Happiness Is....

When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us. Helen Keller

I don't know what happiness is for you...spending time with children or grandchildren, going to the beach, practicing a fulfilling hobby or maybe it is your work. What makes a person "happy" is as different between individuals as in falling snowflakes.

One of the things that I am "happy" doing, is canning great fruits and vegetables each year that I can use through the winter. Today let's do Peach Butter, one of my husband's very favorite things...it makes him smile, and that makes me happy!

SPICED PEACH BUTTER

Yields 8 half-pint jars

* 12 cups peaches, peeled and diced
* 1 cup honey
* 6 tablespoons fresh ginger, minced
* 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
* 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Combine all ingredients in a slow cooker (crock pot). Cook on low heat for about 12 hours. Use an immersion blender to puree the mixture until smooth. Cook for an additional hour or two, until thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. (You may want to remove the lid on your slow cooker for a little while to let some of the steam escape and give the peach butter a chance to thicken up just a bit.)

A shelf fully of "happy" in my pantry!

Now, if you are not crazy about the "spice" you can opt to leave the spices out and instead add about 1/4 cup brown or white sugar instead of the honey and spices. Believe me, either way it is a family favorite!

I usually cut (with pinking shears) small circles out of Christmas Printed material (Hobby Lobby always has great fabrics early in the season) and put atop the jars and tie with rafia. This makes great Christmas gifts for co-workers or neighbors, if your family will let you part with any of it!

Cooking Up A New Opportunity

I am a grandma of seven, and great grandma of two. A fact which is a bit daunting at times. I can't believe that I have lived that many years! But, I wouldn't trade my grandma status for anything!

This morning I got a telephone call from Grandparents.com about a new TV Cooking show which will feature Mo Rocca. They are considering me as a guest on this show.

So, my blogging followers, I am hoping you will soon see me on the small screen. It should be a hoot! Nothing is for sure yet, but at least I know it is a possibility.

So, here's the recipe of the day!

For all those "colds" your kids are gonna pick up now that they are back in school.
Believe me this soup will make you a believer, it can chase away a cold faster than any cold remedy you can buy! And kids love it!!

CARROT SOUP

2 pounds carrots cut in 1/2 pieces(I prefer organic, which tend to be sweeter) Bunny Love, for example
1 Large onion, finely chopped
8 or MORE cloves of finely minced Garlic - this is a key ingredient!
1/4 Cup Butter (optional but makes a more decadent soup)
1 - 1 1/2 cups milk, half n half or cream (you can use soy or Almond Milk also)
1 quart chicken stock, or enough to cover the carrots in your pan

Combine carrots, chicken broth, onion and garlic in large saucepan and cook until TENDER.

Puree carrot mixture and return to saucepan with broth.

Add Butter and milk, salt and pepper to taste and heat just to boil.

Remove from heat.

This actually makes a great appetizer also. To dress it up you may add a dollop of sour cream and a chive sprig.


Hope you try this...it is quick, easy and delicious and HEALTHY!

Going Bananas!

While I was shopping in the produce section this morning, I noticed a grocery basket full of overripe bananas. Oh wow, I thought to myself...marked down, over ripe bananas = Banana Nut Bread!

Now, I am not talking just any Banana Nut Bread. You may even think you don't like banana nut bread. Well, you really haven't had any until you have some of this decadent, moist, caramelized miracle.

Soooooo, it took me about 3 seconds to decide to scoop up a bunch of those bananas. You see, I have found that peeled, diced and frozen, these bananas will keep for quite some time, and make banana nut bread extraordinaire at the drop of a hat.

Every time I have someone try this, they want MORE! It is hard to let it cool long enough before it is disappearing. I found this recipe while surfing for banana recipes one year after a party where I served Bananas Foster (another really fabulous sweet thing), and I had a bunch of bananas left over. I cut them up and put them in the freezer and used them a month later to make this wonderful bread.

I promise you this recipe is worth the time....and, it is easy!

BEST BANANA NUT BREAD EVER

2 Cups White Sugar (or 1 1/2 white and 1/2 cup brown)
1 Cup (2 sticks) Butter
4 Eggs, beaten
2 Cups mashed (I put em in the blender) overripe bananas
1 Cup chopped Nuts - I have used walnuts and pecans, pick your favorite!
2 Cups All Purpose Flour
1 Teaspoon Salt
2 Teaspoons Baking Soda


1. PREHEAT oven to 350 degrees F (175 C). Grease a large Bundt Pan (using the
wrappers from the butter you will use in the recipe.
2. Cream butter and sugar until smooth. Add bananas, eggs and walnuts stirring
until well blended.
3. Sift together, flour, salt and baking soda.
4. Dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix until blended.
5. Pour into Bundt Pan
6. Bake for 60 to 70 minutes or until a knife inserted into the crown of the bread
comes out clean.
7. Cook in pan for 5-8 minutes, and turn out onto rack.

If your family is like mine, half the bread will be gone before it is even cool!
I don't know how it happens, but the bread has a carmelized texture on the outside and is ever so moist. Great for Holiday Gift Giving! Enjoy....

Til next time...Okaloosa Girl signing off....

Craving Blue Crabs!

I grew up in Southern Maryland right up the hill from the Potomac River, backwater creeks and estuaries. When the weather got hot the craving for Steamed Crabs was strong. It was part of a family tradition to get a line, some chicken necks or smoked eel, cut them up small and attach them to a trout line. The trout line had bouys attached to each end...and an anchor to hold it in place. We would get in the boat with our line, bait, dip nets and a bushel basket.

We would usually head out early in the morning and place the line to attract the crabs. Then we would go ashore to come back a little later to fish the line.
It was an exciting time as you crept back up to the line and began to pull it bait piece by bait piece. If you were lucky, the entire string would have a crab on each little piece of bait. We used to fill a bushel basket in one morning.

Then, we would hurry home with our "catch", place them in a large stainless steel drum with just the right amount of water in the bottom to cover the rack and lots and lots of cayenne, Old Bay and Salt! About 30 minutes later out came the most beautiful, tasty creatures you ever ate. Believe me, by the time we were four, we knew how to pick out our own crabs. This is an art that people in Southern Maryland learn at a very young age, and never, never forget.

You don't have to have a boat to catch crabs however, or even a trout line with smoked eel. This Summer, while we were at Okaloosa Island, I took my granddaughters crabbing for the first time. We went to the bait store and picked up some collapsible basket traps ( about $3.00 each ) and then to Publix for a package of about a dozen chicken necks ( about another $3.00 ). As you can see, crabbing isn't expensive. It does however, require GREAT patience.

After purchasing our supplies, we headed for a local public dock to hunt the watery treasure. The girls were beside themselves with excitement about the possibility of catching crabs. After tying the chicken necks to the bottom of the traps, we placed our little baskets into the shallow water off the end of the dock and waited.

It wasn't too long before we pulled up our first tiny (just a little over 3" point to point) crab! You would have thought it was a 200 pound Marlin for all the excitement it generated. The girls were ecstatic, and I was thrilled at the memories we would share about this day. We only caught eight crabs that afternoon, but taking them home and preparing them for the girls was part of a tradition I wished to pass to yet another generation of our family.

I spent a little time showing them how to pick out their own meat, also part of the tradition, and they thoroughly enjoyed it.

We shared lots of time, talk and just plain fun that day on the dock. We even had a large Blue Heron who sat at the end of the dock and kept company with us ALL day! We knew what he was waiting for, and when we got ready to leave, he got his reward.
What a happy bird he was. Didn't know Herons ate chicken necks, sounded kinda cannibalistic to me, but he gobbled it right down.

Making memories and carrying on traditions with your children and grandchildren is such an important part of life. These special little moments are the ones they will remember more than the trips to expensive amusement parks. Hopefully they will carry these joyful moments with them and share them with their own children someday.

Oh, by the way, here is a family recipe for the best Crab Cakes you will ever eat.
Just in case you are like my hubby, who was born in Pennsylvania, and refuses to learn to pick out crabs!

MARYLAND STYLE CRAB CAKES

Ingredients

1 Pound Crabmeat...you can use your favorite...I prefer lump, but claw is
equally tasty
1/2 cup melted butter..yes BUTTER
1/2 cup fine bread crumbs
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup finely chopped, sauteed onions
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning (there is NO substitute for this)
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste

combine above ingredients until well mixed, adding crabmeat LAST...gently fold crabmeat into the mixture. Scoop (I use and ice cream scoop) mixture and place gently in lightly oiled frying pan and flatten slightly. Brown lightly on both sides.

Serve immediately....these can be made ahead and warmed in the oven before serving if you can keep your family from gobbling them up as they come out of the pan!
I make "mini" crabcakes as an appetizer during the holidays. The kids just love 'em!

Breakfast and Bread Pudding

Got up at Five AM this morning to fix breakfast for 36 of my dear neighbors. I have lived in this community since 2002 and used to cook breakfast once a month for the neighborhood. It is a great time to get together and visit over a good meal, and who doesn't love breakfast?

The menu consisted of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, biscuits and sausage gravy, cinnamon rolls, blueberry streusel coffee cake, cantalope and coffee and orange juice. I got up at five because as you can see it is quite a lot of food to prepare. My sweet daughter, Melanie, came down from Forsyth to give me a hand this morning, as I haven't fixed breakfast for so many in several months. All the neighbors told me how excited they were to be having it.

I am a person who enjoys making other people smile, and believe me, as they wolfed down their sausage 'n biscuits this morning, they were smiling. It is nice to see them greeting each other with smiles and hugs. Some hadn't actually seen each other for months. Needless to say, breakfast was a roaring success, and we will be having our next one on September 10th.

One thing that sometimes causes me problems are the leftovers. It is hard to tell from one month to another what things will be consumed in large quantities and which ones will be left over. This morning I had a LOT of leftover biscuits. Yummy but leftover.

After packing everything up and taking it home, I remembered seeing a recipe on the cooking channel for bread pudding using biscuits. My hubby LOVES bread pudding, sooooo as I am writing this blog the bread pudding is in the oven. YUMMO!

Hubby will be Happy when he gets home tonight. Thought I might share this simple recipe with you...it is not only husband friendly, but kid friendly too!

APPLE BUTTER BREAD PUDDING

6 cups broken up biscuits ( I used Pillsbury )
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup apple butter
5 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup raisins
2 TBSP Cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter 2 quart baking dish.
Break up biscuits into large bowl. In another bowl thoroughly mix eggs, sugar, milk, cinnamon and apple butter until it is about the consistency of cake batter.
Fold into broken biscuits and add raisins, mixing until all biscuit crumbles are moistened.

Pour into 2 quart baking dish and bake for 60 - 70 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream, or whipped cream. It's also good cold! Enjoy!

Simple Summer Appetizers

Tomato Mozzarella Tartlets

1 Minced Garlic Clove
1 TBSP Olive Oil
1 1/2 cups seeded chopped tomatoes
3/4 cup shredded part skim mozzarella cheese
1/2 tsp. Basil
Pepper to taste

24 Phyllo Tartlets (available in frozen food section of grocery store)
6 pitted ripe olives
grated Parmesan Cheese

In small frying pan saute garlic in olive oil for one minute
Add tomatoes and cook until liquid has evaporated.
Remove from heat, stir in mozzarella Basil and Pepper

Spoon 1 teaspoonful into each tartlet and top with sprinkle of Parmesan cheese and a piece of olive. Bake in 450 degree oven 5 to 8 minutes or until bubbly!

Makes two dozen.


For a Simple, Quick and Tasty Summer Appetizer

Combine one 8 ounce package of Cream Cheese (can use lot fat if you like) with one package of Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing Mix and spread on large flour tortillas. Add thinly sliced ham, turkey, or pastrami and roll up jellyroll style. Chill until firm and slice into 1/2 inch pieces. Yummy, simple and low fat! Enjoy!

Spaghetti Now!

My sweet hubby just LOVES pasta. Especially a good spaghetti. I make it often, and keep it simple but delicious. Here is one way to make a great spaghetti sauce in minutes!

1. Saute one large onion finely chopped with
2. One large green pepper, finely chopped until both are transparent
3. (OPTIONAL...several cloves of finely chopped garlic)
4. Add one pound of lean ground beef, ground turkey, or even a mixture of italian sausage and beef and saute until done. (Vegetarians can use "grounds" or seiten)
5. Then, and here is the easy part, add one large can of HUNTs Traditional Spaghetti Sauce and one small can petite diced tomatoes.
6 Add 1 TBSP dried oregano
7. Add 1 TBSP dried or fresh Basil

Simmer on low 10 to fifteen minutes and SERVE over your favorite spaghetti/pasta.

NOTE: If you family doesn't like leftovers, the sauce left can be added to cooked rice with a can of kidney beans for Spanish Rice...I add a little Cumin (1/2 tsp) to the sauce for this, and if your family likes it hot, add a little cayenne or chili powder! Delicious and simple way to use the leftover sauce and not have your family think it is "leftover". Served with a side salad, you can't beat it!

When Preserving Goes Wrong!

Okay, the pears are peeled and diced and all the ingredients are measured, but just as I go to add the pectin, I realize that I have picked up the WRONG kind...I need Hot preserve pectin and I have picked up the no-cook kind! OMG..mad dash to the grocery store which is only 5 minutes away. Twenty minutes later arrive home and turn the pears back on and when they come to a boil add the pectin....okay that should work, shouldn't it?

Well that was about thirty minutes ago, and things are not looking so good in pear preserve land. I am afraid they are not going to firm up! AAAAAUUUUUGGGHH! Have you ever peeled and cut up those canning pears? Not an easy job! Plus a BUNCH of sugar went in there with the pears and spices...not cheap! Now, I am praying over my preserves hoping they will firm up....pppppllllleeeeeeeaaaase!

I guess if worst comes to worst, I will start over again tomorrow....still have more pears but will need more sugar, and pectin!

The best laid plans of mice and men.....sigh!

They do TASTE fantastic however! Wonder if I could just use them for syrup? LOL
Oh well, time and tomorrow will tell. No matter how many times you have made jelly/preserves, there can come a time when it just doesn't work! If at first you don't succeed, try, try, again!

All for today folks.

Salsa, Salsa, Salsa!!!

Good Afternoon! The review is out "the Salsa is the best ever!" according to my sweet hubby! The fact that he just finished off half a pint, is a pretty good indication that is true.
I hope I have canned enough to last the Winter, he says he is not letting any of it get away!
For great salsa, you need great, firm tomatoes with as little water content as possible. I find that plum tomatoes are best for this, but any firm and flavorful tomato will do.

Canned Summer Garden Salsa

40 tomatoes peeled and chopped (If you haven't peeled tomatoes before, the trick is to dip them in boiling water for a minute and then the skins will slip right off!)
How you chop them, depends on your own personal preference, I like mine kinda
chunky, but you may chop finely or even puree)
1 green bell pepper, finely chopped
1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
10 cups chopped onions
5 cloves garlic (optional) (again chop finely)
1 cup chopped jalapenos (more or less depending on how HOT you want the Salsa)
2 cups vinegar
8 teaspoons Kosher or pickling salt
2 teaspoons black pepper
(Puree 10 of the peeled chopped tomatoes to give the Salsa a better texture)
2 TBSP Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning
2 TBSP Cumin

Combine all ingredients in large non-reactive pan on top of stove and cook ten minutes. Ladle HOT salsa into sterilized one pint jars and process in HOT WATER BATH for 45 minutes. Remove and allow to cool/seal.

Believe me, this is worth the time!

The next item on my Summer food preserving list is those beautiful Georgia Peaches. Last year I froze some and made Peach Butter out of the rest. The Peach Butter came out so delicious, that I ran out of it in a hurry! We got rave reviews from all the children too! It is so nice to have that taste of freshness all Winter.
Peach Butter is quite easy to make, but the main ingredient must be Fresh Georgia Peaches! As Rachael Ray would say, YUMMO!
You just peel and take the pits out and I have found the best way to preserve the flavor and not have to add water, is to cook them in a slow cooker over night. By morning you have a well cooked bunch of peaches which you can either puree in a blender or use a stick blender.
Every family likes different amounts of spice, but the ones which best enhance the peaches are Cinnamon, a little freshly grated Nutmeg and a little Vanilla. If you would like the peaches to retain their light color, a bit of Fruit Fresh is suggested. Last year the peaches were so sweet that I really didn't add but a little sugar. You can add sugar to taste after you puree them. I add lemon juice to acidify them (couple tablespoons per quart) and make it safer for canning.
Check out different recipes on line and find your favorite, or use this one:

d Peach Butter

Yields 8 half-pint jars

* 12 cups peaches, peeled and diced
* 1 cup sugar, (taste and see if you need more, or you can actually
use Truvia to make it more diabetic friendly!)
* 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
* 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Don't be afraid to experiment with spices if you like others!

Combine all ingredients in a slow cooker (crock pot). Cook on low heat for about 12 to 14 hours. Using an immersion blender or regular blender, puree the mixture until smooth. Cook for an additional hour or two, until thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. You may want to remove the lid on your slow cooker for a little while to let some of the steam escape and give the peach butter a chance to thicken up just a bit.

Ladle the peach butter into hot, sterilized jars, being sure to wipe the rims and fit with sterilized lids and bands. Process for 20 minutes, once the water has come up to a boil.

Your family will love you for this one!
Just wait until Fall...then there will be Pear Butter, Apple Butter, and Oh those scuppernong and muscadine grapes! Georgia Produce!

Summer Ritual

Well today has been spent completing one of my Summer rituals, canning tomatoes!  In the interest of full disclosure, canning tomatoes and salsa!  Every year in July I pull out the canning tools and go to the farmer's market for the best looking tomatoes I can find.  Can't beat those local tomatoes!  I used to grow my own, but the years of bending, fighting off the bugs, and fertilizing have taken their toll and now I just prefer to go to the Farmer's Market and just pick the best of the best! 
Canning tomatoes isn't really difficult, although I will admit it takes quite a bit of time!  First you scald them to loosen the skins, and then you have to slip the skins off and cut out the core.  That is actually the most time consuming part of the process.  Sterilizing the jars, you then pack the tomatoes tightly in pint or quart jars, add vinegar or lemon juice, a little salt, put the tops on and put them in a hot water bath for 45 minutes!  Not bad, Huh? 
The Salsa takes a little more time as you have to chop the tomatoes, peppers and onions and cook before you add spice and place in jars to process.
But, let me tell you, there is nothing quite like being able to open those jars in the dead of winter and enjoy the fruits of Summer!  The canned tomatoes are so great for soups, spaghetti and other sauces.
Well, I hear the timer going off....that 45 minutes went by quickly....talk to you all later!