Category: Food & Cooking

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Picnic Snacks

Today’s picnic features Brown Butter Crispy Rice Treats and Oatmeal cookies
Snack contemplation

Is it really a picnic lunch if there’s no ‘cake’? While growing up, my family’s fishing trips featured Camping Cake, a date rich cake, topped with walnuts and chocolate chips, transported in an aluminum nine by thirteen pan. 

We’ll focus today’s post on the best part of any picnic, because … Every Picnic Needs to have Snacks (part of our ongoing Rules to Live By).

Lately, we’ve been working through cookie recipes for our picnic boxes … well, evening snacks too. Classic cookie recipe searches will bring up a surprisingly long and not so surprising unvaried list. But that is just the type of cookie that can survive a road trip in a tin box.

In the midst of this quest, JQ discovered an excellent book by Joanne Chang Flour: A Baker’s Collection of Spectacular Recipes. Chang’s book approaches everyday recipes with additions that make for extraordinary desserts.

For instance, the oatmeal cookie recipe in this book has a subtle hint of nutmeg, which really makes this basic staple addictive. What is not just classic but iconic? Rice Crispy Treats, right?

What elevates this recipe is two additions … browning the butter and adding vanilla bean.

Chang’s **Brown Butter Crispy Rice Treats** is a nice take on how you’d imagine the original tastes, but without getting too many pans dirty. We’ve shared the map to crispy goodness below.

Print Recipe

Brown Butter Crispy Rice Treats

Ingredients

  • 228 grams unsalted butter 2 sticks
  • ½ vanilla bean sliced lengthwise
  • 280 grams marshmallows 2 x 10oz bags
  • 240 grams crispy rice cereal 9 cups
  • pinch salt

Instructions

  • Butter a 9 x 13 baking pan.
  • In a large sauce pan, melt the butter over low heat. As the butter melts, slice the vanilla bean in half lengthwise and scrape the seeds directly into the butter.
  • Once the butter has melted, it will start to bubble and crackle. Watch carefully to see it slowly brown. As soon as the bubbling subsides, after about 5 minutes, the butter will be browned. Add the marshmallows and a pinch of salt and stir constantly over low heat until the marshmallows are completely melted and the vanilla seeds are evenly distributed.
  • Remove the pan from the heat, add the cereal, and mix well to combine. Turn the mixture into the prepared pan and pat into an even layer. allow to cool for about an hour, or to room temperature, then cut into even pieces.
  • Treats can be stored in an airtight container for up to 2 days
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In Season

Early morning sunlight shines through jars of jelly

Pandemic, supply chain issues, inflation; the last couple of years have been quite a ride. A lesson to take from this turmoil is that we need to stop depending on goods and materials shipped from great distances.

Eating regionally and locally-sourced food puts better quality ingredients on your table. The downside is the seasonal nature of growing food.

In America, we have become accustomed to having year-around access to a wide range of produce. These gas chamber ripened crops lack taste but fill grocery shelves. Until you’ve had a tree ripened stone fruit you might not know what a peach or nectarine should taste like.

Fresh apricots

There are seasons when produce is available and at its peak. We need to regain an appreciation for these swaths of time. For example, right now summer berry season is coming to a close and a plethora of stone fruits are coming off the trees.

Loganberries, a hybrid of the blackberry and the European raspberry.

You can hold onto a flat of raspberries for maybe a couple of weeks, if you’re careful. A peach or plum will be at its most flavorful for less time, though you can use the fridge to extend that juicy goodness.  Its easy to find recipes to preserve any of your favorites.

While there is a narrow window on fresh with any fruit, you can preserve seasonal delicacies. Ironically, at the hottest time of the year our kitchen often has a boiling pot of water and fruit pulp fighting the AC unit.

Apricot jam in a jar

For the last couple of weeks we’ve been putting up pints of fruit preserves. In our house that consists mostly of jam because it retains the whole fruit, but also that’s the simplest process.

A classic … mason jar logo with loganberry backdrop.

At the same time we are gobbling up bowls of fresh fruits, we are water bath processing pints of that goodness to enjoy through the winter months. The biscuit recipe below is the perfect foundation for your kitchen preserves.

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Freezer biscuits

A cream biscuit recipe to stock your freezer with ... quick cook biscuits
Servings: 24 biscuits

Ingredients

  • 6 cups AP flour
  • 2 Tbsp Sugar
  • 2 Tbsp Baking powder
  • 1 ½ tsp Salt
  • 4 1/2 cups Heavy cream

Instructions

  • Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder and salt toether.
  • Stir in cream with wooden spoon until dough forms, about 30 seconds. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured counter and gather into a ball. Knead dough until smooth, about 60 seconds, adding extra flour if dough is too sticky.
  • Roll to ¾ inch thickness and cut 2 ½ inch round biscuits. Lay out on parchment papered baking sheet with about ½ inch spacing.

To Store

  • Freeze for about 6 hours, then store in zip lock bags for up to a month or more.

to serve

  • Adjust an oven rack to the upper middle position and heat oven to 450°. Lay desired number of biscuits on a parchment lined baking sheet, about 2 inches apart. Bake until puffed and golden brown, 18 to 20 minutes.
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Orange Jam

So it was another uneventful week at our house.  Not a lot of activity to post about.  However, the canning projects are progressing as there are still a few things we want to get into jars this winter. Thought we’d share a super easy recipe that makes an incredible orange jam.

Nothing like bitter, chunky Marmalade … this is a sweet, tart jam.

With citrus in season oranges are easy to find fruit, even these days.  This is an excellent way to preserve some of that juicy goodness for later.

Print Recipe

Orange Jam

Quick and easy sweet orange spread

Equipment

  • 7 small navel oranges
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1 Tbsp pectin
  • 2 lemons juiced and zest grated

Instructions

  • Wash jars and lids, place jars in pot fully submerged in simmering water, recipe makes 3 to 4 half pints (4 oz) jars
  • Peel oranges, remove pith (less pith, less bitterness in jam) and cut into small pieces and add to a blender
  • Blend into a smooth juice
  • Put sugar, lemon juice and zest in a saucepan over low heat and stir to dissolve, about 5 minutes
  • Add blended oranges and pectin to the saucepan, bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes
  • Turn off heat, remove jars from water bath and wipe rims with vinegar soaked cloth
  • Fill jars to one inch head space, add lids and rings, finger tight, and return to water bath.
  • Process on a boil for 10 minutes, remove and allow to set for 24 hours. remove rings, check seals, label and store
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Soup Saturday

A COLD morning walk

Regardless of world events, this has been a very weird week. As I’m writing this Sunday morning, it’s 40 degrees and raining. However, just four days prior, it was minus 3 degrees with three inches of snow on the ground and the wind was howling.

Winter returns to Central Oregon

We’d just posted about the unusual spring-like weather, when an arctic cold front dropped onto Central Oregon. With it came freezing temps and snow. Mostly we just stayed home, sat by the fire, and caught up on our reading. So there’s nothing to post about, sorry.

Soup canning operation in full swing

We do want to share this image of chili getting canned as part of an ongoing winter canning project. We started making soups for Saturday dinner and that evolved into a canning project. Mostly . . . we wanted to get away from commercially canned soups that have shot up in price, have way too much salt, and are actually getting harder to find. Once you have the soup cooked it’s not that hard to load a few pints into the canner.

Over a steamy hot bowl of “Wendy’s Copycat Chili” we are planning next week’s adventures. There is rain forecast, but we’ve got some road trips mapped out. Enjoy your week!

Print Recipe

Wendy's Copycat Chili

Super easy chili recipe that is very tasty ...

Equipment

  • 2 lbs ground beef
  • 29 oz tomato sauce one large can
  • 29 oz kidney beans 2 cans (15 oz)
  • 29 oz black beans 2 cans (15 oz)
  • 1 cup onions, diced 1 medium
  • ½ cup diced green chili 1 small can
  • ¼ cup celery, diced 1 stalk
  • 3 med fresh tomatoes, chopped
  • 2 tsp cumin
  • 3 Tbsp chili powder Gephardts is our fave
  • 1 ½ tsp black pepper
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 2 cups water

Instructions

  • Brown the ground beef over medium heat, drain off the fat.
  • Using a fork, crumble the cooked beef into pea size pieces (a potato masher works too)
  • In large pot, combine beef, plus all remaining ingredients and bring to a simmer over low heat.
  • Cook, stirring every 15 minutes, for 2-3 hours.

Canning

  • As the chili simmers, prep your pressure canner and warm 6* pint jars and lids
  • After cooking for 2 hours, ladle chili into jars, clean rims with vinegar, set lids and screw on canning rings finger tight. Place canner lid and vent steam for 10 minutes. Bring pressure to 10 psi and hold for 75 minutes. Allow to cool naturally, remove jars, and let sit for 12 to 24 hours.
  • * If you don't plan to have a meal from this recipe, you can get 7 pints from a batch.
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Holiday Season Begins

Holiday colors along the river.

We pretty much took the week off not worried about getting blog material. Still we can share a few smart-phone snaps from a fishing trip and Thanksgiving meal prep. Pandemic limitations have eased some and we plan on sharing Christmas dinner at a family gathering. But this holiday week we’re sipping whiskey by the fire and enjoying a quiet read.

Low and slow turkey

In Central Oregon winter starts up around this time. There is often snow on the ground, for sure in the mountains, by Thanksgiving. On the other hand, weather is always changing … this week was a good example.

Started the week with a sunny, almost spring-like day on the Crooked River. Weather reports were showing snow leading up to Thanksgiving.

On Tuesday it did snow, pretty much all day. However, by Wednesday only the well shaded areas still held patches and Thanksgiving day broke cold but sunny, a perfect day to BBQ a turkey breast.

Hope you all had a good feast to start the holiday season.