread in greased 8×8 pan or similar size (I use a 9″ pie pan or 8″ round cake pan). Bake 25-30 minutes at 350, just until done. Cool thoroughly before cutting.

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4 Moms serve dinner for 50 cents/person {linky}

Current giveaway: Grandpa Jake's Campfire Cooker

March 8, 2012 By kimc

4moms35kids 4 Moms serve dinner for 50 cents/person {linky} You’ve heard of $5 dinners, but they usually feed 4 or maybe 6 people. Today, the 4 Moms are going to try to do better. Really? Is it possible to make dinner for $.50/person?

In an attempt to reduce our grocery expenses without sacrificing healthful eating, our family has learned to eat many meatless dinners. This doesn’t mean we skimp on protein, though. We are hearty eaters, and we love our protein!

Beans and homemade bread are one answer that is both obvious and hearty. Two pounds of dry pinto beans from WalMart cost about $1.30 – call it $2 to allow for generous seasoning. A pot of beans can be surprisingly varied if you learn to season them differently. Meat is nice but not always necessary. $1.50 would be enough to make 2 loaves of sweet rich Challah bread or a big pan of cornbread and a little butter. That leaves us $2.50 for some fresh veggies – right now, that would buy 2 lbs. of carrots, 1 lb. of roma tomatoes, and 2 cucumbers.

Beans and cornbread together provide a substantial amount of complete protein, but not everyone wants to eat a pot of beans every day and maybe your family doesn’t like beans as much as we do. Surely we can be a little more creative.

How about pizza? We can’t have all the toppings we want, but let’s see what we can do with our budget.

Let’s make enough dough for 4 large pizzas. Sometimes I make more because I like to plan for leftovers, but 4 is plenty even when we’re famished and today we’re on a budget. Salt is cheap, and since I get flour (8 cups) and yeast (2 Tbs) from Costco and I don’t always use oil in my pizza dough, that’s just 60 cents so far. Let’s allow some oil for the pans, though, to make the crust nice and crisp: 50 cents will provide 2 Tbs. of butter or olive oil for each pan.

Easy Frugal Pizza Crust

makes 4 large pizzas

3 cups warm water
2 Tbs. yeast ($.08)
2 Tbs. salt
~8 cups flour

Combine water, yeast, salt and 2 cups of flour. Let sit 10 minutes, until bubbly and active. Stir and knead additional flour to make a firm dough. Knead by hand or in machine until smooth and only slightly sticky.

Let rest 10 minutes or up to 24 hours. Divide into 4 parts and pat onto large greased pizza pans or cookie sheets. Top and bake immediately, or prebake 10 minutes at 300 to finish later.

Add pizza sauce made from a gallon can of tomato paste (we season and freeze 1 cup portions, then add water and simmer until we’re ready to use it) for 50 cents (19 cents is the paste; the rest is the cost of spices).

We’ll divide 6 cups of grated mozzarella ($3.75 from Costco) between 3 of the pizzas, and make the 4th into breadsticks to dip in the extra sauce. Many people enjoy cheese pizza so let’s leave one plain. We still have 65 cents for additional toppings – 2/3 lb. of turkey sausage can be divided between 2 pizzas, or we can afford 1/2 diced onion, 1/2 bell pepper and a few sliced mushrooms.

Breakfast for dinner can be fun and frugal. We occasionally have pancakes and eggs when we find the dinner hour upon us without a plan.

Pancakes to feed a dozen

makes 50-4″ pancakes for $2.35

5 cups flour ($.35)
2 tsp. baking soda
3 tsp. salt
5 cups soured milk – 2 Tbs vinegar plus milk to make 5 cups ($1)
5 eggs ($.50)
1/2 cup oil or melted butter ($.50)

Combine dry ingredients. Add milk, eggs and butter, then mix just until smooth. Drop onto hot lightly greased griddle and cook until bubbles appear. Flip and cook until done.

We like to top our pancakes with butter ($.50) and a little sprinkle of brown sugar rather than syrup that’s full of HFCS.

Add 2 dozen eggs ($2.50), fried or scrambled, and you have a fun & filling dinner with plenty of protein for less than $6. There are no veggies this time, but maybe you had fruit with breakfast and a big salad for lunch. :)

More Dinners for less than $.50/serving:

Bean & cheese burritos. Cook your beans from scratch, but buy tortillas if you have an inexpensive source. We pay $1/20. Serve with diced tomatoes, shredded lettuce, cheese, and salsa.

Spaghetti, salad and fresh bread. Make your own sauce from that gallon can of tomato paste, and skip the meat if you can live without it. Set out 1/2 lb. of grated mozzarella to sprinkle on top.

Taco salad. Serve homemade seasoned black beans instead of meat, along with lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, crushed tortilla chips, salsa, and a little sour cream if we have it.

The other moms are talking about it today, too.

Smockity Frocks

Common Room

Raising Olives

How does your budget compare? How can you or how would you feed your family dinner for 50 cents/person?

Link up with us, and please remember to play by the linky rules:

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Easy Homemade Enchilada Sauce

Current giveaway: Grandpa Jake's Campfire Cooker

February 28, 2012 By kimc

We love Tex-mex, and I especially love enchiladas. They’re a great way to stretch meat and nobody will even think of complaining. If your family enjoys beans, you can even skip the meat altogether. Some call those Wet Burritos, but I think Bean & Cheese Enchiladas sounds much more appetizing.

To make a good enchilada, you need a good sauce and it’s not hard at all to make it from scratch. You can even make it a day or two ahead of time to make enchiladas a fairly quick & easy dinner.

The stuff that comes from a can will do the job, but once your family tastes your homemade sauce you’ll never get away with the canned variety again. Don’t try this recipe unless you’re willing to give up the canned option. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. By the way, does anyone want a dozen cans of store-bought enchilada sauce?

Easy Enchilada Sauce

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup flour
2 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. onion powder
1/2 tsp. black pepper
4 cups broth or bouillon
1 tsp. salt (omit if using bouillon or well-salted broth)
8 oz. tomato sauce

In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Stir in flour to make a smooth paste. Add spices and continue to stir until bubbly.

Whisk in broth and bring to a boil. Cook and stir 1 minute, until thickened. Stir in tomato sauce.

Makes 5-6 cups, enough for (2) 9×13 pans of enchiladas.

Super-flavor tips:

For extra flavor, skim and save fat when making chicken broth and use a little [fat] in place of part of the butter.

Try sauteing 1/2 diced fresh onion and 4 cloves minced garlic in the butter instead of using the onion and garlic powder.

Filed Under: food 22 Comments

4 Moms eat too many sweets {dessert linky}

Current giveaway: Grandpa Jake's Campfire Cooker

February 9, 2012 By kimc

4moms35kids 4 Moms eat too many sweets {dessert linky} OK, that’s not exactly the topic we agreed on. We were going to talk about desserts. If you must know, I’m projecting. I eat too many sweets. I like to skip the bread and rice and potatoes and all those evil empty carbs not so I can have a healthy diet, but so I can eat more dessert. There. The truth is out.

I occasionally serve a healthy dessert, but to be quite honest they just don’t go over well. I try to serve a healthy and well-rounded diet, but when the healthy invades the desserts, worlds collide and bad things happen. I don’t want to be responsible for a tear in the time-space continuum.

When it comes to desserts, we don’t serve them often but we have a few favorites that we always come back to. I asked the kids if this was because we were boring or because those particular treats were so amazing, and was relieved to hear them answer correctly. Yes, we love our Chocolate Peanut Butter No-bake cookies, toffee candy, brownies, and wacky cake. We also love chocolate chip cookie dough, homemade, with or without the chocolate chips.

Since I have already shared the first 2 recipes, today I’ll share my own personal brownie recipe and my grandma’s Depression era Wacky Cake.

Moist Fudgy Brownies from scratch

3 eggs
1/2 cup melted butter
1/2 cup cocoa
2 cups sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup flour
1 tsp. salt
1 cup chopped walnuts, opt.

Combine eggs, butter, cocoa, sugar and vanilla. Stir until combined. Add flour, salt and walnuts and stir again.

Bake in a buttered 9×13 for 25-30 minutes at 350, just until done in the center. Serve warm.

Grandma’s Wacky Cake (also called Crazy Cake)

A rich, delicious Depression era recipe that contains no eggs, milk or butter. I think everyone’s grandma had a recipe like this.

3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 tsp. baking soda
6 Tbs. cocoa
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup oil
2 cups water
2 Tbs. vinegar
2 tsp. vanilla

In an ungreased 9×13 pan, combine dry ingredients. Mix with a fork until thoroughly combined. Be sure to get the corners!

Add water, vinegar and vanilla all at once. Mix thoroughly again.

Bake 35 minutes at 350 or just until cake tests done. Don’t ice it, because the soft moist top is the best part! To make it special, dust with powdered sugar.

The other moms are offering serving up sweets too:

Got desserts of your own to share? Share in the comments or link up with us!

Please remember to follow the linky rules:

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Nuthin’ here. I admit it. I am a deadbeat. Hit me with a rotten tomato.

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4 Moms: snacks and appetizers for a crowd {linky}

Current giveaway: Grandpa Jake's Campfire Cooker

January 12, 2012 By kimc

4moms35kids 4 Moms: snacks and appetizers for a crowd {linky}

Snacks are a Sunday evening tradition for us. After a big weekly fellowship meal at church, we just aren’t in the mood for a formal dinner. We would rather share snacks and appetizers, and if we do it right we find that we have a party even when it’s just the 12 of us!

A big part of what makes it a party rather than an evening snack is variety. Instead of making enough of one dish to fill up 12 bellies, we like to create a variety of appetizers. This may be a little more work, but work can be fun and the results are more appealing. It also makes it easier to feed a crowd when you don’t feel the need to have/find enough ____ to feed everyone.

Just picture it: one bowl of popcorn and a movie = family night. Sausage balls, bacon wrapped jalapenos, apples with dip, cheese & cracker platter, veggie tray = Party!

We love to work together in the kitchen as a family, with knives flashing, food flying, and music playing. If we make a mess, we have enough hands to clean it up.

I already shared our recipe for sausage balls. Here are some of our other favorites:

Bacon Wrapped Jalapenos

Relax, and don’t let the jalapenos scare you. With seeds removed, they’re just not that hot.

12 small or medium sized jalapenos
6 slices bacon
6 oz. cream cheese

Carefully slice jalapenos in half lengthwise. Cut out center with seeds and webbing. Wear gloves if you have very sensitive skin. Use a gentle touch if you don’t like too much heat – it’s on and around the seeds, so the more they touch the walls of the jalapeno the hotter your end product will be. If you like a little heat, let the 5yo do this job, but warn him not to pick his nose, rub his eyes, or put his fingers in his mouth afterward. Do you think it sounds mean to even let a 5yo touch a jalapeno? Relax. I’m probably just kidding.

Now that your jalapenos are prepared, use a teaspoon to load them with cream cheese.

Here’s the good part. Wrap each jalapeno with half a slice of bacon and secure with a toothpick. Bacon makes everything better, right? Even chocolate, but especially jalapenos.

Place on a cookie sheet with sides or a baking pan. Don’t use a pizza pan or cookie sheet without sides, because the bacon grease will drip, filling your house with smoke and setting off your fire alarm. Then you’ll have to open the doors and windows even though it smells really good inside and it’s 38 degrees outside, and your smoke alarm will keep going off anyway while your family alternately laughs at you and complains about their burning eyes.

So…bake on something with sides for 30-40 minute at 400. When the bacon is done to your liking, they’re ready. Enjoy, and try to share.

Cream Cheese Fruit Dip

Perfect with apples, or eat with a spoon when nobody is looking. If they catch you, hand them a spoon and swear them to secrecy.

8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/4 to 1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Stir and enjoy. You won’t believe 3 simple ingredients can taste this good.

What is your favorite snack or appetizer recipe? How do you like to feed a crowd – one mega recipe or several smaller ones?
Link up with your own post!

You must link to a specific relevant post on your blog.
Your post must include a link to at least one of the 4 Moms blogs.
The post you link to must be completely family friendly.

See what the other moms are cookin’ up:

Smockity Frocks knows her way around a bowl of popcorn.
Common Room knows how to do nachos the right way – and I’m all for nachos!
Raising Olives had me at homemade hot wings.

Upcoming topics for 4 Moms:

January 19 - How to organize, shop for and maintain ALL THAT CLOTHING {linky}
January 26 - Q&A
February 2 - Scriptures and/or stories we rely on for comfort/encouragement as a homeschooling family

Recent topics:

December 15 - 4 Moms: Gift shopping for a crowd
December 8 - 4 Moms’ favorite holiday recipes {linky}
December 1 - 4 Moms: preparing children to share holidays with unbelieving family
November 24 - 4 Moms: A roundup of thankful posts from the past

About 4 Moms, including a complete list of all past topics

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4 Moms’ favorite holiday recipes {linky}

Current giveaway: Grandpa Jake's Campfire Cooker

December 8, 2011 By kimc

4moms35kids 4 Moms favorite holiday recipes {linky}

For reasons that make perfect sense to me, many holiday traditions center largely around food. What are your favorite food-related holiday traditions?

This week we’re sharing some of our favorite holiday recipes.

One of my favorites is also one of the easiest. Coincidence? Your taste testers will never know.

Poor Man’s Toffee

makes 50 pieces – great for gifts

1 1/4 cups butter, divided
35-40 saltine-style crackers
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 cup chocolate chips
3/4 cups finely chopped walnuts

Pay attention. This happens quickly:

Melt 1/4 cup butter; pour into foil-lined jelly roll pan.
Arrange crackers over butter, evenly spaced.
Melt remaining butter; add sugar and boil 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Remove from heat and add condensed milk. Spread over crackers.
Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes, until bubbly and slightly darkened.
Remove from oven, cool 1 minute, and sprinkle with chocolate chips. Let stand 5 minutes (until chocolate is soft and melty) and spread.
Sprinkle with nuts; press lightly into chocolate.
Cool; refrigerate until chocolate is set.
Remove foil and cut candy.

Yum! Rich, delicious and very impressive, and much faster and easier than it sounds. No one can ever guess the saltine cracker base – it tastes a lot like Almond Roca.

************************************************

Cheater’s Fudge

So easy you’ll never go back.

12 oz. bag of chocolate chips
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp. vanilla
optional additions: walnuts, marshmallows, etc.

Just combine ingredients in a medium saucepan and stir over medium-low heat until melted and combined. Pour into buttered or wax-paper lined 8×8 pan, chill, and cut into small squares.

************************************************

Effortless Eggnog

I love eggnog and have no qualms about the raw eggs in traditional recipes, especially since most of our eggs come from our own hens. However, this recipe is super easy, delicious, and satisfies those who are concerned about raw eggs.

1/2 gallon milk, divided
1 package instant French vanilla pudding mix
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg

In a large bowl, whisk 3/4 cup milk and pudding mix until smooth. Whisk in the sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg. Stir in remaining milk. Refrigerate until serving.

************************************************

Chai Tea Mix

A nice variation on cocoa for cold winter mornings.

1 cup powdered milk
1 cup dry creamer
1 cup vanilla flavored dry creamer
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups unsweetened tea mix
2 tsp. ginger
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. cloves
1 tsp. cardamom (or allspice)
opt. 1 Tbs. vanilla pudding mix

Stir to combine all ingredients. Use 3 Tbs. in 8 oz. of boiling water.

Options:

For a prettier mix, you can run it through the blender a cup at a time.
Allspice is easier to find and can be substituted for cardamom to make a very nice spiced tea, but it’s *not* the same. Cardamom has a very distinctive taste and aroma, even to our uncultured tongues. We found cardamom in bulk for a great price in the local health food store.
The vanilla pudding mix is optional but does help the mix to dissolve better.

What are your favorite holiday recipes? Answer in the comments or link up with your own post.

Please remember the linky rules:

You must link to a specific relevant post on your blog.
Your post must include a link to at least one of the 4 Moms.
The post to which you link must be completely family friendly.

Here’s what the rest of the 4 Moms are cooking up:

Upcoming topics for 4 Moms:

December 8 – Favorite holiday recipes {linky}
December 15 - Gift shopping for a crowd
December 22 – Q&A
December 29 - How to handle all those incoming gifts and gift givers

Recent topics:

December 1 - 4 Moms: preparing children to share holidays with unbelieving family
November 24 - 4 Moms: A roundup of thankful posts from the past
November 17 - 4 Moms: Vehicles for the large family
November 10 - 4 Moms: Large Family Food Storage

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Holiday snackage

Current giveaway: Grandpa Jake's Campfire Cooker

November 29, 2011 By kimc

A few weeks ago, I decided to make our Sundays more special by adding some flair to our evening snacks. Maybe I was influenced by the upcoming holidays. Who doesn’t spend November and December thinking about food?

When the kids were little, we used to have Sunday sundaes. Ice cream was our dinner every Sunday night during warm weather. It was a fun tradition, and I stayed free of ovarian guilt by offering bananas, nuts, and other nutritious toppings.

Now we’re all a bit older and we recognize that foods don’t have to be sweet to be delicious. We always have a big fellowship meal at church, so the evening meal doesn’t need to be heavy or formal. Snacks are what we do. We love sausage balls and I think we could happily eat them every week, but we want to experiment with new and different foods, and more interesting ways to present the usual snacks. My goal is to use presentation and novelty to make our snacks more exciting without breaking the budget. I think a modest splurge here and there with a side of creativity and a willingness to work can make a fancy feast that is still relatively frugal.

Old fashioned popcorn made on the stove top and drizzled with butter was fun and yummy, but I wanted to step it up a little.

Three Sundays ago I tried my hand at bruschetta, and it was a big hit. It’s cheap, easy, and delicious, and it looks very pretty on a big white platter. I made some of Smockity’s artisan style bread because I already had the dough in my fridge. I shaped it like baguettes, then topped it with a combination of fresh tomatoes and pesto. I don’t know just how authentic it is, but we topped some with sliced green olives (ugh!) and various cheeses. We also tried broiling some after adding the toppings.

The following week, we tried some baked brie in a homemade sourdough bread bowl with pear filling, but that was not a big hit. Nearly everyone decided they just didn’t care for the yeasty flavor of the brie. I bought it at Costco and used it very promptly, but I’m slightly suspicious that our Brie was past its prime. So many cheeses are stinky to begin with, it’s hard to tell a good stink from a bad stink when you’re not familiar with a particular variety of cheese. The fact that the remainder of the Brie wheel had pink and purple areas after just 7 days made me even more suspicious.

Last Sunday our church didn’t have the usual fellowship meal so our snacks at home were heartier than usual. We all worked together on a huge platter with 3 different types of sausage slices, smoked gouda, swiss (my favorite), pepper jack and sharp cheddar cheese, and 4 types of crackers. On the side we had baby dills, black olives, and bruschetta. There was wine and hot spiced apple cider to drink. It was glorious!

I think I’d like to try some sort of savory mini tarts – maybe little quiches since the big ones always go over well with the kids. Homemade, of course. And maybe we’ll serve up some shrimp cocktail. A $5 ring of shrimp will feed a big family when you point out to the children just how much shrimp resemble huge bugs. Just to reinforce the point, try to get into the habit of calling them Sea Cockroaches.

What fancy snacks have you tried? What’s on your list to try someday?

Filed Under: birthdays/holidays, food 7 Comments

Thanksgiving preparations

Current giveaway: Grandpa Jake's Campfire Cooker

November 23, 2011 By kimc

Tomorrow we join the extended family at my mom’s house – 13 of my 14 siblings will be there with their spouses and 16 children, plus 11 people from our own household (Deanna is in Tennessee with her other grandparents). Cooking will be simple since there are so many hands and households to share the labor.

There is so much to be thankful for, but right now my mind is mostly on the food for tomorrow. Part of me feels a twinge of guilt as though I were falling prey to our culture’s penchant for materialism, but another part of me is eager to disagree. Food is a wonderful and fitting sign of God’s provision, and it seems right that a day of thanks should have a heavy emphasis on food. Food is also a big part of how we commune with God during worship every Sunday, so why shouldn’t it be a holy part of this Thursday celebration as well?

And so we plan the day largely around what we’ll eat, thinking thankful thoughts with each bite and voicing those thoughts between bites.

Our group has decided to plan for leftovers, so there will be 2 large turkeys and 2 hams. Our family will be bringing one of the turkeys. We want to spend most of the day together, so I’ll brown my turkey at home in a very hot oven then transfer to my electric roaster so it can finish cooking in an out-of-the-way corner at Mom’s house while we visit tomorrow.

We’re also bringing homemade whole-berry cranberry sauce, which we discovered a few years ago. So easy and yummy, we’ll never go back to the gel-in-a-can. I love that the youngest cooks in our house can make it by themselves and know that they contributed to Thanksgiving dinner!

I would love to try The Pioneer Woman’s mashed potatoes, but my sister beat me to the potatoes this year. Maybe next year.

Mom is making plenty of pies, so I’m trying two desserts that are new to us this year: Tres Leches Cake, a traditional Mexican cake which I hear about all the time and finally tasted for the first time last month, and Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle, made with the pumpkin we canned last year. The photos of the trifle in the linked post are so beautiful I seriously contemplated stealing one (with a link and credit, of course), but my conscience won out. If mine turns out half as beautiful, I’ll be updating this post with a photo. (Scroll down to see photo added later)

Both cakes are cooling on my stovetop now, waiting for final assembly.

I guess they call it Tres Leches (3 milks) because it has a nicer assonance, but does anyone think quatro leches would be more accurate?

A little later today, we’ll head out for our church’s Thanksgiving Eve service. Not sure how we’ll end the evening, but it’s sure to be fun. Maybe you have a suggestion?

Do you have any Thanksgiving Eve traditions?

Update: my pumpkin gingerbread trifle is done. It was so fun and easy! My big dish couldn’t hold 3 complete layers so I put the extra in pint jars. This is perfect because now I can garnish the big one with candied pecans without risking the life of my nut-allergic sister. We’ll just hand her a jar.

Call me partial, but there’s something about my trifle that I think is far more beautiful than the photos in the original recipe. :)

Filed Under: birthdays/holidays, food 4 Comments

4 Moms: Large Family Food Storage

Current giveaway: Grandpa Jake's Campfire Cooker

November 10, 2011 By kimc

4moms35kids 4 Moms: Large Family Food Storage Happy Thursday, friends! This week the 4 Moms are talking about food storage for the large family. You may think a mom of so many girls wouldn’t know much about food storage, but let me tell you something: my girls eat like Scarlett O’Hara. Remember when her mammy made her fill up on a huge slab of ham and assorted sides so that the boys at the dance would think she had a dainty, ladylike appetite? Hah. My dainty girls leave the mothers of teenaged boys gaping in awe. We like to eat around here, and we’re not ashamed.

Not surprisingly, we go through a lot of food. We laugh at the wee little 5 lb. bags of flour sold at the grocery store. Really. There’s a kid reading over my shoulder right now, and she’s giggling. ”They’re so cute!” Those are a single use when you’re whipping up 4 or 5 large pizzas, especially if you make breadsticks to stretch the pizza.

One reason I love to shop at Costco is because the things I buy come in convenient sizes for a big family: 25 lbs. of flour or sugar, industrial sized spice containers, gallon cans of veggies and tomato paste, 10 lbs. of carrots…you get the idea. A bonus: with bigger packaging, we generate less trash. Many small families generate more trash than we do because of their propensity for individual servings of prepackaged foods.

The big question is how to store these truly family-sized packages. You don’t really want a flour canister that holds 25# sitting on your countertop, do you?

Here’s how we solve that little issue:

Since we cook so much from scratch, we don’t store mass quantities of a lot of different foods – we stick mainly to the staples, and fill in the gaps weekly or as needed. We have buckets for flour, sugar, brown sugar, beans, rice, and wheat. We used to have one for oats but found that they went bad too quickly. We had a bucket of coconut oil, but transferred it to quart jars. We also have one for cat litter, but we don’t cook with that. Did I have you worried?

I don’t use a canister at all for flour, since it would be emptied in a single use. That’s not my idea of convenience. Instead, I replaced the standard bucket lids with these babies. This is my idea of convenience!

They spin on and off with one hand. I love them! No fumbling for the bucket opener, or breaking nails trying to open the lid with brute strength. Everything is color coded, too: Blue for Beans, oRange for Rice, Red for bRown sugar…hey, work with me here. My bucket system is a work in progress.

I also try to keep my canned goods sensibly organized.

Sometimes. But sometimes a steal of a deal on 24 jars of organic marinara sauce messes up your system.

Sometimes there’s no good excuse at all.

I’m hoping to upgrade to this very soon:

And maybe you can, too. Watch for a giveaway!

What’s your food storage problem or solution? Link up with us! Remember, when you link up on one of our sites, your link will automatically be added to all 4 Moms posts this week!

Please remember the linky rules:

You must link to a specific relevant post on your blog.
Your post must include a link to at least one of the 4 Moms.
The post to which you link must be completely family friendly.

The other moms:

Smockity Frocks, who gets to go shopping in her well house.
Raising Olives, who does a good job of mixing food storage and home decor.
Common Room, who discusses 4 different types of food storage, providing some very useful tips along with her usual wry, self-deprecating sense of humor.

Upcoming topics for 4 Moms:

November 17 - Transporting the large family. What do you drive? Any tips?
November 24 – Q&A
December 1 - Teaching writing (composition)

Recent topics:

November 3 - 4 Moms: Getting started on homeschooling
October 27 - 4 Moms: Big family Q&A
October 20 - 4 Moms find time for projects
October 13 - 4 Moms: Keeping the food budget down as the prices go up {linky}

About 4 Moms, including a complete list of all past topics

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Filed Under: 4 moms 35 kids, big family, food 24 Comments

Sausage balls

Current giveaway: Grandpa Jake's Campfire Cooker

October 25, 2011 By kimc

Is it possible that I have never posted this recipe on our blog? I hang my head in shame.

This recipe is from an ancient church cookbook which hubby helped illustrate, along with the other children in that church where we met so long ago – only this cookbook was even before my time. My mother-in-law gave me a copy when we were married.

We love these sausage balls, though I have altered the recipe a little to suit us. The biggest change is that we make it from scratch instead of using Bisquick. The other change is that we usually triple it. We eat these for late-night movie snacks, holiday treats, and the occasional fun breakfast or lazy dinner. They’re as good as junk food in our house, but carry less guilt.

If you’re a little short on sausage or cheese, no problem. I promise they’ll still be delish!

Sausage Balls

2 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
1/2 small onion, diced (optional)
1 lb. uncooked breakfast sausage
milk to moisten

Stir together flour, salt, baking powder, cheese and onion. Use hands to work in sausage until evenly distributed – small lumps are fine. Stir in enough milk to moisten flour and make a dough that will hold together.

Shape into uniformly sized balls and place on greased cookie sheet. Bake 20-30 minutes at 400, until lightly browned. Break one open to check sausage for doneness.

Filed Under: food 10 Comments

4 Moms: Keeping the food budget down as the prices go up {linky}

Current giveaway: Grandpa Jake's Campfire Cooker

October 13, 2011 By kimc

4moms35kids 4 Moms: Keeping the food budget down as the prices go up {linky}
Today we’re talking about the food budget. That’s nothing new: I think everyone in the nation is talking about the rising price of food and what to do about it. Last year I shared 13 tips to manage the food budget.

There’s a common idea floating around that junk food is cheaper than nutritious food, so our diets must suffer when the budget is pinched. The writer of this article from the NY Times disagrees, and so do I.

As the price of food goes up, the way we eat is undeniably affected, but not necessarily for the worse. Instead, we have chosen to shift away from many of the prepared foods that lingered in our diet:

Canned beans are now cooked from dried.
Spaghetti sauce is made from tomato paste for a fraction of the cost.
Ditto for enchilada sauce and…
Pizza sauce.
I finally kicked the cream-of-mushroom habit and started making white sauce from scratch consistently.
Cold cereal is more rare than ever in our house, a treat reserved for especially rushed Sunday mornings.

As the budget shrinks, we cook even more from scratch. If we want convenience foods, we break out the pressure canner. We do pinto and black beans often, and have also tried pizza sauce, enchilada sauce, spaghetti sauce, pumpkin, apple pie filling, chili, jalapeno relish, and chicken bought on sale.

We also keep an eye on the cost of individual meals, shying away from those that cost more than others.

We eat far more beans, are learning to love lentils, and God has provided inexpensive sources of other healthful foods that weren’t even in our diet before now. We still eat a lot of produce, always sticking to what’s in season and what’s on sale. Red meat has become a rarity in our house, but that’s ok. Chicken goes on sale often, and we don’t need meat every day. Many meals are just as satisfying without the meat: bean & cheese enchiladas, taco salad with seasoned beans instead of taco meat, potato chowder and other hearty soups, fried rice with lots of eggs and veggies.

If beans and legumes aren’t enough, we get plenty of protein from homegrown eggs, from Costco cheese, and milk. We’re even dabbling in quinoa – not cheap, but also not bad as a source of protein, and lots of fun to cook and eat. Is it just me, or are the tiny spirals adorable?

The result of rising food prices? We are eating less prepared foods, less corn syrup, more fiber, and more protein.

How have rising food prices affected your household budget and diet? How have you responded? Answer in the comments or link up with your own post.

Please remember the linky rules:

You must link to a specific relevant post on your blog.
Your post must include a link to at least one of the 4 Moms.
The post to which you link must be completely family friendly.

The other 4 Moms are talking about it too.

Upcoming topics for 4 Moms:

October 20 - How do you find time for projects that need to be done, require focused attention and which the children can’t help with?
October 27 - Q&A (watch Facebook for an invitation to post your questions)

Recent topics:

September 15 - 4 Moms talk style (parenting style, that is)
September 22 - 4 Moms Q&A: the attack of the shoe monster, socialized homeschoolers and more
September 29 - 4 Moms talk about memorization {and 2 giveaways!}
October 6 - 4 Moms: keeping up with housework in the midst of homeschooling

About 4 Moms, including a complete list of all past topics

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Filed Under: 4 moms 35 kids, food 10 Comments

Menu challenge

Current giveaway: Grandpa Jake's Campfire Cooker

September 19, 2011 By kimc

OK, friends. I have some stuff in my pantry that just isn’t moving, and I want your help.

These are some items that I didn’t buy, so they don’t fit my typical meal plans. What would you do with them? Extra points for emphasis on low/slow carb meals, meatless/low cost, and for using more than one item below in the same meal.

vermicelli (2 small bags)
pasta stars (1 small bag)
crunchy Chinese noodles – We often do fried rice or stir fry over rice, so we could easily use these under or over. Would you do something more creative?
corn bread stuffing mix (3 largish bags)
french fried onions – I’ve only ever used these in Thanksgiving green bean casserole, but surely there are other options.
croutons – We’re big on salads, so we could do the obvious. But again, maybe you have a better idea?
oyster crackers – Soup weather is just around the corner, but do you have an idea that is appealing during hot weather?
stove-top stuffing (3 bags of the store brand)
quinoa (3 cups) – I tried this for the first time ever a couple of weeks ago and enjoyed it, but most went bad in the fridge waiting for inspiration on what to actually do with it.
taco shells – Tacos, of course. Maybe lentil or bean?

Filed Under: food 68 Comments

4 Moms make lunch for the menfolk {linky}

Current giveaway: Grandpa Jake's Campfire Cooker

September 8, 2011 By kimc

4moms35kids 4 Moms make lunch for the menfolk {linky} I forgot to warn you that this week’s 4 Moms post would be a linky, mainly because I forgot that this week’s 4 Moms post would be a linky. That means we’re on a level playing field, you and I. A little last-minute never hurt anyone, right? So read to the bottom really quick then start pounding out your post and link up.

But I don’t recommend the last-minute principle for packing hubby’s lunch if there is any way to avoid it.

MAN LUNCH 101

Tip #1: Plan and pack ahead of time

I’m a slow learner, but I have finally realized that morning good-bye kisses go better if hubby is carrying a lunch that was packed with love and care the previous night. He just doesn’t feel as loved when he is holding a lunch packed with bleary eyes and groggy mind 3 minutes before he walks out the door, and I can hardly blame him. Of course his lunches are better when I plan and pack ahead, and doesn’t every man measure your love for him in terms of how you feed him? I jest, but there’s more than a kernel of truth to the old saying, “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.”

Tip #2: Pack what he likes, not what you like

I have also learned that while I might enjoy fruit smoothies and raw almonds, and children might like PB&J, those are not Man Food. I don’t know how it works in your house, but my man needs meat. It’s not a meal if it doesn’t have meat. His definition of meat has recently expanded to include other animal-based proteins like eggs and large quantities of cheese, and he has learned to enjoy beans as a source of satisfying protein, but if I want him to feel loved and happy and satisfied his lunch has to contain meat on a regular basis.

I’ve resigned myself to the fact that this is how his brain works. It’s not how mine works, but I didn’t marry myself, and we’re not talking about my lunch. If we were, you would be hearing about smoothies and raw almonds.

Tip #3: Listen to him

I have also learned that just when I get into a lunch groove and I think I know exactly what he likes and how much of it for lunch, something changes. Lunches have been a struggle for me and it seems so easy once I finally get into a groove, so I sometimes find myself feeling resentful when I get knocked out of it.

Just when I’ve got the amounts down to a science, he wants less – or more. Just when I figure out how often to buy fresh produce, he decides he doesn’t want salad every day anymore. When I finally manage to plan ahead a whole week, he announces that he’s going to eat just fruit and veggies for lunch this week.

It can feel like a constant challenge, and I’m easily frustrated. I like things to be easy. I don’t want to have to think about it, work on it, or plan ahead. When this happens, I need to remind myself that this is just one way for me to serve my beloved who serves me and the household in so many ways. Sarah was commended for calling her husband lord (I Peter 3:6); who am I to complain when my lord requests a change?

Tip #4: Leftovers

This post has turned into the classic, “Do as I say and not as I do,” but here’s the nitty gritty I was planning to blog about. In simple terms, Perry generally wants and receives dinner leftovers for lunch. When I plan dinner, I cook extra and plan for leftovers because I know he’s not taking PB&J for tomorrow’s lunch. This much I have mastered. When I’m really thinking ahead, I set aside his portion before dinner is served so that we don’t accidentally eat up all the “good stuff” and leave him with nothing but a side dish of carbs.

If I do it right, this means I’m not scrambling in the morning, bleary-eyed and groggy-brained, trying to find a good lunch for a good man so we can enjoy a good kiss on his way out the door.

Tip #5: Relax and communicate.

My impulse is to fret about the budget and take it personally when he goes out to lunch and leaves the lunch I packed sitting in the breakroom, forlorn and forgotten. Maybe it means he was dissatisfied with the lunch I packed and I need to try harder, but maybe it means he wanted to eat out with a friend. Maybe it means crispy hot onion rings and a juicy burger sounded really good that day. I’m learning – slowly again – not to object when he makes a decision that I wouldn’t have made. I am his wife and helper, not his mother.

How do you feed your man?

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