mamma’s best

People.  Have you seen this genius-ness: tea towels with recipes printed on them?  Oh my word. Brilliant.

There are few things I love more than visiting the Mother Land and having my mom cook my favorite meals for the 2 or 3 nights I’m home.  I saw a recipe on Pinterest this weekend called “Mom’s Chicken Gloria” (or near there) and it made me think of all those meals I make but have not cracked the code. The meals that Mom does her way, the best way. The meals I wait all year for, really… that are best served around the table you grew up setting.

I nearly bought a plane ticket home to Texas immediately… Curt IS gone for the next 2 weeks! But I didn’t. This week, though? This week I will be making Mom’s Chicken Schnitzel, Mom’s Chicken and Dumplings, and Mom’s Cabbage and Noodles.

I’m headed somewhere with all of this.

Promise.

Here’s what I’m thinkin’:

In honor of the Mom’s and Momma’s and Ma’s and Gramma’s out there, let’s gather up their best and put it together in a sweet lil’ pdf file. It  will give all of us some new casseroles, and (selfishly) it will get me moving on my Mother’s Day gifting.

Wanna play?

Dig through those recipes. Email me or scan… I think scanning will work… up to 5 of your favorite family recipes. I want the ones you ask for when you go home for Sunday dinner, the ones you make when you’re homesick, the ones that have been made in your home for generations. I’ll gather them into one file and then each participant will get a copy. Simple.

I’ll take contributions until next Friday.

Giddy up.

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canning swap

Hey, Folks!

Just a quick update on the canning/preserving swap thing a ma jig:

We are forgoing the template thing- it’s just too weird.  Send me your recipes as a regular ol’ Word or Google document.  Use boring old New Time Roman font, no formatting.  Your recipes and instructions may all be on one page- that’s fine.  Just leave some spaces in-between so I don’t get lost while editing.  Be sure to include the recipe’s history if you know it and any memories you may have of making it or eating it.  That’s the best part!

email your 3 or more recipes to: katiemulder AT gmail DOT com

I’m moving your deadline out a bit, as I forgot (what?!) that I’ll be on vacation next week and without internet. I know, I’m in counseling now to help me through.  And, don’t YOU panic.  I have blog posts already scheduled for the time I’m away.  I know.  Again, I’m in counseling.

Recipes in to me by September 20th.  You’ll get your swap partner’s name and email the next day and can chat about any specifics (child-size, manly, your allergic to pink, etc).  Aprons are to be mailed out by October 4th.  Once your partner receives his or her apron, then you shall receive the booklet.

Anyone can play!  You/they just have to be willing to follow the rules.  The full details are here [click].

Love you guys!  Can’t wait to see what we make!

KatieKate

kiss the cook

Hi.  The old recipe swap posts are popping up in some of your readers because I added the tag ‘swap’ to them.  Dumb.  Sorry for the confusion!

[portrait is a challenge to take a photo of your self each week for one year]

My name is Katie and I wear bandanas when I’m working in the kitchen.

 

Jim mentioned something the other day and I cannot get it out of my head… so, we’re going with it:  A canning/preserves/pantry staples collection cookbook.  Right now, cooks all over the country are digging out all their scraps of paper, last year’s harvest notes, and every canning lid they can find.  It’s the perfect time to gather it all together in one little book. 

Here’s what I was thinking:  to assist me (selfish, I know… but you’ll get something out of it, too) in my Pantry Swap Project as well as help organize my kitchen recipes, I’d love for you to collect a minimum of 3 family recipes.  These 3 recipes must be for items that are to be canned or frozen or homemade.  Think breads, stews, soups, spaghetti sauce, ketchup, salsa, salad dressing mixes,  pickles, jam, marinades, dry brownie mix, tried and true home cleaning concoctions (?) etc. etc. aaaaaand etc.

Think things that you COULD buy at the grocery store but MAKE AT HOME instead.

Think things that look good in a jar.

We’ll do cookies/desserts and casseroles later this winter, so save those.  SAVE. THOSE.

Think your Gramma’s perfect sandwich bread.  Your favorite garlic pickles.  Your cousin’s homemade russian dressing. Perhaps YOU are not a canner, but your mother IS.  Wouldn’t this be a sweet little project to include your Great Aunt in?  Take her out to lunch and ask her who had the best [fill in the blank]?  Talk about old times and new times and good food.

Each of your 3 recipes must be different: only ONE bread or one salsa or one pickle, etc.  If you send in MORE than 3 recipes, then you may repeat main ingredients.  No recipes, please, that you simply plug into allrecipes.com.  Unless, that IS the recipe you’ve used for the past 5 years.  We’re looking for Old Time Religion, here.

Since this is likely to be a smaller group (although, y’all have shocked me more times than I’ve lost power out here in the boonies), I thought maybe we’d up the ante a bit as well.  Three recipe contributions gets you a copy of the pamphlet (or novel) of Old Time Goodness AND a partner to trade an apron with.  Mmmmm hmmmm.  Canning is messy work, and we be needing some coveralls to make tomato sauce. 

You can find plain aprons for $3.50 in the super market kitchen aisle.  You can make one.  You can find a vintage one at a garage sale.  You can buy one off etsy.  It can be a half apron, a full apron, or anything in-between.  It just cannot say ‘Kiss the Cook.’  Lord knows the world does not need any more Kiss the Cook aprons floating around.

• Please only sign up if you are willing to play all the way through- as in, email your recipes AND your apron in a timely manner. 

Recipes in to me by September 13.  Aprons out by October 4. •

So, think about it.  I’ll have the recipe template ready by the end of the week.  If you’re IN, start collecting your recipes.  I’ll email you the template and we’ll get to creatin’ some Homesteading Goodness. 

In other news, Curt has asked me to grow my hair out.  Why?  Because he “wants to be married to his girlfriend.”

I honestly do not know what to do with this kid.

previous TexasNorth recipe swaps:

Best Week Ever (swap=oven mitt)

Keepers Swap (swap = magnet)

But, what about…

• Let’s clear a few things off the ‘what about’ list, shall we? •

What about Bonnie, the prize longhorn that didn’t get pregnant this summer?  Well, after returning to the dating pasture for an extra month, she came home last night with a positive pregnancy test.  Releasing her from milking her calf really helped.  All four mammas are now back home and with-calf.  They are starting to get furry-er for Winter.

What about Winter?  Many of you have asked what will happen to our girls when the snow flies.  I love you.  God made longhorns able to survive in some really wicked conditions- low feed, brutal weather, family members with horns.  They take Winter up here in stride, with no barn necessary.  All they need are some tall trees for a break from the wind and food.  We lose our grass up here in Michigan around November, which puts a damper on the whole ‘grazing’ thing.  So, they feed on alfalfa grass that’s been baled into huge rolls.  The rolls are set in the field in a round-bale feeder, like the red one below.  Because of a longhorn’s horns, we had two feeders made special for our cows.  Our version allows the bale to be contained (so they don’t pull it all out and lay in it) while still allowing them to stick their heads and horns inside to eat.  There’s your farming lesson for the day, Folks.  Walk tall and proud.

The feeders also make fantastic playpens.  Rylie and Kendall were smitten for a good half hour,  pretending and running and climbing and laughing.  Perhaps we should have bought an extra. [aside: Is it me, or is Scooter the Kitten always in the ‘acidentally’ in the shot?]

What’s our next game?  Here are my thoughts.  I am trying to be a better woman.  I have no trouble admitting that I need your help.  Winter is approaching for most of us, and meal planning will be changing.  I’d love to do a re-mix of the Keeper’s Recipe Swap.  Lots of readers have come and gone since November 2007, so I think we’d get a great new mix.  It would go like this:

• Players would comment or email that they’d like to play.
• Players would come up with 5 main entrees they serve regularly. Recipes should be varied, ie: you can’t contribute 5 chicken dishes.  Ideally, I’d like to be able to open this booklet on a Sunday night and say, “Ok.  I’m cooking Becky’s menu this week.  What do I need to buy?”  All planned, all there, low level of brain stress.
• Players would email me those meals and recipes. If you want to include sides and desserts for each entree, that’s your call but PS you’re awesome. 
• I would compile the emails and make another e-booklet of the recipes.
• I would pair up each player with a partner.  Partners would swap a magnet and an oven mitt, just for fun.  Any kind of magnet and oven mitt you want… they’re prolly on the same aisle in the grocery store, and they’ll both easily fit in a small envelope.  Easy, right?
• Once players have received their gifts, I would email the e-booklet with menus galore.  If your partner doesn’t receive the magnet/oven mitt combo, you don’t get your recipes.  Mwa-ha-haaaaa!  [That’s evil I-figured-out-a-way-to-make-you-play-nice laughter.]
• For example: If three of us play, our e-booklet would contain three weeks of menus, or 15 recipes.  At noon:  we’re already up to 10 folks playing!  At least weeks of menus coming!

Yes?  Minimal effort, major help in the meal-planning department, and we all become better people.  Yes.  How ’bout, lemme know by November 1st by simply emailing me your recipes.  That’s your EMAIL RECIPES TO ME deadline: November 1st.  I’ll get your swap partner to you November 2nd.  Your MAIL YOUR SWAP GIFT deadline will be December 1st.  Recipes can be tried and true from magazines, websites, etc… just be sure to credit the source.  Gracias!

Help with a name for this round, please and thank you?

someone please explain the whole ‘time change’ thing to peanut

too. early.
bah.
Thug Rylie says, ‘Hi.’

Aw, shucks, folks… you’re so sweet about my anniversary! Curt came home yesterday and yelled, “Kate! You like me!” Yes, Boy. Yes, I do.

I’ve been diggin’ through the yellow recipe box lately… moving all the yummy winter comfort recipes to the front and such. My recipe box is a sad little thing… filled with scraps of notes and folded over sheets from the internet of good stuff I’ve found. Keepers. Winners. Old favorites and new favorites. I was thinkin’ that I needed some new things to add to the rotation- good things. Tried and True things. Things that I could eat all week things. Mmmmm. I love me some winter cookin’. So, here’s what I think. You’re gonna help me.

Doot-do-do-dooooooooooooooo!!! (tha’s a trumpet, people)
announcing the Keepers Swap hosted by yours truly
[insert much clapping and cheering]

Now, I dunno how to DO a swap, really… so, I’m gonna wing it. Pros, bear with me.

Participants of said swap shall agree to:

1. email me [katiemulderATgmailDOTcom] or comment below on their burning desire to be included
2. search the depths of their personal favorites for the 5 best recipes they have… the ones they make all the time… the ones that always work and always please.
3. be paired with a swap partner (who also sent me recipes) for whom they will be responsible for sending a magnet to by way of the Post Office. A magnet. That’s it. It can be a handmade magnet. It can be a tacky home-pride airport magnet. It can be a quote magnet in a foreign language… it’s up to you. It’s Holiday time, and I doubt anyone has the time or sanity to add a serious care package to their to-do list. Though if you’d like to include some cookies or other lovlies, that’s just fine. I like oatmeal, personally.
4. mail the magnet to your swap partner before December 15.
5. receive a pdf of wonderfully formatted and edited (oh, how I love margins and tabs!) compilation of swap recipes from moi that you can then load into your own binder-o-goodness.

Sound fun? You don’t have to be a regular reader or commentor to participate- if you’ve got a friend you want to include, just have them email me. I shall give folks until this coming Monday (November 12) to ponder, decide, and comment/email. After Monday, I’m gonna start randomly pairing folks up for their magnets and editing the food goodness. I’ll send you a document of all the recipes I receive so you can print them out at home. (So far, we’re all getting 40 recipes [’cause 8 people are in]. 40 RECIPES!!! And, a fun magnet. happyhappyjoyjoy)

Say you’re in. Email me 5 recipes. Receive the name and address of a fellow swapper. Mail them a magnet. Recieve a document full of recipes. Giddyup!