Amand's

 https://amandascookin.com/almost-everything-peasant-bread/

Cream Cheese Danish

1894 German apple pie

Not-Your-Mama’s Chili Relleno

This recipe makes one eight inch cake pan that serves six to eight and freezes wonderfully. This take on the Chili Relleno is great to eat in so many ways: as a breakfast star. It makes the perfect side-dish to Taco-Tuesday. And it is swell as the main course for a nice lunch, with maybe a side salad.

You will need:

• About 20-25 Poblano Chili Peppers peeled and cleaned.
• Cover a baking sheet with foil and lay the peppers out flat, then pop them under the broiler.  Watch them close and allow them to blister on all sides by turning them constantly. The peppers most likely will char a bit and that is ok. As they finish blistering put them immediately into a plastic bag. Close the bag full of chilis and wrap the whole thing in a kitchen towel for about 10 minutes. The steam will help you loosen the skins. Your next step is to remove the skins, which will peel off fairly easily. Once skinned slice down the length of the pepper with a sharp knife and remove the seeds and ribs.
•  A little over a cup of grated cheese.
• I like to mix sharp cheddar, cheddar and a soft cheese like a Monterey Jack.
•  1/2 cup crumbled Cojito cheese
• 5 eggs
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1/4 cup whole milk
• 1/2 teaspoon Cumin

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Spray an eight inch cake pan with non stick spray and lay a single layer of chilis in the bottom of the pan. Setting aside one-third of the cheese, sprinkle about a third of the remaining cheese on top of this bottom layer of peppers. Repeat layering cheese over peppers until you have three layers.

In a small bowl lightly beat the eggs, flour, milk, and cumin in a small bowl and pour the mix over the top of the layered chilis and cheese.

Bake in the 350 degree oven for 20minutes.

Top the Chili Relleno with the Cojito cheese and the reserved cheese and then bake it all for an additional 10 minutes. 

Let it cool a little and slice it into portions. You can freeze these  portions for later. Just microwave the slices for two minutes and put it on a plate.

Creekside Pan Fruittata

This is a very quick, extraordinarily easy, sort of egg custard pancake which can be made either savory or sweet depending on what you throw in the pan with the batter. We've  often had this treat for weekend breakfast because it is simple and quick to make using whatever fruit we have laying around. This is really versatile and I hope you play with it, then share your results with me in the comments section below.

Preheat oven to 425.

Whisk until smooth: 3  eggs
                                 3/4 cup milk
                                 1/4 cup sugar
                                 1/2 cup flour
                                 1 teaspoon vanilla

Melt 2 Tablespoons of butter in an 8 inch non-stick skillet.

Pour in the batter and add about a cup of fruit.

Bake 20-25 minutes.

Remove with rubber spatula onto serving plate right away and garnish with powdered sugar.

Let it cool a few minutes, then eat it as soon as you can!

Darn Good Bread

1/2 cup all purpose flour

5 1/2 cups bread flour

3 Tablespoon sugar

1 Tablespoon salt

2 Tablespoon shortening

4 1/2 teaspoons yeast (2 packets)

2 1/4 cup very warm water(120 degree)

1 -2 Tablespoons additional water

In a large preheated (I fill my bowl half full of very hot water while I gather my ingredients, then dump it out just when I'm starting) mixer bowl, combine the 2 1/4 cup hot water and the yeast. Add the sugar and allow to sit til very foamy, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the salt, shortening, all purpose flour and 3 cups of bread flour. Beat for 1 minute on low, scrape the bowl and beat for 1 more minute on medium. Add remaining flour a cup at a time to make an easily handled dough. Switch to your doughhook whenever it becomes necessary.

I allow my Kitchen Aide mixer to do all of my kneading, approximately 10 minutes. Once the dough has all come together and is being kneaded, add the other 1-2 tablespoons of water. When the water is all taken into the dough, the dough should make a wet "tac" kind of noise. Gather dough into a nice smooth ball and place in a large greased bowl turning the dough so all sides are greased. Cover bowl with a clean kitchen towel and let rise in a warm place til doubled, about an hour. I usually turn on my oven while I preheat my bowl and once the temp is starting to rise, I shut it off with the door left shut.  I also put a pie pan of water on the lower rack in the oven to make it humid in there.

Grease to bottoms and sides of 2 loaf pans.

Gently push your fist in the dough to deflate.  Divide dough in half. Roll each half into a 18X9 inch rectangle on lightly floured surface. Roll the dough tightly from a 9 inch side. Every quarter turn, press with fingertips to seal. Pnich the edges and bottom of loafs to seal and place in prepared pans, seam side down. Cover with kitchen towel again and allow to rise in a warm place 40-60 minutes til they rise an inch or so above the tops of the pans. remove from oven of this is where you had them rising.

Heat oven to 415. Bake 9 minutes then check for browning.  If loaves are browning too quickly, lay some foil over the tops and continue baking. Bake an additional7-10 minutes til lovely golden brown. Remove from pans and allow to cool competely on wire rack.

Notes:  When I first retired in December last year I knew one of the things I needed to teach myself was how to make a really good bread. Something that you could have a sandwich on or turn into french toast. 6 months of trying and tweaking recipes followed.   This is a good reliable bread.  It holds up to hotfillings and wet ones like egg salad - just exactly what we will need when we move onto to making food for you at Creekside Farm.

Creekside Short Ribs ( or How I finally truly learned to make beef)

Creekside Farm Beef Short Ribs

6 servings

3 pounds bone-in beef short ribs

3 tablespoons butter

1 large sweet onion, halved and sliced

2 fooled you jalapeno peppers *

1 carrot thinly slice

1 clove minced garlic

dash thyme

2 tablespoons flour

1 1/2 cups beef broth

1 tablespoon of "better than boullion" beef (what I call liquid cow)**

1/2 cup dry red wine

2 tablespoons fresh parsley, minced

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place ribs on a rack in a shallow roasting pan.  Roast  30 - 40 minutes until browned, turing once halfway through.

While that is roasting, in a dutch oven, heat butter over a medium heat.  Add onion, jalapeno, and carrot. Cook  and stir util tender, about 10 minutes.  Add garic and thyme and cook another minute to release the garlic fragrance. Stir in the flour until well blended. Gardually stir in the broth, liquid cow and wine. Add the parsley.

Transfer the ribs to the dutch oven.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer,covered, 2 - 2 1/2 hours until the meat is tender.

* Fooled you Jalapenos are one of the many peppers we grow out here at Creekside farm. They look like any other jalapeno but do NOT have the heat. Then why bother you ask? The jalpeno flavor adds a zip of fresh bright green flavor to what ever you add them too.  I pickle them for sandwiches, nachos, pizza, salads, really the list is endless.

**I've mentioned this product before. Better than Boullion is in your soup aisle at the store and comes in chicken, beef and veggie.  It is a semi liquid concentrate that adds flavor like crazy.  

Creekside Tomato Salad

 At long last I am posting recipes from our summer "Welcome to Creekside" party.  Yeah for retirement!

  A few weeks before our party last summer, David and I vacationed just outside Ojai, California for  family reunion at my sister Pat's  house. While there, she served a wonderful tomato salad served over cold pasta. I put over my spinach salad too and decided that this was what I wanted to serve our guests.

  I changed Pat's recipe only with the addition of the motzerella balls.  Shortly after food was set out one of our guests, Suzanne, saw it and immediately recognized it as Caprise Salad.

  Call it what you like, this is bright and fresh and screams "SUMMER!"

Creekside Tomato Salad

Serves 4

3 or 4 large tomatoes. Dice these into about 1/2 inch pieces and keep all the juices too

1 cup of rinsed basil.  Cut this into ribbons.

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 cup good quality olive oil

1 cup crumbled feta cheese

1 cup fresh motzerella balls, halved

Mix all together in a large bowl and let marinate at roome temperature for at lest 6 hours.

Serve over cold cooked tube pasta, like a ziti or a penne.  This is also wonderful poured over a garden fresh salad.

Simple Pickle Slaw

Crunchy fresh with a bite of vinegar and a happy sweet finish. Make this as a garnish or use it wherever pickles might be used. This is so very simple:

Slice the skin off of a fresh slicing cucumber, leave a bit of skin if you like. Then thin slice the skinned cucumber using a mandolin or other grater. (Long strips are better than short ones. Thin is the thing.) If you must, use a sharp knife or even a potato peeler, just try to be careful to keep the strips thin. Then simply toss the strips with cider vinegar, salt, and pepper. Let the mixture sit for a few minutes and then put it on, or nearby, anything.

You can make this as you get ready to prepare sandwiches. You won't get the salty bite of a store bought pickle, or the dilly deliciousness of a good home made pickle. What you will get is a sharp vinegar bite, followed quickly by a happy cucumber flavor. This will  to round out sandwiches in a new way.  You might add some crushed garlic, ground wasabi, grated horse radish, or thinly sliced onion to the mixture, but the cucumber is the king of this simple garnish.

Simple Pickle Slaw also works well as a side garnish for rice dishes and I'm told that eating this daily will keep pesky Summer mosquitoes away.

Recipe: Very Quick Cranberry Sauce

Thanksgiving morning had me pulling this recipe out and in about fifteen minutes I had a beautiful sauce cooling on my counter. This recipe is fun to make and very simple. Put it all in a pot, turn on the heat, stir, and magic happens once the berries start to softly pop, spilling their juices. The color develops into a bright rich red and then thickens all on its own. Marvelous!

Best Ever Cranberry Sauce - with credit to Mom On Timeout.

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1/2 cup water
• 12 oz fresh cranberries (look through them and toss any bruised or damaged ones)
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon of orange peel 
• ( I used dried peel because I always have a jar in my fridge)

Combine sugar, orange juice, and water, in a medium pan over medium heat. Once the mix begins to simmer add everything else and bring it back to a simmer stirring often. Keep on the heat for 10-12 minutes, until most of the berries have popped.  If you leave a few berries un-popped. it gives a more interesting texture. Remove from heat and let it cool about a half  hour. Then refrigerate. 

The sauce should be good for 3 or 4 days, so you can make it ahead of time.  You can serve it as a relish, sitting next to nearly anything but people usually only see cranberry sauce at the holidays. This recipe works well with oatmeal, or to counterpoint a steak in summer. So get creative.

So what will you do with the leftover cranberry sauce (if you have any)? 

Quick Cranberry Turnovers

Get yourself a package of frozen puff pastry sheets from the grocery store. Each package has 2 sheets and each sheet makes 4 turnovers.  Simply thaw the pastry sheets and cut each sheet into 4 squares. Put about a tablespoon in the center of each. wet your fingers and run them along the edges to get them wet then fold over to make a triangle with all the goodness inside.  Pinch the edge to seal it up tight and pop into a 400 degree preheated oven for 15-20 minutes until they are puffed and golden.

While they bake stir together about a cup and half of powdered sugar with enough milk drizzled in to make a glaze about the consistency of molasses.

Cool the turnovers a few minutes then drizzle the glaze over them and serve!

I'm working on other things to do with the sauce and I will keep you updated!

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Recipe: Easy as Pie Fillings: Chocolate

Lemon Meringue is certainly one of our favorites, but a girl needs chocolate!

I've tried several chocolate cream pies, some with whipped cream and some with a meringue topping. All of them have been fine. Everything you would expect: chocolaty, smooth, creamy. Until I found this recipe nothing had really wowed me. Then I found Ladd's Chocolate Pie from Ree Drummond of Food Network Magazine.

This pie had the “WOW” factor all the others had been lacking. Supremely chocolate. Rich and succulent. It beckons from the pie-tin, just sitting the refridgerator, calling me . . . You probably should not eat the entire slice you cut . . . I dare you not too!

Top it how like,but my favorite is with fresh whipped cream, barely sweetened.

Ladd's Chocolate Pie

As with the Lemon Meringue pie recipe, you will need to pre-bake the crust. This time it needs to cool before filling it. Aside from the crust here's what you will need:

• 1½ Cup granulated sugar (stick with cane sugars)
• ¼ Cup cornstarch
• 3 Cups whole milk
• 4 egg yolks, beaten with a fork
• If you want a meringue topping set the whites aside and I'll cover making meringue again at the bottom of this recipe.
• 6½ ounces of bittersweet chocolate, broken into pieces
• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 2 teaspoons vanilla

In a large saucepan, over medium heat, stir together the sugar and cornstarch. Pour in the milk, then the egg yolks. Cook to a boil stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add the chocolate, the butter and the vanilla. Stir it well, until the chocolate is completely melted. Pour into the baked shell and chill at least 4 hours.

Serve this alone or top it with whipped cream or meringue.

This filling makes a nice pudding, but it is a bit rich so make the portions small. Adding whipped cream can reduce the richness too.

Enjoy!

Meringue Re-stated

The critical thing to remember when making meringue is that your bowl, whisp, egg beater. or whatever utensil you use have, must be completely grease and fat free. Any oily stuff will stop the meringue from stiffening and this includes any trace of yoke that might have snuck through when they we separated. Here's all you will need:

• The four egg whites left over from making the chocolate filling
• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
• 3 Tablespoons granulated sugar

Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form when you lift the beater. While continuing to beat the  egg whites gradually add 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice. Continue beating and add 3 Tablespoons of granulated sugar. Continue beating until stiff peaks form when you rise the beaters.

Spread quickly over the pie, don't over work the mixture but do seal the edges of the meringue mixture to the pie crust. Bake at 400 degrees until the meringue browns slightly or sweats. Remove from the oven and cool well before serving.

Recipe: Easy as Pie Fillings: Lemon Meringue

My Mom was a really good home cook and baker and I still use a lot of her recipes. I have no idea where my Mom got her Lemon Meringue Pie recipe. Many of her recipes were so old they would ask for ingredients we don't use so readily these days (like using lard in the cookies). Some updates to these have been made.

Since the first time I remember her using the recipe card, it was hand-written, stained and yellowed. My own recipe card for the same recipe is also hand-written, stained and become just as yellowed through the years. But let's face it, the really messed up cards in your recipe file are the ones you truly love and use. 

Mom's Lemon Meringue Pie

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

You will use one pie crust, baked and cooled. Fit the crust into the pie-tin , pierce it with a fork to keep the bubbles down and bake the crust about twenty minutes in at 400 degrees. Let it cool until warm to the touch. While it is cooling you can make the filling.

Here are the ingredients:

• 1¼ Cup of granulated sugar 
• (C&H is still better than most because it doesn't have corn or beet sugars.) 
• 6 Tablespoons cornstarch
• 2 cups of boiling water
• The rind of one lemon
• 4 Tablespoons butter (the original wanted margarine. Blecch!)
• 3 egg yolks (reserve the egg whites in a separate bowl)
• ½ Cup lemon juice 
• Depending on the time of the year you might have to use what you have handy. Some bottled juices have a high acid content, and if you like a bit of bite these are fine all year around.  
• Fresh is usually better. Buy your lemon if it feels heavy for its size. This usually tells you whether the lemon is fresh or not. Scraping the peal with your thumbnail and smelling it can also tell you how long that lemon might have been around.

Whisk sugar and cornstarch in a medium saucepan. Add the water and rind (just as it is) to the pan and cook over medium heat (stirring all of the time so it doesn't lump) until nice and thick. Add the butter and stir it in. 

Mix the lemon juice and the egg yolks in a bowl. Add about one half cup of of the hot sugar mixture in this bowl and it stir it in well. Then pour the egg mixture into the sugar mixture and blend it all together well. Pour the mixture into the pie shell and bake for ten minutes. 

While it is baking you can make your meringue.

The critical thing to remember when making meringue is that your bowl, whisp, egg beater. or whatever utensil you use, must be completely grease and fat free. Any oily stuff will stop the meringue from stiffening and this includes any trace of yoke that might have snuck through when they we separated. Here's all you will need:

• 3 Egg whites (no joke - no yoke)
• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
• 3 Tablespoons granulated sugar

Beat the three egg whites until soft peaks form when you lift the beater. While continuing to beat the  egg whites gradually add 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice. Continue beating and add 3 Tablespoons of granulated sugar. Continue beating until stiff peaks form when you rise the beaters.

Note: If you wish to you can double the meringue recipe to get a taller pie, but it isn't at all necessary.

Now we put the pie together.

Remove the pie from the oven, then lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees. 

Quickly spread the meringue on top of the cooked pie without over working it.  Pile it high as you can and swirl your spoon to make pretty swoops and swirls. Make sure to seal the meringue and the edge of the crust or it will shrink away from the edges and the pie won't serve well. 

Pop it back into the oven and bake for another 18 minutes.

You can serve it warm, and some people do, or you can serve it cold, as is the proper thing to do. But store the pie in the refrigerator.

The filling it very versatile. You can use it as a stand alone item, something of a lemon custard (but not a custard), or you might put it over vanilla wafers and use whipped cream to make a quick parfait. I have used it as a cake filling as well. One of our favorite summer cakes uses this filling and a whipped cream frosting. A nice light summer treat.

Enjoy!

Yams, the right way

I receive several cooking magazines in the mail and belong to several more sites online. The result of this is my favorite cookbook. It is a large photo album, the kind with the clear coatings you peel back then put your photos in and reseal the page. Mine has recipes that looked good enough to save. David has asked me why I don't organize it into categories so I can find things easier. What he doesn't realize is that the scattered-mish-mash makes me look at each one again.

About 3 times a year I go through the book carefully and figure out which things I havn't looked at for a long time. They get replaced with whatever is currently making me excited. Every time I do this it's like a brand new cook book to look through and decide what I want to try next.

Sometimes you run into a recipe that you just know you have try and it doesn't even make it into the book! That happened over the last few days finishing up tonight with the most decadent yam dish ever.

Over the weekend I was checking out a bunch of sites that were highlighting holiday dishes.  This dish was so simple I didn't even write it down. I knew I had all the ingredients to make them but other dinner plans kept getting used until tonight.  We both wanted more and were pretty bummed to realize there weren't any.  It is my new favorite.

YAMS

Select yams that are about the size you would want to serve, 1 per person. Think the size of a large regular baker. Poke them good along the top with a small knife or fork,put them in a shallow dish  and pop em in a 350 degree oven. Bake them til they are tender when you stab them with a fork, again using the amount of time you use when baking potatoes as a guide.

When they are just about ready,mix together some butter and brown sugar, Mix equal parts butter and brown sugar using a couple tablespoons or more per potato depending how sweet you prefer.  Take potatoes out of the oven ans cut a slit across the top and fluff the flesh with a fork.

Add the brown sugar/butter and then stuff the opening with little marshmallows. Put it back in the oven for about 5 minutes until the marshmallow puffs and browns.

The result is sweet and rich with a crunch from the toasted marshmallow. This could be dessert.  Or a late night snack.  Or a lunch.  Really I can't wait to go get some more yams!

Recipe: Easy as Pie Crust (requires a food processor)

Through my life I have heard it said over and over: "pie crust is so easy!" Not so for me, not a good basic crust, no matter what I tried. So I learned to rely on store bought sheets of crust for many years. Occasionally I would try tried some new  "fool proof" pie crust tricks:

• pre-chilled all my tools and ingredients; 
• used vodka or vinegar instead of water; 
• barely tossed the ingredients together and kneaded them into horrible little ball of dough. 

At best the results were always dismal and this was disheartening to a girl who thought she could bake anything!

I consider myself a pretty good cook, and a very fine baker. Anyone who has ever worked with me has reaped the benefits of my successful baking experiments. When I bring in a cake or a box of cookies people know it is something to try and their tightly-adhered-to diets go right out the window. Cakes,cookies, tarts and tortes, it is all very easy for me. Even complicated stuff doesn't intimidate me. But pie?  Not so much. I never was able to get the hang of the crust, so pie from scratch, it wasn't something I made much of.

When Food Network Magazine published a Pie Crust 101 several months ago I thought I would give myself one more chance at failure because my son had given me a food processor last Christmas and this article was an opportunity for its maiden voyage. To my delight it worked, and I simply love to find a recipe which is easy to do (magnificently).

Here's the recipe from the article:

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 2 Tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 Teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup cold shortening
• 1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) cold unsalted butter (cut into small pieces)
• 6 Tablespoons ice water

Pulse the flour, sugar and salt in your food processor til combined. Add the shortening and pulse til it disappears into the flour, about 30 seconds. Then add the butter and pulse until it looks like cornmeal with some bean sized lumps. Drizzle in the ice water and pulse til it starts coming together but stop before it all goes together in a ball.  The dough should just hold together when you pinch a bit in your hand. Divide into two equal sized balls and wrap each in plastic wrap. Use the wrap to help you pat the balls into discs and then chill very well (at least 1 hour but up to 24 hours). Then roll it out. 

Notes: This recipe has specific amounts of liquids and I like that there is no guesswork. It seems all the other recipes I tried said to "add enough liquid to get the right consistency", and this was a tricky bit for me. I followed the directions as written, but found that with the cold butter it took more pulses. I learned to cut the butter into smaller pieces and keep pulsing until it gets better distributed in the mix. This is a simple recipe which works well, but it doesn't tell you all you need to know when it says "Then roll it out". Rolling out the dough is not as simple as it sounds.

To those who have not rolled out pie crust, here's my advice: Go slow!  Rolling out chilled dough, either cookie or crust, is not something that can be rushed or you will end up with cracked or torn  dough. Start with an evenly floured surface (I use a wand) and work the dough from the center out in all directions to form a round crust. Once the dough is rolled out to (about 1/4 inch thick), wrap the crust around the rolling pin. This makes it easier to transport it over your pie pan where you can simply roll it off and gently press the crust into the contours of the pan. Fold any loose edges under or cut them off and pinch (or press with a fork) to make a nice edge. Now it's ready to either fill and bake or bake and fill depending on the pie you are making.

If you don't use it all you can freeze the shells by wrapping the pie dish in plastic wrap then again using in 2 layers of foil. And for all those little scraps that are left over on the counter? Make pie crust cookies!

• Smoosh whatever bits and pieces you have into a ball and roll it out like you did for the pie crust. Spread with butter and cinnamon sugar. Cut into squares and put them on an un-greased cookie sheet. And pop in a preheated oven at 400 degrees until light brown.

Yummy deliciousness.

Enjoy!

Recipe: Camp Creekside Chili

This makes about 2 1/2 quarts, but first things first get the parts together. You are going to need three strips of a good, thick sliced, bacon. I suggest you buy a big package and keep it one hand for breakfast nearly every day, but you do as you like. You can get just three slices at most grocery store's butcher counter. While you're back there get a pound of ground chuck steak too. You can use regular hamburger, but the fat content will go up a bit and the flavor down a bit. Also, you'll need half pound of Italian sausage. You are going to have to choose between hot and mild sausage, and the amount of heat in the chili is going to rely heavily on which you choose. I like the mild in this recipe.

Here's the entire shopping list of ingredients:

• 3 Strips of  thick cut bacon
• 1 pound of ground chuck
• 1/2 pound of bulk Italian sausage 
• 1 -14 oz can pinto beans
• 1/2 - 14 oz can black beans 
• 1 - 14 oz can chili beans in spicy sauce
• 1 - 14 oz can diced tomato 
• 1 - 14 oz can fire roasted tomato
• 3 - 6 oz Cans of tomato paste
• 1 - fourteen ounce can of Beef Broth
• 1 - Large yellow onion
• 2 - Stalks of Celery
• 1 Poblano Pepper
• 1 Anaheim Pepper
• 1 Jallapeno Pepper
• 2 Cloves of Garlic
• "Better Than Boullion" (Beef)
• This is the one "secret ingredient" which you might not have is a little jar of  and which everyone ought to add to the spice cabinet, because it is much better than bullion and I use it in a whole lot of recipes. For this recipe I use the beef flavor ("Liquid Cow"); but it also comes in chicken flavor as well, and you should keep both of them handy. 
• 2 Tablespoons of chili powder
• 1/2 Tablespoon of Worcestershire Suace
• 2 Teaspoons of Oregano
• 1 Teaspoon of Ground Cumin
• 1 Teaspoon of Tabasco
• 1/2 Teaspoon of Basil
• 1/2 Teaspoon of Cayenne Pepper
• 1/2 Teaspoon of Paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon of Sugar
• A healthy dash of Salt 
• A healthy dash of Pepper

Before lighting the stove, open all of the cans (but don't drain the liquid from any of them). Core and scrape the seeds from the chilies and chop them fine along with the onion and celery. Have all of the spices measured into one small bowl. . . And you are ready to cook.

Chop the bacon up fine and fry it up in a large stock pot, on a medium high heat. Stir it often and cook until it is a nice deep brown. Add the ground chuck and Italian sausage into the pot and brown everything well.  Carefully drain off the grease and return the pot to the heat. (But never put it down the sink drain.)

Pour the canned goods into the pot and stir in the onions, celery, and peppers. Then add two heaping tablespoons of the Better than Bullion (liquid cow), along with the beef broth. Then add the spices and stir the heck out of it.

Reduce the heat to simmer. then cover the pot and let it cook for three to five hours, stirring occasionally so things don't get burned at the bottom. It is done when the mixture is nice and thick, and the house smells really nice.

You can serve this chili nearly any way you wish:

• A simple bowl with cheese and onions is perhaps the best way to start off. 
• I like to add a drop of sour cream for color and a little new flavor. But you will find that the stuff goes well with nearly anything. 
• Hollow out a loaf of sour dough bread and fill it with chili, cheese, and onions. 
• Pour the chili over tortilla or corn chips (cheese and onions, and maybe some re-fried beans) and you get a nice nacho snack. 
• Ladle it over some fried or grilled corn polenta and you get something of a tamale flavored entre. 
• And Creekside Camp Chili is just a fine chili-dog or chili-burger sauce, with cheese and onions of course. 

None of these serving ideas need the extra cheese, or onions, but you should live a little.

Camp Creekside Chili stores is any air tight container either in the refrigerator for a week or so, or you might freeze it in serving sized containers to make a nice quick lunch or supper. Two and a half quarts can go a long way, but this stuff usually doesn't sit around for long. It gets eaten.

Enjoy!

Recipe: Scratch Pancakes

While Creekside Farm is not going to be a "certified organic" farm, it is very much going to be a farm concerned with providing "clean" food. Clean food is that which has few downsides to eating. Most of the pancake and biscuit mixes on the market today are made with GMO (genetically modified organism) flours. The grains used in GMO flours are usually sprayed with herbicides to aid in producing larger yields. Some farmers engage in the practice of juicing up their yields by spraying herbicide directly only the grains a few day before harvest. This means that some of this toxic stuff makes it into the flour, where you ingest it, and then kills you slowly or just makes you feel like you are gluten intolerant.

This recipe relies on non-GMO flour, like Bob's Red Mill or King Arthur's (which is what I use), but is otherwise just a good simple recipe for making a good simple food.  On a plate with butter and syrup, or some of our good canned fruit preserves, and you have a fine meal which will not leave you feeling a bit sick to your stomach.

And these are lighter and fluffier too....

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Pancakes

Whisk in a bowl and set aside:

• 1 1/2 cups of flour
• 3 tablespoons sugar (C&H is still clean)
• 1 tablespoon baking powder .   

In a separate bowl whisk:

• 1 1/4 cups of organic milk
• If you think you have developed a lactose intolerance, you might consider that the same stuff they spray on wheat, they spray on corn, and then feed the corn silage to the cows that make the milk. These herbicides are everywhere in the cheap food chain. Organic meat, milk, and grains make your food better and absolutely more healthy to eat.
• 1/4 cup (or 1/2 stick) of melted butter (organic is nice),
• 2 eggs
• Cage free or pasture raised eggs are generally better. Organic eggs are chickens fed on grains which are clean of herbicides generally.  
• Dash of vanilla

Then whisk the wet into the dry flour mixture.
Ladle onto a pre-heated (medium heat) and slightly buttered, non-stick skillet and cook till half of the bubbles that emerge break. Flip and cook until the steam stops (this is usually a sure sign of the cooking process stopping, and the burning process beginning). Stack them up onto a dish covered with a linen napkin until served.

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I like to serve a wedge, cut from the larger stack, to each person. It is prettier, takes up less space, and allows either a smaller plate or more breakfast goodies (like bacon). Simple butter and Maple syrup is best (maybe with a dash of molasses stirred in), but these are particularly good with masticated  fresh berries and whipped cream. . .

Recipe: Potato Pancakes

I finally got a great recipe for potato pancakes (latkes or raggmunk), and a really easy recipe too.

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Potato Pancakes

This will make 6 or 7 pancakes. Enough for two people who eat well.

You are going to need:

• 5 - medium potatoes
• 1 - yellow onion
• One large egg
• Some ice
• Salt and Pepper
• A few clean kitchen towels

Into an ice water bath shred about five medium peeled potatoes with about one-half of a yellow onion and let them soak a few minutes to get some of the starch out, then drain off the water and put the mixture onto a clean dry kitchen towel. Roll up the towel and then roll it into another dry towel to squeeze as much water out as you can (but don't wring them tightly or you get to start all over again). What you will have, after you unwrap the towel, is a fairly dry potato and onion mixture which you put back into a medium bowl. Add an egg, a couple tablespoons of flour, and a dash of both salt and pepper and mix it all well using your hands, mix in the potato/onions.

Heat about a quarter inch of oil in a large non-stick skillet over a medium high heat.  When the oil shimmers (but not smoking) add one-third cup mounds of the mixture to the oil in mounds. Flatten with a spatula, then leave it alone until you can see crispy brown edges.

Flip and flatten again and fry until golden.

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Top with sour cream, chopped green onion, and applesauce on the side. Preferably you will have bought a nice chunky homemade one! Goes especially well with pork breakfast sausages, fried brown, and a nice egg fried over easy.

These usually go rubbery if you don't eat them hot, and they just don't freeze at all. So eat the whole lot and be done with it.

Enjoy!

Recipe: Hermit Cookies

Schmelling Hay (David) loves a hearty snack cookie, something that sticks to the ribs. These are a spicy bar cookie which won't sit around and get old. Dark and chewy…wonderfully brown…these cookies will warm a dreary day.

Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Into a small bowl add:

• 2 - Cups  Plus one Tablespoon All purpose Flour
• Use Bob's Red Mill Flour, it is GMO free
• 2 - Teaspoons baking soda
• 2 - Teaspoons Ground Ginger
• 1¾  -  Teaspoons Ground Cinnamon
• 1¾  -  Teaspoons Ground Cloves

In a mixing bowl cream (mix together until creamy)

• 9 - Tablespoons of softened butter
• 1 - Cup of packed brown sugar (C&H is "clean" by our standards)
• 1 - Large egg (cage free, pasture Raised, or organic)
• ¼ = Cup of Brier Rabbit Molasses

Cream the butter and sugar with your mixer until it turns pale and fluffy. Then add the egg, then molasses.  The slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in the mixing bowl. Increase mixer speed to medium and beat just until the dough comes together, about 1 minute.

Then add:

• ¾ cup of Raisins (chopped or not)

Divide dough in half. Shape each half into a log about one and a half inches in diameter and about twelve inches long. Arrange the logs about two or three inches apart on an un-greased baking sheet.

Bake until the logs flatten out and are golden brown (fifteen to eighteen minutes), and while still very soft to the touch and puffy in the center. The dough will crack during baking and will seem slightly raw inside even when the logs are done. Allow them to cool completely before glazing.

GLAZE

• 1¾ Cups powdered sugar (C & H is still pretty good sugar)
• 3 Tablespoons milk (Buy the organic milk. You will really enjoy it with these cookies.)
•  ½ Teaspoon of lemon or orange peel zest
• Grate the fresh peel using a fine toothed grater, or buy the stuff already dried at Penskeys or Costco. 

Whisk the glaze ingredients together in a small bowl and drizzle over cooled logs using a fork or a spoon. Once the glaze is hardened, cut each log in 2 inch wide slices and love them as they ought to be loved.

Store airtight to maintain chewiness.

Enjoy!

Recipe: Navajo Tacos

This is a nice change from regular tacos. As a matter of fact, they are barely "tacos at all. more of a tostada if the truth be told. But people call them tacos, so there you go. Native Americans (like David) have a cultural affinity with what they call "fry bread". This recipe uses a wonderful and easy fried bread to serve these "tacos" on. Any day of the week these are amazingly easy to make and even easier to eat. A spicy treat for lunch or dinner and the left overs are good for about a week.

The original recipe called for a full tablespoon of cayenne pepper, and although it was indeed tasty, it was also the definition of lightning hot! Trial and error has me using a generous teaspoon instead but if you are feeling adventurous go for the tablespoon. The original recipe also calls for Cojito (co-he-to) cheese, but we substitute Cottage Cheese most of the time (it adds a creamy cool-ness but looks pretty horrifying).

Navajo Tacos

Chili

If you have already made the best chili in the world (Camp Creekside Chili) use it here. Otherwise the following is an easier substitute which makes a smaller batch a lot quicker.

Sweat (cook in a small saute pan over a medium low heat)

• 1 - Cup diced yello onion
• 2 - Tablespoons minced garlic
• 1 - Teaspoon Ground Cayenne Pepper
• 2 - Teaspoons Ground Cumin
• 1 - Teaspoons Ground Corriander
• 1 - Teaspoon Dried Oregano 
• (soaked for a while in 3 Tablespoons of cooking oil).  

Once onion has softened and begin to become clear add:

• 2 - pounds of ground ground sirloin
• 3 - Tablespoons of Goya Chipotle in Adobo Sauce
• You are going to use this a bit with my recipes.
• 1 - Tablespoon tomato sauce, 
• 1 - 16 oz can of pinto beans with the liquid.  

Cook until the beef is not longer pink.

Leave it simmering while you make the fry bread.

Fry Bread:

Whisk together in a medium bowl:

• 2 -  Cups flour (Bob's Red Mill is GMO free)
• 2 - Teaspoons  baking powder

Then cut into the bowl

• 4 - Tablespoons cold butter.

Then stir in

• 2/3  - Cup of cold water. 

Knead together until smooth and let it rest while you make the chili.

Cut the dough into 8 pieces. Press each into a 6 inch round. Fry the rounds in oil til golden on both sides. They cook quick, fast, and in a hurry, so watch them.

To serve: ladle some of the chili over the fry bread, then add cheese. We like some cottage cheese, it really balances the flavors. Cheddar works well, as does cojito, or shredded cheese blends. Cover with shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes, and sliced avocado.
This recipe prepares well and is better when eaten with a fork. You can make the chili days in advance (use the Camp Creekside Chili Recipe) and do the bread on the spot. In about ten minutes you have a nice little supper dish.

Enjoy!

Recipe: Cheesy Potato Cups

This is a very nice little potato dish which is a great deal like Scalloped Potaoes. Creamy deliciousness inside a crispy cheese shell outside. They freeze well, so you can make a batch and pop one or two into the microwave, or fry them for breakfast by popping them in a hot frying pan with a little butter, smashing them slightly with a spatula as they start to heat up (flipping them once they’ve browned just a bit).

Cheesy Potato Cups

Makes 12 cups

• ½ - Cups Panko bread crumbs
• 1 - Tablespoon softened butter
• 2 - pounds peeled potatoes 
• I use regular old Russet Burbanks, but imagine other potatoes would work fine.
• 1¼ - Cup Half and Half
• 1 1/3 - Cup sharp cheddar cheese (about 5½ ounces)
• 2/3 - Cups grated Parmesan  cheese (about 1¼ oz)
• 2 - Teaspoons Cornstarch
• A sprinkle of salt and pepper

Pre-heat your oven to 425 degrees farenheit. 

Prepare muffin tins by buttering them and  then coating each well with Panko crumbs.

Cut each potato in half lengthwise, then cut each half into 3 wedges. Then cut each wedge into one-quarter inch slices. 

Combine the potatoes, half and half, and salt and pepper into a large bowl, cover the bowl with a plate, and microwave until just barely tender (12 – 15 minutes) stirring once midway through cooking.

While you are waiting out the microwave cooking time, reserving about a third of a cup of the cheddar cheese and toss rest of the Cheddar with the Parmesan cheese and cornstarch together, then add the mix to the hot potatoes, and stir until smooth. 

Divide potato mixture evenly into the muffin-tin cups and top each with the Cheddar you put aside in the last step. (More cheese isn't a problem, so if you missed that step, add some cheese.)

Spray a sheet of aluminum foil (sufficient to cover the muffin-tin) with non-stick oil (Pam or something like it) and cover the muffin-tin tightly, then bake for ten minutes. Uncover the muffin-tin and continue baking until golden brown (another 13 – 15 minutes). 

Run a knife along the edges so they break free, but allow everything to to set up (cool) for five 5 minutes in before removing them from the muffin-tin. They're going to be very hot, so let them cool another five minutes before serving or you might hurt someone.

This is a great little side dish for breakfast, lunch , or dinner.

Enjoy!