11/18/2018 – Made by Mary for our first Thanksgiving feast at the farm based on the recipe here that was based on one by Ina Garten here. They were popular with the guests.
Continue reading
11/18/2018 – Made this high-fiber trail mix for the kids 2018 Thanksgiving visit made with our pecans. Used a mixture of kernels from the following trees: Hastings, Cheyennes, Elloits, Stuarts, and Shawnees.
2C Kashi GOLean Original
2C Kashi GOLean Chocolate
2C dried cranberries, i.e. Craisins
1C Sunny Cranberry Trail Mix by Archer Farms from Target. Contains sunflower seeds, almonds and other nuts and seeds.
1-3/4 CM Golden Raisins cause that is all we had
5C Honey roasted pecans from the farm
That was inspired by Healthier Lower Cal Trail Mix
- 4 cups Kashi® GOLEAN Original cereal
- 1 cup raisins
- 1 cup dried cranberries
- 1 cup almonds, slivered, sliced or coarsely chopped
- 1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
- 1 cup sunflower seeds or pistachios
11/9/2018 – First made this for Mark and Sandra’s first visit to the renovated farm this date and everyone liked it. It was inspired by the recipe here. The cake made for the 2018 and 2019 family Thanksgiving feast was a big hit but thankfully there was a lot leftover as there were many desserts.
Continue reading11/1/2018 – This was the first cake Mary made in the new oven at the farm. It was inspired by the recipe here. It was also made for Thanksgiving 2023 and enjoyed by all.
INGREDIENTS:
- 4 sticks butter
- 4 cups sugar
- 4 cups flour (cake or all-purpose)
- 8 large eggs
- 8 oz. cream cheese
- 2 to 3 tsp of vanilla flavoring
- 1 cup pecans, chopped
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 jar of caramel ice cream topping
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Leave cream cheese, butter, and eggs out to reach room temperature.
- In mixer, cream butter, cream cheese, and sugar until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time. Then, add flour, one cup at a time. Last, add vanilla flavoring.
- Grease and flour tube/bundt pan and pour in batter. Pour in batter first, then sprinkle pecans and brown sugar on top (a cup or a little more of each). Lightly press into the batter.
- Bake at 300 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes. (You may want to tent the top with foil to keep the nuts from scorching.) Then, increase the temperature to 325 degrees and bake for an additional 30 minutes. Test the cake with a fork or wooden skewer to check for doneness. The utensil should come out dry and clean (no batter).
- Remove from the oven and allow a few minutes to cool before removing from the pan.
- When you invert onto a plate, you may lose a few nuts, but most will bake into the top layer of crust.
- Then, turn the cake onto another plate so that the nuts are on top. The original recipe calls to “Drizzle with a jar of caramel ice cream topping. Heat from the cake will make the caramel melt over the pecans.” That would have been far to much sugar for us so it was not added.
From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYhnyp-xKTs&t=168s
Related Video: Refried Beans: https://youtu.be/iC5mR5s70bE
Huevos Rancheros
2 white onions
4 Roma tomatoes, cored
2 jalapenos
2 serrano peppers
6 garlic cloves (divided)
2 guajillo chilies finely chopped
Bacon grease or fry oil
Corn tortillas
Eggs
Shredded cheese, for sprinkling
Slice the onion in half, but be sure to keep the root ends intact.
Begin by preparing the vegetables: Core the tomatoes, slice the stems off the jalapeno and serrano peppers and remove the seeds, if desired to reduce the spiciness. Slice the onions in half, but keep the root intact.
Fill a large saucepan about halfway with water. Add all the vegetables and 4 of the garlic cloves. Bring to a boil for about 10 minutes or until the tomatoes are tender, adding more water if needed.
Remove the vegetables with a slotted spoon and let cool. Peel the outer skin of the tomatoes off and discard (soaking them in cold water beforehand, will release the skin easier). Cut the stems off the jalapeno and serrano peppers, and remove the seeds, if desired. Remove the root of the onions.
Add all the vegetables, along with the remaining 2 garlic cloves to a blender, and diced guajillo peppers and Salt and pepper, to taste. Blend until smooth.
Pour the contents in a saucepan to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer, cover and continue to cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Meanwhile, heat about 1 tablespoon of bacon grease or oil in a cast iron skillet. Add the tortillas and flip to coat with grease on both sides. Cook until they bubble up slightly and warm through on both sides. Be sure not to overcook until crispy.
Return to the skillet, adding more grease if needed, and add the egg(s). Fry until over-easy.
Take the tortillas and top with the egg followed by some sprinkled cheese and then the sauce. Top with more cheese. Serve immediately.
This cook was inspired in October 2018 by the recipe on page 65 of my copy of Rick Bragg’s book The Best Cook in the World. That recipe was provided by his mother; a.k.a. The Best Cook. We liked them much better than the usual salt-and-a-little-black-pepper lightly seasoned dish. The pepper levels made it a bit spicy. Skip down to the Our 2020 recipe as that is how we regularly make grits to have with fried eggs for breakfast.
Continue readingBought a head of cabbage with dark green heavy outer leaves at Sessions. Chopped it into 1/4″-1/2 ” squares and add the following as computed using the spreadsheet in DropBox. Note I messed up the measurements but decided to leave it and see how it is.
| grams | |
| Cabbage | 1744.0 |
| 0.2% caraway seed = | |
| 0.5% yellow mustard = | |
| 0.7% juniper berries = | |
| 1.4% canning salt = | 24.4 |
10/2/2018 – Fried about 15 12-15 count shrimp using Zatarain’s Seasoned Shrimp Fry mix in a cast iron Chicken Fryer using 3/4″ of Canola oil. Followed the directions on the box to make the batter plus added Kit’s Creole Seasoning to the batter and dry mix.
Did not worry with the thermometer for oil temp. The oil seemed hot enough so dropped in one battered shrimp and it only simmered. Turned up the burner on the Monogram (our first “deep” fry with the new stove) and it got the shrimp to frying quickly. Added three more and cooked the rest in batches.
Mary swirled them around to keep them cooking evenly and they turned out great. Looked like the ones in the restaurants and tasted better.
After several meals while preparing to move from Houston to the farm on September 17, 2018, the movers unloaded our boxes and furniture and the relocation was complete…and the unboxing began.
This first time ever to cook in new oven was a reverse sear of a Choice T-bone Steak. Put the cold steak seasoned with cracked black pepper into the small oven preheated to 250 convection bake with the oven’s probe set to 125.
Preheated grill to 400 degrees starting at the time the steak was put into the convection oven.
After about 20 minutes it moved beyond the 100-degree point. Probe shut down oven at 125.
Moved it to the preheated griddle that had been oiled with bacon fat. Seared quickly so flipped it after about 5 minutes. Then flipped it back after 6-7 min. Flipped a third time and left it on for 3-4 minutes.
Served a rare steak that was well cooked and tasted great.
Next Time – Dry brine the steak. The 125 probe setting was a little low or else the griddle needed to be preheated longer so it was actually at 400. It did not seem that hot.