Courtesy of Debbie King of Wiggins, Mississippi Yesterday I visited one my favorite Amish produce stands and returned with the most gorgeous strawberries! My good friend, Debbie King, had just posted a recipe for Strawberry Cake and I realized that I just had to share it with you. (My substitutions are noted with an asterik * and are italicized) Thank you, Debbie, for sharing this recipe with us! Strawberry Cake 1 box White Duncan Hines cake mix *homemade dry white cake ingredients will work as well, or a gluten-free cake mix 1 box Strawberry Jello 3/4 cup Wesson oil * butter, coconut oil or sunflower oil would my fat of choice 1/2 cup Organic Strawberries 1/2 Water or juice from strawberries 4 yard eggs *local, pastured eggs Sift dry ingredients together. Then add remaining ingredients. Mix until all well blended. Divide in 3 buttered round cake pans. Preheat oven @ 375 bake until toothpicks comes out clean. Cool completely. Strawberry Butter Cream Frosting 1/2 cup fresh goat butter (soft) *raw cow butter will work as well 1 box powdered sugar 1/2 cup organic strawberries few drops of red food coloring *you could always simmer a few beets and use the concentrated cooled liquid as well... Blen all ingredients together & mix until smooth. Put 1 tablespoon of frosting on cake plate, add 1st cake then add frosting, continue on until all three are complete & all top & sides are frosted. Add strawberries on top for decoration
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The heroine in my favorite novel is praised for her fluffy, yellow mayonnaise. For years I scratched my head about that, wondering: Why yellow? Then I started reading the treatise/cookbook Nourishing Traditions. I learned all about good fats, healthy eggs and replacing processed imitators with real food. I started making my own mayo. This is SO simple. If you don't make anything else that I talk about, seriously, try it. You'll be hooked. Here's what you need: Ready? Here we go - Use the wide mouth mason jar to whip it up into. Put the egg, lemon juice, mustard and salt into the jar. (Note - to make your mayo last longer AND give you a good-enzyme health boost, add 1 tbsp of whey - the liquid from your yogurt, or, a tablespoon of plain yogurt.) Using your stick blender (What? You don't have one? Well, use your blender...) quickly mix it all together. Keeping the blender going, start to pour the oil into the jar in a thin, steady stream. By the time the oil is poured into the jar, you should have a thick, yellow mayonnaise. (If you added whey or yogurt, leave your mayo on the counter for about 7 hours, loosely covered. This will activate the good enzymes and bacteria, and the mayo will keep longer in the fridge. Also, if you are concerned about using raw eggs, this should help ease your mind - the mayo has now become a lacto-fermented product, with good bacteria to protect your gut.) There. Simple. Clean up will take you longer than actually making it.
What about YOU? Do you have a favorite recipe for basic summer foods? Would you post it and share? I'd love to hear what's happening in YOUR kitchen! *Disclaimer* Please do not attempt this with grocery-store eggs. The eggs in this recipe are raw. Raw eggs are great - if they are fresh, local, and pastured. Otherwise, you'll risk lots of nasty bacteria. And really, if you're buying store-bought mayo with eggs in it, chances are pretty good you're eating nasty bacteria that's dead. (Remember the salmonella-egg scare summer 2010? Those eggs were sold to processing plants which then cooked them and used them in processed food. The FDA said that was safe. Go figure.) I'm working out the menu for our first full camping weekend, and thought I'd share it with you...
This is a 2 1/2 day menu, Friday dinner - Sunday dinner. Friday Night: Macaroni Salad Hot Dogs on the grill Saturday: Breakfast - Cereal & Milk with fruit Lunch - Tacos/Burritos , Salad, Corn Bread Dinner - Meat Pies, Foiled Potatoes Sunday: Breakfast - Cereal & Milk with fruit Lunch - Scrambled Egg Pies Dinner - Grilled Pizza I'm looking forward to making the pies. I plan on buying pie crust (Gasp! I know, I know, but I can't do everything!) and folding them over to make pockets. I'll make meat pies with ground beef and veggies, a bit like a regular meat pie with less gravy; and the egg pies will be eggs, cheese, onions, peppers and bacon all cooked together tucked into a pie crust. These will be cooked over the grill. Can't wait! The pizza is super simple - I'll mix up some 15 minute Pizza Dough (thanks to my Mom's favorite cooking resource, Fanny Farmer, and cook it on the grill each side. Add the sauce, meat and cheese, heat through and voila - pizza. Yum! I'll be sure to take pictures so you can see how they did (or did not) come out! Lapin is French for rabbit. You can find some amazing recipes for rabbit if you Google Lapin recipes. Rabbit is an excellent addition to the self-sufficient repertoire of meat choices. Anyone who wants to save money on their grocery bill could do with a few rabbits. I buy them inexpensively from backyard breeders or local auctions, feed them lots of fresh greens and veggies for a few months, then butcher. Butchering takes ten minutes. Don't forget, I'm from Southern Massachusetts - it's not like I grew up doing this stuff.
Still not convinced? How about this: * Rabbit is an all white meat. It has 795 calories per pound compared to chicken at 810, turkey at 1190,beef at 1440 and pork at 2050 * Rabbit is high in protein at 20.08 per pound, chicken at 20, beef at 16.3 and pork at 11.9 (Source: Stonewall Rabbitry) Okay, enough jibber jabber. Here is the recipe, compliments of CDKitchen (link to follow), with my tweeks. Braised Lapin with Pears 4 Servings Ingredients: 2 young rabbits, each cut into 6 to 8 pieces salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste 1/2 cup all-purpose flour 3 tablespoons grass fed, raw butter 1 medium organic onion, finely diced 3 cups homemade blackberry juice (or dry red wine) 1 cup pear juice (from canned pears) 2 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar 1 tablespoon maple syrup 2 bay leaves 2 sprigs fresh rosemary 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup home canned pears (or store bought) 3 tablespoons chilled butter Directions: Season rabbit pieces and dust lightly with flour. Heat butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and saute for 3 - 4 minutes. Add rabbit pieces and brown each evenly. Add wine, broth, vinegar, syrup, bay leaves, rosemary and salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Add pears to the pan, cover and simmer for 30 minutes more. Remove rabbit and place on medium low grill for 5 minutes a side (this crisps up the coating). Place grilled rabbit and pears plates. Remove bay leaves and rosemary from pan. Whisk in butter until melted and spoon sauce over rabbit. |
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