Something to make this summer....

Carrot Marmalade

(Makes about 3½ cups of marmalade)
This warmly colored, lemony spread is just the thing with toast and tea on a winter’s afternoon.

Ingredients
2 medium lemons (wash very well as you’ll be using the whole lemon)
4 cups of coarsely grated carrots (prepare carrots before grating by washing, peeling, and trimming off ends and any blemishes)
2¾ cups natural cane sugar (fine, not coarse)
¼ cup honey (choose a mild flavor, like clover or wildflower)
Small glass jars in a variety of sizes, with lids; sterilized

Cut the lemons in half and squeeze out the juice into a medium-sized bowl, removing and discarding any seeds. Chop up the remaining rinds and pulp into large chunks. Put the chunks into your food processor and process until the mixture is very fine. Scrape the mixture into the bowl and blend well with the lemon juice. Set aside.
Put the grated carrots in a large pot and just cover with water. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to achieve a constant simmer and cook the carrots until tender, 10 to 15 minutes. Drain the carrots in a colander, pushing down on them with the back of a large spoon to ensure that all the liquid is removed. Return to the pot.
Add lemon mixture, sugar, and honey; stir to combine. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Reduce heat to low-medium and cook for about 40 to 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. When you stir, some larger chunks of lemon rind may surface; you can filter these out with your spoon, if you wish.
The marmalade is ready when most of the liquid has jelled. The large amount of natural pectin from the lemons combined with the coarseness of the grated carrots guarantees a great, firm consistency to the marmalade.
Ladle the hot marmalade into warm, sterilized jars and seal immediately. Allow jars to cool to room temperature before transferring to the fridge or freezer for storage. The marmalade will keep for a week or so in the fridge, and for several months in the freezer.

This recipe comes from one of my favorite websites: http://rhythmofthehome.com/

What have we been up to?

The usual I guess.....baking, playing, generally acting pretty silly.......

Chocolate brownies topped with Trader Joe's mini peanut butter cups

We have been on a brownie kick lately.

We tried chocolate brownies with crushed Oreos

and today made chocolate brownies with Heath pieces on top.

Yesterday, I made strawberry scones.

playing Labyrinth

learning how to knit

doing puzzles

baking bread sticks (bread blobs?)

Happy Spring everyone!

persimmons

I have tried persimmon pudding many years ago so I thought I would buy some pulp from a lady in town who has several trees. I am always looking to introduce the kids to new foods, especially local ones.  The color is lovely and the taste is hard to describe. With the orange color, you might expect it to taste like pumpkin but it doesn't. I made some cookies with half the pulp and plan to make bread with the remaining half pint. I am going to buy a few more pints for the freezer tomorrow.

persimmon cookies

1 stick butter
1 c. sugar
1 c. brown sugar
1 egg
1 c. persimmon pulp
2 c. flour
1 t. baking soda
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. nutmeg
1/4 t. cloves
1 c. chopped dates
1 c. chopped nuts (I used pecans.)

Cream butter, sugars, and egg together. Mix in rest of ingredients. Drop by Tbs. on cookie sheet.

Bake at 350* for 15 minutes.

beer bread

I can't stand drinking beer. Don't like the taste at all. Yes, that will surprise many of my high school and college friends who attended lots of parties with me! I do love beer bread. This is for my friend Sally......hope you like it.

3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
12 ounces beer (I use light beer)

Mix dry ingredients in large bowl. Slowly pour in beer and mix well.
Pour into greased loaf pan. Bake at 350* for 40 minutes. Pour 1/4 cup
melted butter over top and bake 15 minutes more.

*Do not try to make this healthier by skipping the melted butter.
I have tried and it really changes the taste.

canning and other silly stuff

I have thought about canning for a few years so I recently bought some supplies (including a big pot and rack at Walmart for $18!)

I first canned some tomatoes. Not sauce, not juice, nothing fancy, just tomatoes. I haven't opened one yet so I will let you know later how they taste. Probably this winter.....

Last week, I took the kids to a local orchard for raspberry picking. There was more running and yelling than picking but we did pick 3 1/2 pounds. A few days later, these lovely jars were made. I had extra raspberries so they were frozen for smoothies.

Speaking of smoothies, I made a new one today. Last week, with an abundance of peaches in the fridge getting soft, I made a peach crisp. I didn't cut the pieces small enough so the crisp didn't turn out as good as I would have liked. Fast forward to today, into the Vitamix goes half the crisp, some coconut milk, and pineapple juice. YUMMY!

As for the silly stuff, Andrew has recently figured out how to catch our guinea pigs. He takes them all over the house and plays with them. He is very gentle and loving. I snapped a few pics yesterday:

Lemon pound cake muffins

From Taste of Home Cookbook, with my changes below:

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 t. vanilla extract
1/2 t. lemon extract
1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. baking soda
1/2 cup sour cream

glaze:

2 cups powdered sugar
3 T. lemon juice

In large bowl, beat sugar with butter. Beat in eggs and extracts. Mix in flour, salt, soda, and sour cream. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake @ 400* for 18-20 minutes. Cool completely before topping with glaze.

Combine glaze ingredients and drizzle over cooled muffins.
Makes 12 muffins

My changes:
I didn't have lemon extract so I used my newest kitchen tool, my microplane grater to zest a whole lemon. I then used the lemon for the juice in the glaze. I decreased the glaze by half. I thought it was plenty for 12 muffins. I used low fat sour cream. I did substitute some whole wheat flour for some of the all purpose flour but I cannot remember how much, maybe 1/2 cup?

I will definitely make these again. I love lemons!

Apple cranberry crumble

3 cups chopped, peeled apples
2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup oats
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
1/2 cup melted butter

In a greased 8 inch baking dish, place apples and cranberries. Sprinkle with sugar.
In bowl, combine rest of ingredients. Sprinkle over apple mixture.

Bake @ 350* for 60 minutes. Makes 6 servings.

This recipe comes from one of my favorite cookbooks: The Taste of Home Cookbook. It comes in a 3-ring binder and has tons of recipes, all with nutritional info. I love cookbooks but it really irks me when the calorie count is not included. I am maintaining my weight loss with Weight Watchers and I really need to know the calorie counts!

P.S. I did alter this recipe a bit by decreasing the sugar to 1/2 cup. I think it is a perfect blend of sweetness and the sourness of the cranberries. I will make this again, especially since I have accumulated many bags of cranberries in my freezer. Where did all these come from? :)