It's cooling down

We haven't had a long stream of rain in a couple of months. It was such a soothing sound to hear the rain fall. I may not feel this way in a few months, but right now, the sound was fantastic.
When I arise, my favorite thing to do is to brew a cup of coffee and sit on my back porch and listen. I hear, unfortunately road noise,  birds chirping and my favorite frog doing his loud grunting. I'm sure it's a frog making this funny noise because I've found him and heard him up close. We have little green frogs in the vegetable garden, but this one hangs out in the porch garden. My dogs join me to sunbathe or just hang out. If a squirrel or crow should come near, they become the objects of chase. My dogs are hunters, known as dachshunds. Two of the three hunt very well, the third, well, he just barks and heads for the house.
The birch tree is now shedding its leaves which to me is the sign that fall is slowly creeping its way back. I love fall: cool morning,warm afternoons, rain, and football. College and pro footbal reigns supreme here. Hubby is a former football player and he loves the sport.

Oregon football season begins this Saturday!!!

Cinnamon Rolls Supreme: you'll never be sorry you've made these!

Cinnamon Rolls (Farm Chicks in the Kitchen)
1 cup milk
2 ¼ teaspoon yeast
½ cup sugar
½ cup butter (1 stick), softened
2 large eggs
4 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup brpwn sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
Cream Cheese icing -- recipe below
Make the dough: Heat milk in a small saucepan over low heat or in a microwave until it
is warm, not hot (105ºF - 115ºF). Add it to a large mixing bowl. Sprinkle yeast on top and
let it sit until dissolved - about 3 minutes. Meanwhile, melt ¼ cup butter in a small
saucepan over low heat or in a microwave. Whisk the sugar, eggs and melted butter
into the milk mixture. Stir in the flour and salt with a wooden spoon, mixing until the
ingredients are well combined. (This is where I use the stand mixer). Cover the bowl
with plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes.
Proof the dough: turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 3
minutes. Lightly oil another large bowl. (Dang, I just clean out the one I just emptied).
Place the dough in the bowl, turn to coat the dough with oil. Cover with plastic wrap of a
towel and let it rise in a warm place, draft-free, until double in volume--30 - 40 mins.
(Hereʼs where temperature, yeast have a way with this time frame, the most important
thing here is to let it rise until doubled).
Make the filling and Cream Cheese icing: While the dough is rising, mix the brown
sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl for the filling and set aside. Prepare the Cream
Cheese Icing and set it aside. (Cream Cheese Icing: Beat 4 tablespoons of softened
butter with 2 tablespoons softened cream cheese in a medium-sized bowl with an
electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Beat in ¾ cup confectionerʼs sugar
and ½ teaspoon vanilla until well blended. Cover with plastic wrap until ready to use.)
Form the rolls: Butter a jelly roll pan. Once the dough has risen, punch it down, then
transfer it to a lightly floured surface and roll it into a 15 x 20 inch rectangle. Spread the
remaining ½ cup butter evenly over the dough using a spatula and sprinkle with the
brown sugar-cinnamon mix. Starting at 1 long side, roll up the dough jelly roll style,
forming a log. Pinch the seam and ends to seal. Use a serrated knife to cut the log
crosswise unto 12 equal sections. Arrange the rolls about 1 inch apart spiral side up, in
the prepared pan. Cover with parchment paper and a kitchen towel and let rise until
doubled in size - about 1 hour. After 45 minutes, heat the oven to 375ºF.
Bake the rolls: Once the rolls have risen, uncover them and bake until light golden
brown-12 to 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and immediately invert onto a wire
rack. Cool 10 minutes. Turn the rolls right side up. Spread with Cream Cheese Icing and
serve warm.

Canning and Baking--weather's perfect!

Tomorrow is the last day I'm doing apples for awhile. I've been using a recipe called Apple Preserves. You chop tiny chunks of green apples. They are cooked for awhile in a large saucepot until soften. I use a potato masher to squish some, actually most of the apple chunks. They form a lovely jam texture. Add sugar, boil, then pectin, boil, take off the heat, add cinnamon and nutmeg and you have the loveliest apple pie jam. It'll have lots of little chunks still left in it which is why it's called a preserve. I'll make my third batch. Kids and grandkids are nuts about it so I figured I better make more. Sounds like Christmas gifts to me!
 
I also found a template for some sticker sheets I found on Amazon. Made of Kraft paper (like paper bags). I love to make some decorative stickers for my jam jars. Did some up for the Apple Preserves and some future canning of pumpkin butter to be done this fall. I was on a roll with the computer so I did all I needed at one shot!
Tried out a new bread recipe. It needed help or perhaps the person who developed it made this recipe during the winter when the flour reacted differently. I adjusted it until it became a workable but soft dough and kneaded it a lot, both by machine and hand. It baked up to be a wonderfully delicious loaf. I'll have to make notes on the recipe card so it can be reproduced. My grandkids are nuts about rye bread. That's next.

Sweet Onion Relish & Mason Jar soap dispenser

   A friend of mine broke into the first jar of this relish that she made and canned. She was raving about it and ended up eating the whole jar. Donʻt freak out, it was only a half-pint. So I was anxious to make some too. What I had available was some Walla Walla sweet onions, spicy brown mustard, some fresh thyme and dried tarragon to make this with. I canned 8 jars today (the recipe makes 9 half-pints easily but I used two European jars and they are slightly larger than half-pints). It needs to set three weeks. Hope I can last that long before dipping into a jar! (See Recipe page )
   I did make a Mustard Pickle relish which is spicy and something I could eat a whole jar of. And then there were the pickles I made: my fav-bread and butter, kosher dill and some Polish dills...
Relishes and pickles must be set aside. The apple tree in the back yard is dropping its fruit. Itʻs time to make apple pie filling and apple jam. So out comes the apple corer, peeler and slicer, an old-fashioned gadget that actually works, but only with smaller apples. My recipe is an old one, one Iʻve used for years, the difference is I now use Clear Jel instead of the corn starch it calls for. And in the previous relish recipes that asked for flour, used the CJ. Safer canning-something about heat penetration.
   Got hubby busy on a project. In our kitchen is a coat closet. Lots of junk in it. Thereʻs a hidden corner in this closet and Iʻd like two shelves to hold the canned goods and my canning tools. They are presently relegated to the garage where I find hazards in the way of getting at them. The closet nevers overheats, never gets really cold. Always very cool and dark. Perfect storage for canned goods and....it puts them actually in the kitchen. Yeah!!
   I am proud of a little project Iʻve pulled off. Iʻve turned some mason jars into soap holders for my bathroom, the main bath and the kitchen. In my bathroom, I have an ancient Atlas jar with a tint of green, the main bath has the new blue "vintage" Ball jar, the kitchen, some plain old Ball jars but their lids are red!

Hereʻs a plain Jane one. With an awl, tin snips and an old soap pump from a bottle I had in the house, is how I made the first one. People have used a drill but buying drill bits at ten bucks apiece for the difference sizes of soap dispensers just didnʻt make sense to me.  I love collecting the ancient mason jars, wonʻt use them to can with, but I can repurpose them into objects Iʻll enjoy having around. Next project--mason jar lamp.

Red Pepper Jelly or should it be called Jam

This recipe produces an awesome, beautiful product which I put on all kinds of meat. Itʻs going on tonightʻs hamburgers!