Split Pea Soup

Save your Christmas or Easter ham bone and leftover ham to make this heartwarming soup on a cold winter day.

1 ham bone

saved pieces of ham

1 tbsp vegetable oil 

1 large onion, finely chopped 

2 each carrots and stalks celery, finely chopped 

2 cloves garlic, minced 

2 bay leaves 

1/2 tsp each salt and pepper 

4 cups (1 L) sodium-reduced chicken stock (gluten free if desired)

2 cups yellow split peas 

In Dutch oven, heat oil over medium-low heat; fry onion, carrots, celery, garlic, bay leaves, salt, pepper and ham bone, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are softened, about 5 minutes.


Add stock, peas and 2 cups  water; bring to boil over medium-high heat, skimming off any foam. Cover and simmer over medium-low heat until peas break down, about 1-3/4 hours. 

Remove ham bone. Any ham left on bone can be taken off and used in soup. Discard ham bone and bay leaves. In blender (or immersion blender right in pot) puree half of the soup; return to pot along with ham . Ladle into bowls.  Can be garnished with green onions.

Whipped Shortbread Gluten Free

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup confectioners' (icing) sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract (optional, but good)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional, but good)
• 1 cup white rice flour
• 1/2 cup cornstarch
• 1/4 cup tapioca starch/flour
• 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
• cherries, coloured sugar or sprinkles for decorating.
• 
  
• Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. 
• Line your baking sheets with parchment paper.
• 
  
• Place the butter and confectioners' sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted 
• with a paddle attachment. Starting on slow speed, and slowly increasing, 
• beat the butter & sugar until fully combined, scraping down the bowl in between. 
• 
  
• Add the extracts if using, and beat until blended.In a separate bowl, whisk 
• together the remaining ingredients. Slowly add to the butter mixture while
•  the mixer is on low speed. Once the flour has been worked in, slowly increase 
• the speed to medium. Beat on medium speed for 5-6 minutes. 
• This is crucial, as it adds the lightness to the dough, giving you a light, airy cookie.
• 
  
• Scoop 3/4-inch balls of dough onto the cookie sheet, keeping 2-inches between cookies. 
• A small cookie scoop works well for this, works perfectly.Use a fork, that has been 
• floured with rice flour, to press the cookies down slightly. 
• Place cherries, sprinkles, or coloured sugar on the top of the cookies, if using.

• 
  Bake in preheated oven for 23-25 minutes. You do not want the cookies to 
• brown at all, just for the dough to set. Let cookies remain on cookie 
• sheet for 2-3 minutes before removing to wire cooling rack
• .Store cooled cookies in an airtight container.

• 
  
• Perfect for Christmas or New Year's Day.  
• This year we enjoyed shortbread for Christmas and 
• then a fresh batch to bring in the New Year after a skate on the lake.
  
  
  
  
  

Pumpkin Pie

Jenny discovered this recipe in San Diego 2008.  

She made it for Papa's birthday on Christmas Day 2015. Yummy.

1 pkg cream cheese, softened

2 cups canned pumpkin

1 cup sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

1 egg and 2 yolks, beaten

1 cup half and half cream

1/4 cup melted butter

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 tsp cinnamon

pie shell 

whipped cream for topping

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put pie shell in freezer for 1 hour.  

Line with foil, place in oven, bake for 10 minutes.  

Remove foil and bake 10 minutes or until the crust is dried and beginning to colour.  

In bowl, beat cheese, add pumpkin and combine.  

Add sugar, salt, eggs, half and half and butter.  Beat until combined.  

Add vanilla and cinnamon.  

Pour in crust and bake for 50 minutes or until set.  

Top with whipping cream.

Christmas Cucumber and Pomegranate Bites

Love this hors d'oeuvre, simple to make, nice mix of textures, 

and even comes in Christmas colours.

Slices of cucumber 

Topped with whipped cream cheese

Sprinkle with pomegranate seeds

Joyeux Noël

Crabapple Jelly

The Calgary Crew were visiting Grandmaman and Grandpa at their new house for their annual summer camp week and found a wonderful crabapple tree.

 All three kids took a trip up the ladder to pick the crabapples and then Grandpa finished the job.

  Once the apples were picked they needed to be sorted to take out the leaves and the ones that had bad bits on them.

  While Ethan continued to help Grandpa sort the rest of the apples Tristan and Reegan got the apples washed.

  We cooked the apples on Grandmaman's new gas stovetop and then began the slow process of straining the mush to get nice clear juice. (6 cups water/dutch oven of apples)

We tried cheesecloth (above) and a jelly bag (below). 

The next morning we went to Pat's house, Grandmaman and Grandpa's new neighbor, where Pat graciously demonstrated how to make the juice into delicious jelly and how to preserve it in glass jars.  

Here you see Pat measuring 8 cups of juice and adding 6 cups of sugar.

Next step was boiling the juice until the gel stage. Apparently if you lay a wooden spoon over the top the boiling liquid won't boil over.

 Voilà, jars of jelly ready to go in a hot bath.

 Here you see Pat putting the jars into the canner.

 A big thank you to Pat for sharing her expertise and another to Grant for showing the kids his collection of model airplanes.

STEP 1   PREPARE THE JUICE FIRST
Prepare crabapple juice by washing crabapples.  Fill dutch oven with crabapples  and cover with  6 cups water.  Bring to boil and simmer for about 30 minutes.  The crabapples can be mashed a bit during this process but don't mash tooooooo much.
Cool slightly then strain the juice.  I found it worked great to strain first through a colander, pushing down a bit to hurry the process but then to put that juice through the jelly bag.  Too much mashing and squeezing can make the juice cloudy.

STEP 2    PREPARE THE JELLY
8 cups crabapple juice
6 cups sugar
(1 cup juice use 3/4 cup sugar)

Boil the juice for a couple of minutes and then add the sugar. Continue to boil for between 10 to 25 minutes.  Do the gel test after about 10 minutes

Gel tests
1) Temperature Test-around 220 F    
2) Spoon-Dip a dry metal spoon into boiling jelly. Lift a small portion of juice in spoon above steam from the pot, letting it cool for a few seconds. Turn the spoon so the jelly drips off side of spoon into pot. The jelly is done when the syrup forms two drops that flow together and sheet or hang off the edge of the spoon to fall as one drop.
3)Frozen plate-Put a little juice on a frozen plate.  Put the plate back in the freezer for a couple of minutes and see if the gel crinkles.

STEP 3     PRESERVING THE JELLY IN GLASS SEALING JARS
(Alternate method would be to put in freezer jars and freeze.)
When jelly is ready skim the scum.
Ladle jelly into hot sterilized jars and seal using the following method.
To prepare the jars put clean jars in a 250 degree oven (filled with hot water to prevent cracking) until ready to use to sterilize.
Boil the lids for 5 minutes.
Fill the jars with jelly, place lid on and screw on top not quite tight.
Put jars in boiling water in a canner, covering to 1/2 inch of water and boil gently --for 2 cups 20 minutes--1 cup for 15 minutes.

STEP 4 ENJOY THE JELLY

Click crabapple  for a lots of good tips on crabapple jelly making.

Refrigerator Rolls

Going way back to Grandmaman's days in Home Ec with Miss Maynard, 

circa late 60's, I remember this recipe as a scientific learning experience.  

What I most remember 

"Make sure to cool the milk mixture before adding the yeast mixture or you will destroy the yeast". 

"Make sure the water that you add the yeast to is warm enough to dissolve the sugar but not so hot as to destroy the yeast". 

"The recipe made super cinnamon buns and yummy parkerhouse buns that I made often in the early years of married life and when the kids were young".

Made the recipe again today and Grandpa enjoyed the buns 

with pulled pork and coleslaw.

Here is the recipe written in the traditional "old school" step by step format.

A.

1/2 cup lukewarm water

1 tsp. sugar

1 pkg. dry yeast

B.

3/4 cup milk

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp. salt

1/4 cup shortening (I used unsalted butter today but in home ec we used lard)

C.

1 well beaten egg

3 1/2 to 4 cups flour

A. Dissolve sugar in water, sprinkle yeast over it.  Let stand together 10 minutes, then stir      with fork.

B.  Scald together ingredients under B, pour into bowl and cool.

A & B  Add yeast and egg to B mixture.

A & B & C Blend in flour, beat well, add more flour to make a soft dough which leaves the side of the bowl.  Turn dough out on lightly floured board, cover, let rest in warm place for 10 minutes.  Knead dough (about 10 min.) until it is elastic,  smooth, and full of blisters.  

Roll dough in lightly greased bowl until covered with fat.  Place dough in plastic bag (I used a bowl covered with Saran today), leaving lots of headspace.  Refrigerate.  Remove dough and knead for five minutes. Shape into desired typed type of rolls, cover, let rise, bake at 375 degrees.

Cinnamon Rolls- Roll dough in rectangular shape.  Brush with melted butter.  Sprinkle with cinnamon, sugar and raisons.  Roll like jelly rolll.  Cut off 2/3 inch slices.  Let rise and bake.

Parker House Rolls- Roll, cut in circles.  Spread with butter, fold top over bottom.  Let rise.  Bake.

One winter weekend during Covid Season January 2021

 Tristan uses the refrigerator dough recipe to make cinnamon buns.  

A definite success that the UNEEDA bakery would be proud of.

Ready to enjoy!

This is after the buns rose.
Tristan let the buns rise for about an hour,
in a warm place covered with a clean t-towel.

This is a photo of before the buns rose.
Tristan skipped the refrigeration step
and went right to shape and let rise.
  It appears that the only reason to refrigerate
 would be if you want
to make the dough the night before and
have ready to bake in morning (after a rising time of about an hour).  
Baking time was 20 minutes in a 375 degree oven.  Tristan said 18 minutes
would have been enough. 
Depending on your oven then
350 to 375 degree oven for 15 - 20 minutes a good gauge to begin with.

Tourtière

This recipe for the classic French Canadian meat pie is a combination of a few recipes and can be adjusted according to taste and to ingredients one has on hand.

2 lbs of ground pork (or 1 lb ground pork and 1 lb lean ground beef)

1 cup boiling water

2 tsp salt (or less)

3/4 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp  ground cloves

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp savory (optional)

1 bay leaf (optional)

2 onions

2 cloves garlic, minced (I like more)

1/4 cup fresh fine bread crumbs (skip for gluten-free)

Pastry for two 2 crust pies (gluten-free can be used)
(1 beaten egg with 1 tbsp. cold water or 2 tbsp. milk for top of pie crust)

In a heavy saucepan, combine the meat, boiling water, spices, onion and garlic.
  Cook over medium-high heat, uncovered, stirring continuously, for 10 minutes.
  Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes or until liquid has evaporated but mixture is still very moist.  
Remove from heat and add bread crumbs.  Stir.  Taste and adjust seasonings.  
Let cool completely before filling pies.
Line pie plates with pastry and fill with the meat mixture.  
Cover with the top pastry, seal and flute edges.  Cut slits in top and brush the top with a combination of egg and water or milk.  
Bake in 375 degree oven for about 30 to 45 minutes.