Amazing! They ate the minestrone.

This week marks a milestone in our family.  Or maybe it's a speedbump perhaps. I'll be working full time for a week, in training really, for the US Census. Grandmother is watching the toddler while I'm at work except for one day when Grandma is off volunteering.  At which point Emma will be playing at our Old Order Mennonite friend's farm. The children will be at the grandparents for a couple of hours until Dad gets off work, and then they'll follow my simplified instructions for making dinner, which I will have started earlier in the morning before leaving for work at 8:15.  My 13 year old son looks at me like it's the last supper, cooked by mom.

Working a four day shift compresses all the rest of my real work, as many working mothers nod sagely.  I prefer the more relaxed day I usually have.  I like time to shop for bargains, and to hang the laundry to dry on the line. Today I went shopping to several Mennonite markets with my friends Bertha and Jill and three children.  We sampled some delicious and varied bulk foods (sweet potato chips, bacon dip, sesame crackers, some yummy corn relish, and tortilla chips). I love to purchase the horseradish pickles they sell there - a national brand I'm sure. Nathan's horseradish pickles, delicious! In times of $4.00 gallon gasoline, I even sliced cucumbers and kept refilling the jar to make it stretch further.

But today, my favorite find and dinner inspiration, was the cheese at Zimmerman's Meat Market on Lovejoy Road near Penn Yan, NY.  It's just a wee little butchershop that now carries a few bulk foods as well. I didn't even see meat, but it was in the back and some pretty kapp wearing Mennonite teen girls wrapped and labeled my order for me with smiling efficiency.

I bought 4 lbs. of Farmer's cheese, some of which we used for dinner. But my favorite find was Extra Sharp, New York Cheddar cheese. The label says Cuba cheese, from Cuba, NY. I paid no more than $2.40/lb for the 10 lbs I had cut into manageable size pieces for our family of 7. I think it comes in 10 lbs. blocks, but that's too hefty for our bunch. They vacuum sealed it and labeled it for me, and gave me an order sheet for their fresh and frozen meat and fish, as well as the multitude of cheeses they sell.  I bought 6 lbs. of whiting fillets too, so that will be dinner another week.

Tonight - I wanted to do something substantial with Farmer's cheese. Now it tastes like Mozzarella to my tongue, but it's not as squeaky, and it doesn't melt smoothly like cheddar. 

For my wedding anniversary on Friday night we had dinner at a favorite steakhouse - and I started dinner with a lovely bowl of French Onion Soup. It was divine, and I savored every last drop of that rich brown broth, and the gruyere cheese I had to cut with a knife. That was my inspiration for this combination.

KelliSue Minestrone Soup - that they'll eat
1.5 lbs. of sweet Italian sausage (I used venison sausage)
1 diced sweet onion
1 can of mixed vegetables (like veg-all) including liquid
1 quart of home bottled tomatoes or a large can of diced tomatoes including liquid
1 quart of spaghetti sauce (I used Hunts' chunky vegetable which contained zucchini slices)
1 quart of water
1 can of garbanzo beans with liquid
1 cup of macaroni
Salt and pepper to taste
2 teaspoons of sweet basil
or mixed Italian seasoning
1 tablespoon of minced garlic (I used jarred)

Saute' the Italian sausage until no pink remains. You may need to add a little olive oil if it's as lean as ours is.  Set aside.

In a dutch oven sized pot, drizzle a little olive oil or use butter, and sautee the diced sweet onion until softened. Then add the can of mixed vegetables, liquid and all, and the quart of canned tomatoes.  Cook for 5 minutes and then using a stick blender, puree until mostly liquid with few solid bits remaining.  Add the spaghetti sauce, the quart of water, the can of beans with liquid, the precooked sausage, and bring to a rolling boil. Add the cup of macaroni, and simmer until tender, about 7 minutes. If it's too thick, thin with some water or broth. The sausage adds quite a bit of salt and flavor, so be cautious in using broth if it's salted.

Now add the spices and seasonings to taste, beginning with the amounts suggested.  Taste again for salt and pepper, and then ladle into large bowls.

We added a large handful of shredded farmer's cheese to each bowl, and topped it with a few oyster crackers, but saltines will go nicely too. The cheese melts to a stringy delight, and made the soup disappear like magic.

If you don't have available farmer's cheese, I'm told the classic is to use parmesan, shredded into the pot of soup, or you can add chopped parmesan cheese rinds to the pot early on in the cooking.  But we had great fun with our Farmer's cheese today.  Hat's off to farmer's and their cheesey goodness.

If you try this recipe, I hope you enjoy it like we did. Even the toddler ate it right up. If you prefer Vegetarian cooking, you can leave out the Italian sausage, and use a vegetable broth instead of the quart of water.

Butternut Squash Risotto

1 medium butternut squash (about 1 pound whole or 12 ounces cut up) or 1 thawed pkg. frozen squash

24 sage leaves (or use 2 tsp. dried sage, or omit completely - which is what I do)
Salt and pepper
7 to 8 cups chicken or vegetable stock, I prefer low sodium
1 medium onion, finely minced
2 T olive oil
1 T real butter or margarine if you prefer
2 cups uncooked Arborio rice
Scant 1/2 cup apple or white grape juice, plus 1 T of white vinegar
1/2 cup parmesan or romano cheese, grated



1) Peel squash, then dice into very small (1/4- or 1/3-inch) cubes. Combine squash, a few sage leaves, 1 cup stock, and a little salt in a heavy-bottomed pot. Bring to a simmer and cook until just barely tender (but not too soft) about 5 to 10 minutes. Drain and reserve liquid, just in case.

2) Put the remainder of the stock into a sauce pan, add 1 cup of hot water, then bring to a simmer, and keep it just barely simmering or steaming.
3) In another, larger, heavy-bottomed dutch oven sized pan, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over med. high heat. Add sage 1/2 the sage leaves, and cook for 30 seconds until crispy. Remove, and set aside on a paper towel for the end of the recipe. To the same pan add onion, the other 1/2 the sage and cook until onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Turn heat to low, add rice and a pinch of salt and cook for 3 minutes, stirring often, until rice has turned slightly translucent. Turn the heat back up to medium, and add the juice and vinegar. Once the juice has been absorbed, add two-three ladles full of the simmering stock, just enough to reach the top of the rice. Stir well and reduce the heat back down to medium-low.

4) Gently simmer the rice, stirring occasionally, until stock is absorbed. Add another 1/2-to-3/4 cup warm stock, and stir occasionally until new stock is absorbed. Repeat the process until all the stock has been absorbed by the rice, and rice has a bit of a bite still, but is tender on the outside. You want just a little resistance in the middle, this is what separates risotto from American rice. If you run out of stock, add a cup of water it will be fine.
5) If you're using frozen squash, now is the time to heat it in the microwave until it's heated through. Otherwise, have a glass of apple juice and stir the rice occasionally.

6) When rice is mostly tender, add cooked squash, parmesan, and a tablespoon of butter. Cook 3 to 5 minutes, until dairy is melted and squash is heated through. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot, using sage leaves as garnish.

If you don't have butternut squash, you can also use canned carrot cubes, or shred raw carrots and saute' it with the onion. They're both delicious. And I usually dislike cooked carrots.

By the way, the second and third time I made this I used simple short grained rice from my food storage buckets, which reduces the price considerably. My family is lactose intolerant, and we find that we can use Sheep Milk Romano cheese (read the label) instead of parmesan and nobody gets a belly ache. During our milking season we also use a homemade parmesan cheese made with goat milk.

Risotto goes really well with Honey Mustard Chicken, home bottled green beans, and a smile.

Approximate Calories, Fat, Fiber, and Price Per Serving
371 calories, 10 g fat, 1.4 g fiber, $1.77 or less

A Tale of Two Cookies

Two recipes for butterscotch no bake cookies. It's an experiment... two very delicious butterscotchy cookies, not to be confused with the candy-like haystacks, that obtain their butterscotch flavor from two different sources. The first is

Butterscotch No Bake Cookies
Using Butterscotch Morsels

Ingredients:
3 Cups Butterscotch Morsels (that's 2 full 11 oz. packages Nestle butterscotch morsels, with 1/3 cup leftovers to feed your assistant.)
1 Cup Sugar
3/4 Cup Milk (we've used both soy and goat's milk with success)
3/4 Cup Butter
2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
1 1/2 Cups Chunky Peanut Butter
3 1/2 Cups Of Quaker Rolled Oats
Cooks note: I have used both old fashioned and quick cooking oats.

Information:
Serving Size 15-30
125 Calories Per Serving
5 Grams Of Fat
Preparation Instructions:

In a large bowl, barely combine the peanut butter and rolled oats. Just mix a few times, you'll set them aside for later. In a medium sauce pan combine the sugar, milk and butter and bring to a boil. Boil for exactly 1 minute. Turn off the heat, then stir in the 3 cups of butterscotch morsels and add the vanilla extract. When they're melted and well incorporated, pour over the rolled oats and peanut butter. Mix well, and drop by tablespoon onto a well-greased cookie sheet or on a counter that is lined with was paper. Let the cookies sit at room temperature until hardened, or to expedite the process you can slide them into the refrigerator to chill. Excellent with a glass of cold goat's milk.
Cook's note: That's $5.00 for butterscotch chips alone, and I'm not feeling the love of my family budget in this recipe. They taste good, the peanut butter is a nice addition, but really, $5.00 for just one ingredient? These go fast, so the children aren't getting very many cookies for their budget dollar in my opinion. They're cute on an all no-bake cookie tray, alongside the vanilla and chocolate varieties.

Pantry Lover's Butterscotch No-Bakes
Ingredients
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup margarine
1/2 cup milk
1 (3 1/2 ounce) package instant butterscotch pudding mix (I have used both instant and the cook and serve variety - they both work here.
3 1/2 cups quick oats

Directions
1On stovetop in a 3 qt pan on medium heat: Combine first 3 ingredients and bring to boil, stirring frequently. If using cook and serve pudding mix, add here, mixing well. Boil hard exactly 2 minutes.
2Remove from heat and add oats and instant pudding mix here, if using.
3Mix thoroughly.
4.Drop spoonfuls onto waxed paper.
5. Let cool 15 minutes

These are called pantry lovers, because we can store all the ingredients in the pantry and at the last minute when we want a quick cookie treat, voila'. They're quite good, and pretty inexpensive. The butterscotch pudding was less than $1.00 which makes it a viable choice for sitting in the pantry as a last minute cookie go-to item. They're also simple enough that many children can manage the recipe on their own, with a little supervision at the stove top.

This one is a keeper.

Star Wars Extravaganza

Sarah was due to turn 9, and her nights when she should have been sleeping were filled with visions of senators, Princess Leia, brave and virtuous Jedi knights and padawans. That's right, for the Star Wars obsessed, she's a big fan of the animated series 'Clone Wars'. Our Friday evenings are reserved for 9pm viewings of Clone Wars. To avoid overfrequent exclamation of "Aww mom!" I am obligated to set the DVR to record on Friday evenings we are out.

Mom!! Let's have a Star Wars party and I'll invite.. and we'll ...... as I counted carefully our reduced income with FarmBoy's factory having Friday furloughs. Sarah's an illustrative child and I have been feted with sample after sample of drawings of everything she wanted for her birthday, and everything she thought was cool and praiseworthy and of good report. That's a lot of crayon drawings. Well, it's garden season, so they made good mulch, and I noted what her hearts' desires were. Five kids, all very artsy craftsy - you do the math. We have lots of paper mulch.

I pondered Sarah's birthday in my heart quite carefully. Some of her friends go to Chuck E. Cheese's, which is an hour's drive, and spend a couple of hours in the sugary pizza charged video game atmosphere. My personal idea of the 4th level of Hades. Our bathroom is under construction. Our kitchen is under construction. I balked at 9 8 year olds coming for 2 hours.

Sarah solved my dilemma with her creativity. MOM! Sarah always speaks in exclamation marks. Why don't we make our own Star Wars costumes and have a Star Wars party? Deal! Lest you have a common misconception, I do not sew costumes, so this was not a 'mom makes costumes for everyone out of nothing, and we all exclaim how frugal of a Martha Stewart she is'. That was very cathartic. Does Martha make goat cheese every other day and milk a small herd of goats? I don't think so.

My job was to help tie sashas, design hairstyles, and clap as they told me of their creation's name and role in Clone Wars. The pink bathrobes and recycled graduation gowns came out, a battle droid with a blaster appeared and even a navy blue pair of snow bibs were pressed into service for a one armed medical droid. Good times!

Pin the light sabre on the Jedi proved to be a rowdier game than you would initially think. It really does matter who you put in charge of the spinning of the blindfolded child/victim. Who knew I had vertigo? Andy kicked our clone hineys on that game. I was lucky to get the light sabre taped on the right wall of the living room, quite frankly.

Next came a Nerf inspired version of Bounty Hunter target practice. Apparently intergallactic bounty hunters need to keep their trigger finger limber. It was hilarious, foam missiles everywhere, and there was some accusation of stacking of teams, but Papa (FarmBoy) triumphed over all. He took the cake. Literally, the cupcake was the prize. Not just any cupcakes. But the ones we learned how to make here. http://www.bakerella.com/. She calls them cake pops and cupcake bites, and here's where you can see what I mean.  I call them little bitty cupcakes in a peanut butter cup mold from the craft store.  Cute!

Sarah was delighted with her gift card from Grandma B, and her handmade dress and matching ladybug head scarf from Grandma H, and her Pink Nintendo DS with Build-a-Bear game from her father, and her grown up rollerblades (size 6!) and Little Pet Shop stuff (and more accessories). We had a bbq outside with hot dogs and hamburgs and sausages on the grill, baked beans and corn chips and chili dip, cookie cake and icecream, and her best friend BreeAnna over for dinner and games. On Monday, her clothing order from the big sale at http://www.childrensplace.com/ came in. She scored two cute skorts (shorts/skirt combo) for $3.50 and a couple of adorable sweater tops to match. She wore a pink skort and pink and brown sweater to school yesterday, looking all pretty in pink and chocolate. Cutest little bargains in town!

This led to her gym teacher's inquiry at school yesterday. Sarah, where did you get all those scratches on your legs? Do you have a kitty you went to war with? Oh no Mrs. Lahue, my cats are very gentle. I like to climb trees and cruise on my new rollerblades. (cue laughter).

It was delightful. Some of the fun for me was that a huge neighborhood garage sale near the doctor's office where I had my Friday appointment yielded $5 rollerblades, $10 for bags and bags of Little Pet Shop animals and accessories. These were her heart's desire. Sarah had asked for ice skates for Christmas, and with no nearby pond or rink, we didn't get them for her. Friday night he rollerblades were met with a huge squeal. The big bags of LPS characters brought another squeal and she fell to her knees and opened the pet shop house and began playing with her 7 year old and 3 year old sisters. On Saturday Sarah and I went to Walmart where she cashed in her gift certificate and bought knee and elbow pads for her rollerblades. Thanks Grandma B!
The bargains on Sarah's new clothing were made even better because I had a coupon code from http://www.shopittome.com/howitworks. You can use my email address for your referral if you like. ldsfreckleface@frontiernet.net. Drop me a line if you have any questions. Bargains galore I tell you, and you get to choose the stores and designers you prefer.

A little creativity, a lot of serendipity and enthusiasm, and not very much money really made Sarah's birthday turned out great.  The children went to bed happy, and delighted, and we weren't left with any debt or worry about overspending our tight budget. Coming here soon, a shocking side effect of the debt ensnaring families in America. And the unexpected and horrific cost to some families.