Fruit Rollups

Pictured are two applesauce fruit rollups drying in the sun on top of a tray of almonds also set out to dry.

The canning jars at our house are still being filled with all sorts of summer fruit. Sometimes we also dry small amounts of fruit or make fruit rollups. When making applesauce we sometimes end up with more than we can process in one batch.

If it is only a quart or two over a batch we turn the extra into fruit rollups. We mix in a little honey, lemon juice and cinnamon to spice them up. The amount of sweetener and spices can vary depending on individual preferences. The lemon juice is to keep it from turning dark and discolored. Other spices that can be used are nutmeg, mace, allspice or pumpkin pie spice which is a premixed combination of some of the other spices mentioned.

To dry the fruit rollups we use cookie sheets covered with plastic wrap. Each cookie sheet holds about one pint of applesauce. With the applesauce spread out evenly over the plastic wrap, we set it in the sun to dry. They only take one day to dry. Then we roll them up and store them in the refrigerator or freezer.

Rollups can also be made with other fruit. The fruit can be pureed in a blender. Then the spices, sweetener and lemon juice added as desired and spread on cookie sheets covered with plastic wrap to dry. The rollups are great to take for lunch or just keep around for snacks.

Drying fruit in halves or slices is also a good way to preserve extra fruit. The thicker the slices the longer the drying time will be. Seedless grapes are one thing we dry more of and they are small enough to dry whole. They make great raisins to add to cookies, bread, salads or other recipes. Other dried fruit can also be used in baking but usually needs to be cut into smaller pieces.

There are also different ways of keeping the fruit from turning dark or discolored. The discoloration does not affect the flavor or make it bad to use. It is only a matter of looks. We mostly use lemon juice for the fruit rollups. For the cut fruit, we soak it in a bowl of water with ascorbic acid powder added.

When drying fruit we set it out in the sun to dry. Dehydrators made for fruit drying can also be used. They are sometimes faster than sun drying but use electricity.

To make the fruit last longer we store it in the freezer after it is dried. This is a sure way to keep bugs out of it. Also if any moisture is still in the fruit, it will keep it from growing mold.

We still are busy with other garden produce also. Our tomato production has been down a little this year. We have had plenty to eat fresh, but for canning purposes we have had only enough once for a small batch of tomato juice.

Almonds are plentiful this year. We are busy shelling them so they take up less space in the freezer. It also looks like we will have plenty of concord grapes to make juice from. They are just about ready to pick.

Yes, this is all a lot of work but the payoff is worth it. Fruit and vegetables that are allowed to fully ripen in the garden taste better, even after canning or drying than store bought varieties. We also like having control of what additives are or are not included in our food.

Dog bed

Pictured is Shadow on her bed made from recycled materials.

Our dog is spoiled. For one, she likes soft things to lie on. Wanting to have a comfortable place for our dog to sleep we set out to shop for a dog bed. Pet accessories are big business, we discovered. There are stores that specialize in nothing but pet supplies. They carry everything from pet food to toys, food dishes, leashes, cages, beds and more.

We found that dog beds are a little pricey. After giving the matter some thought we decided on a customized bed made by recycling items we already had on hand. A king size egg-crate mattress pad that we no longer were using became the filler. We cut three 30 by 40-inch pieces from the pad. Then stacking them one on top of the other it made a nice inner-cushion.

Next we decided it needed a durable cover so we got out a box of jeans that were beyond repair. We saved them to someday make quilt squares out of the parts that were still good. It seemed like this would be a good time to put some of those quilt squares to use for the dog bed cover.

We used a 7-inch cardboard square for our pattern. After cutting a big stack of them we sewed them in strips long enough to go around the bed. Then we sewed the strips together until we achieved the proper width for the cover. We made half-inch seams, making the finished squares to be 6-inches each.

Coming across a large bag of socks that had lost their mate over the years, we decided to make a blanket for the dog bed. We cut the tops off of each sock and after sorting them by color, sewed them end to end. Next we sewed the rows together making the sock blanket big enough to cover the top of the dog bed. To sew the sock pieces and rows together we set the sewing machine on the largest zigzag stitch possible and butted the ends and sides of the socks together as we sewed them. Since the socks were all colors we choose red for the thread color adding an extra design element to the blanket.

Due to our recycling efforts the cost of the dog bed only amounted to the time and effort it took to make it. And since it was a fun activity the cost seemed negligible and the landfill was deprived of things most people probably throw out. Anytime we can recycle and reuse items, giving them new life, we feel an extra sense of accomplishment.

The dog has approved of the bed and uses it regularly. We all are very happy with the final outcome.

Thai Party

Craig Love is making Pad see ew, Suzanne Love the ginger and chicken stir fry. Pictured at bottom right is the beef and bamboo curry being made by Charlene Love.

We were in the mood for Thai food, but didn’t want to go out to a restaurant this time. We decided, along with our daughter, to have a Thai party at our house! So we invited friends and family over for an evening of fun and trying out new Thai dishes. We began by looking on the internet for some good recipes. There were quite a few on several different sites but the ones that appealed to us the most were at ThaiTable.com. We chose to make three main dishes: pork and garlic stir fry, chicken and ginger stir fry, and beef and bamboo shoot curry served over rice. Also from that site we choose recipes for two appetizers and desert. For the appetizers we made were marinated grilled pork on skewers with peanut sauce and cucumbers salad and for desert we made pumpkin in coconut milk.

We tried out all the recipes a couple of times before the party, just to make sure we didn’t have a complete flop when our guests were here. Our daughter likes to experiment with new cooking methods, so during the process of selecting dishes to serve, she learned how to make rice noodles. They turned out better than ones from the store.

The recipe for making rice noodles that we used is at asiarecipe.com/ricenoodles.html. We thought it was not too difficult to make but it takes a little time. It is necessary to make them up ahead.

Some ingredients that were called for are not ones we use on a regular basis. Most of the local supermarkets have things like kale, coconut milk and bamboo shoots. Some of the recipes that called for vegetables like Chinese broccoli gave suggestions for substitutes like bok choy that were also available locally. Thai food can be very spicy. But when you make it yourself, it can be anything you want. Most of the recipes we used said that the dishes were usually seasoned at the table to taste.

The cucumber and shallot salad was prepared ahead of time. The vegetables and meat were also cut up beforehand. Desert was another thing that we were able to prepare ahead of time. The pumpkin desert is really made with winter squash, not pumpkin as we know it.

When all our guests had arrived we put the pork skewers in the broiler. As soon as they were done we served them and the salad as appetizers and immediately started the three main dishes. With three of us cooking at once, one using an electric skillet and two at the stove, we made all these dishes simultaneously, which was a lot of fun.

One of the main dishes we made is called Pad see ew. It is a type of stir fry combining pork, garlic, rice noodles and Chinese broccoli. The dish is easy and only takes a few minutes to make. Another dish was ginger and chicken stir fry. It features mushrooms, garlic, ginger, and chicken stir fried with some sugar and fish sauce. For stir frying, we usually use a frying pan but a wok would probably work better. Some of the dishes can get voluminous when adding noodles or greens. The other main dish we made was beef and bamboo shoot curry. It uses curry paste, fish sauce, bamboo shoots, coconut milk and beef, then is served over rice.

After dinner we played an enjoyable round of Balderdash. Many laughs were had by all present.

Information Sources

Information sources shown are Betty Crocker’s Cookbook, Better Homes and Garden Cookbook, The Rodale Cookbook, The Encyclopedia of Country Living, Countryside magazines and the More-with-Less Cookbook.

Sources of information are greater now than ever before for growing, cooking and preserving food. In the past we relied only on books, magazines and talking to others who had knowledge in the areas we were interested in. Now we also can do searches on the internet for information.

Recently someone asked us if we knew how to pickle walnuts. We said no, but while talking to them we sat down at the computer and typed “pickled walnuts” into a Google search and sure enough there was information on how to pickle walnuts! It doesn’t look like something we would ever try, but the information is available for those who do.

The book we have found most useful for the things we do is “The Encyclopedia of Country Living” by Carla Emery. She has gathered practical advice and information by talking to folks and farmers from all over the country. In about 1969 she began the process of gathering information, mainly for her own personal use. Then in 1974 she mimeographed the first edition.

Other editions quickly followed as she gathered information. The latest is the updated ninth edition with more than 1,500 mail-order sources, checked and updated and the addition of websites and e-mail addresses. At the back of the book there is an explanation of the chronology of the different editions printed.

Information given in the book includes old-fashioned methods as well as updated methods for raising farm animals, making a chicken coop, catching a pig, growing plants, to cooking and preserving food. Other information tells how to cook on a wood stove, churn butter, grow herbs, make sausage and more.

We first came across the ninth edition in 1994, but used it so much it was falling apart and had pages missing. Our current copy is the updated ninth edition printed in 2003. It has so much information it is the first place we look when we have questions about how to do something.

Cookbooks that are useful are “The Rodale Cookbook” by Nancy Albright and the “More-with-Less Cookbook” by Doris Janzen Longacre. The first is good because they avoid sugar and use many kinds of flour instead of just wheat. They stay away from using white flour. The second uses basic ingredients focusing on recipes that are economic as well as nutritious and good tasting.

Two basic cookbooks that get used at our house are “Betty Crocker’s Cookbook” and “Better Homes and Garden Cookbook” for general information. Usually older cookbooks are more useful to us as newer cookbooks list ingredients such as a can of this and a bag or box of that. Older cookbooks don’t use as many processed foods in their ingredient lists.

The “Countryside and Small Stock Journal” magazine has also been useful for information in many areas. Many people write in about their experiences with raising animals, growing gardens, using alternative power sources, food preparation and even building houses. Hearing information first hand from someone with experience is always most desirable but not always possible. Being able to read about the experiences of others is the next best thing.

Nowadays the internet is becoming a better source to find information even faster. Search engines such as Google can quickly locate a vast variety of information for every topic imaginable. The more places one can find information the better. Gathering differing methods and preferences from others helps us make more informed choices.

In the kitchen

The first batch of Faye Alberta peaches are ready to be canned.

The kitchen has been the central hub of activity in our house this last week. Canning is in full swing. We had enough nectarines to make a batch of jam and a large crisp. So far we have canned two batches of applesauce and lots of apples are left. We also froze enough to make apple crisps with during the winter.

We tried rose hips jelly for the first time, but it didn’t set so we will use it as syrup on our pancakes. The flavor is good.

Our Babcock peaches produced quite a lot of fruit so we are juicing most of them in the steamer. We are also using them fresh on top of our pancakes and for making crisps. The Faye Alberta peaches are starting to get ripe and that is the verity we use most for canning.

We did take an afternoon off to go shopping for supplies. While out we stopped at a used bookstore and found two books of interest. One titled “The Soybean Cookbook” by Dorothea Van Gundy Jones and American Cookery 1796 by Amelia Simmons, the 1982 version.

The cookbook is the one we started reading first. It also has a history of the soybean and a list of all the things made from the soybean as of July 1971, the date of the fourth printing of the book. The list includes food items, animal feed and non-food items such as printing ink, candles, linoleum, waterproof goods, enamels, rubber substitute and more. Food items include: soy sauce, boiled beans, baked beans, soups, coffee substitute, soy milk, soy flour, bean curd, salad oil and more.

The soybean has been the main source of protein in Asian countries and others especially in time of war. It was first introduced in the United States in 1804, but production in the US did not reach any sizable figure until 1924, when 5 million bushels were produced.

To find a current production amount we googled soybean production in the United States and found the following: A bushel is equal to 60 pounds. The average yield of U.S. soybean was 11 bushel per acre in 1924. This has increased through out the years. The highest recorded was in 1994, this was 41.9 bushels an acre. In 1924 the soybean production was 1.8 million acres harvested. This number has increased through out the years. The current number of soybeans produced is 63.4million acres harvested.

Other areas the cookbook goes into are details of nutritional values, how soy is used in different food products as well as listing many recipes. The recipes cover how to use green soybeans, dry soybeans, roasted or toasted soybeans and sprouted soybeans. Then there are meat replacement dishes, noodles, sauces, gravies, soups, salads, spreads, milk, tofu, breakfast dishes, desserts, candies, breads, pastry, cookies and cakes. At the end is an appendix that defines some of the items mention in the recipes, menu suggestions and an index.

We have some recipes that we use soy products in but after reading this cookbook we will be adding more to our list of favorites. We enjoy finding and trying different recipes that help us eat a more nutritionally balanced diet.