Chow-Chow

I think "chow-chow" is a Southern thing, but I may be wrong about that. Wouldn't be the first time. Nonetheless, I love this classic Southern relish. Some times it's sweet, sometimes it's spicy. I like mine with a little of both. The spice up front and the sweet that trails on the back-end. Yum-O!

Once a year I try to make a big batch of chow-chow and then stock it away for when the fresh peas are harvested. Of course, we eat it along the year, but I always keep an eye on how many jars are left to ensure we have some come pea time!

I usually find myself making my chow-chow around late fall into winter. Since the main ingredient is cabbage, I wait till my garden produces enough big, crunchy heads of cabbage to use for the recipe.

I grew up watching my Momma can things--if that woman could harvest it, jam it, relish it.. she was going to put it in a mason jar for future consumption. I was always fascinated by the rows of neatly stacked mason jars with their various colors of food contents. I knew that each one held some sort of treat! But for some reason, I was very intimidated by canning--I had this fear that I was going to give some one Botulism. I'm sure the fear developed from watching some documentary show about bad canning technique.

 

A few years back I got over my fear when I ended up with an over abundance of cabbage in my fall garden. It was just one of those years that Mother Nature sprang everything to life in mass quantities. And since I hate to waste my beautiful garden produce, I looked into cabbage recipes. After many nights of cooked cabbage, cabbage casserole, cabbage soup... you name it, I needed something else to do with it. That's when I came across a chow-chow recipe.

 

I sucked up my fear, broke out my Momma's old canning guide from many moons ago, and went to experimenting. I shredded the cabbage, added salt, and let it soak for a night. The next day, I did as the recipe directed--added tomatoes, onions, peppers of all sorts, and spices galore! When I started cooking it, I could smell the wonderful aromas so I stuck my head over the pot to get a better sniff and about burned my eye balls out with the onion/pepper fumes! Holy-moly!  

I got out my collection of mason jars and washed them in the dish washer... maybe twice just to make sure the bacteria was dead and I wouldn't have botulism stuck in any cracks. I boiled them as directed... maybe longer... you know that entire botulism thing?

The first time I tried adding the hot mixture to the hot jar was comical... and painful. I may have burnt myself once or twice. The next time I did canning I was sure to purchase some neat little gadgets that would help out tremendously in the pouring process. Lesson learned.

After they were canned up, back in the hot water bath they went for a while before coming to their final resting place on the kitchen counter for full cooling. After having a few years of canning under my belt now, I think besides eating the goodness, my favorite part of it is hearing the little jars "pop" as they cool. That little pop of the lid always excites me!

Don't be afraid of the botulism!

With love,

Reynie

Weekend Review

This past weekend was a typical weekend around our house. The highlight was taking the kids to their cousin's birthday party at the bowling center. Have you ever been cosmic bowling? The kids loved it, but I've decided I'm too old and too blind for that stuff. I've got to have lights to see where the ball is going! I can already predict I'll be grumpy when I'm old(er). Regardless, it was a big hit for my young bowlers even if I couldn't see in front of me! And happy birthday cousin, Addy!

Saturday morning, pre-birthday party, we started the day off with a big breakfast. I have fond memories of my Daddy always making these big breakfasts! Makes sense that the man now owns a Huddle House restaurant that serves breakfast 24 X 7. So I guess I came with the big-breakfast gene naturally. This week it was a fixin' of bacon, homemade biscuits, and eggs. We also had a few blueberries--my son's favorite!

After the birthday party extravaganza we stopped at Tractor Supply Co to purchase some items we will need for our new baby chicks (that's another post!). While shopping on chicken supplies my children feel in love with this plush, red barn chicken coop. After explaining that we were not taking the chicken coop home, they settled for the consolation purchase of a new kid-sized rack and shovel. Off to the garden we went to try them out.

This was the end product of our Tractor Supply Co shopping trip... My baby chickens will arrive soon! This Momma bird is prepared! (i think).

While the kids were occupied with digging in the garden, I planted my new raspberry bushes. I think once they get a little size on them, I will transplant them to my "orchard" (my husband laughs when I say "orchard" as all it consists of right now is three blueberry bushes, a half-to-almost-dead grape vine, and a fig tree... but soon enough it will be a big, bountiful collection of fruit trees and bushes that the Garden-of-Eden would be envious of!!). 

And this guy... still making such crisp, green collard leaves! Yep, we ate some of that for dinner on Sunday!

After some hard garden and yard work one deserves some homemade pizza and beer. Well, beer for me and milk for them. You can't tell in the picture below but that pizza had about four different combinations to it. The one thing about making pizza from scratch is that you can jazz it up anyway you want to and hopefully please everyone!

Sunday was a little lazy. It started out raining so we skipped church. I had the ongoing earache issues that I seem to be suffering with this season so I needed some down time and an extra cup of Joe. (note to self: look into the essential oils to try to find something to help my stupid earaches.)

 

After a few cups of coffee I went to work in the kitchen. A few weeks back I had tried to make a batch of rolls for dinner and they failed to rise properly. I ended up using the dough for pretzels which turned out okay knowing what I started with. I had to redeem myself (and my confidence) so I went at it again. This time I opted for bread loaves vs dinner rolls. And it turned out beautiful! Ahhh, the smell of fresh baked bread on a Sunday is so comforting. Good stuff, kids!

 

Sunday afternoon Kimmie and I started work on the kids homework area. I shared how I have a Pinterest board for all my ideas to make this area more efficient. I finally put some of those ideas to work. We made a good run at organizing the craft supplies (and Lord knows there is a magnitude of craft supplies!) but we have many more details to complete. I'll post a after picture once it all comes together.

I'll say though that I love this sort of time with my daughter. It is so rewarding getting to spend time with her working on some sort of project and watching her work through the ideas in her head. I know the time will come too quickly where she doesn't want to spend her Sunday afternoon doing projects with Momma so I try to soak up the goodness while I can!

And this guy kept a watchful eye on me all weekend! My cat loves his kitty window seat so he can observe all things going on in the kitchen. He's a curious fella but at times I feel like he is sitting there thinking, "she ain't doing that right!" Look at his face... You know how cats are... judgmental little beast.

The weekend overall was a nice one and now back to the grind! Blessed to have a grind to go back to though!

Here's wishing you had a nice weekend and great week ahead!

With love,

Reynie

Bread Making

For some time now I've been a little freaked out that the store-bought bread never seems to mold. It can sit in my bread basket for two weeks plus and never grow any penicillin! Weird. That just doesn't seem natural or normal. That has lead me to want to make my own bread. That way, I know what goes in it and that it isn't full of chemicals, bread conditioners, and other no-nos.

I decided to start basic so I used the recipe on the back of the White Lily bread flour bag. Seemed pretty straight forward so here goes...

I've made my family's yeast rolls since I was knee high to my Mom so I'm familiar with working with yeast. The important thing is that it bubbles and gets all yeast-ee like.

The milk and shortening mixture always seems so good to me. It has this comforting type smell that let's you know that something good is coming.

Working with the dough is classified as an aerobic workout. It takes some muscle power to mix this stuff around for the needed time.

I get anxious watching it rise. It looks so pretty and puffy and I know it is going to taste wonderful once it's baked.

And it didn't disappoint!

I was proud of myself for stepping out to try a new bread recipe. I now have a little confidence in the bread making department on hope to start doing more of this. I'll be blog hopping looking for some good recipes but if you have one, please share! 

With Love,

Reynie

Biscuits: A Saturday Morning Favorite

I love me a nice warm biscuit on a Saturday morning! I like to watch the butter slowly melt on it and then dribbling some honey on top of it. I really like it when the honey and butter mixture run down my fingers and I have to quickly lick it off before it falls to a mess. Pair it with a cup of hot coffee and I'm so satisfied.

I sometimes want to be lazy and just pop open one of those already prepared cans of biscuits. You know the one that is supposed to be easy to open but half the time you end up beating the can to death on the counter top before it magically "pops" out the biscuits. Yep, those. They are easy to make and taste fairly good, but for someone who made a resolution to start making my own bread, this is not a good option. And really, the ones you make from scratch--no comparison!

This past weekend I got out my favorite cookbook and referenced the baking soda biscuit recipe while sipping my first cup of hot coffee.

And as I was finishing up mixing the ingredients, and of course on cue, my daughter comes in to help. I love her in the kitchen with me. Even when she wants to ask a hundred questions before I've finished my first cup of joe. She is too young yet to understand the concept of "not a morning person" and "coffee before talking." I'm trying to help her know about these things...

She cut the biscuits out and placed them on the cooking sheet. She even buttered the tops with the melted butter.

And when they came out of the oven, she helped me eat them. Such a good little helper!

I'm slowly adding new bread making experiences to my recipe box and hopefully my family will benefit from the goodness of it. Food made with love!

With Love,

Reynie

Chicken Salad: One Mix with Soooo Many Uses!

When my little Kimmie went off to "big school" this year, we decided that she would bring her lunch daily. I'm a little skeptical of school lunches. I ate them and survived but I think they have gone down hill since my school days.

I've worked hard to come up with diverse options besides sandwiches for her lunch. More often than not though, the sandwich is my go-to easy lunch. Until recently when my little Kimmie has stated that "she doesn't like sandwiches for lunch anymore." I love how she has these grand epiphanies about her food. She's thinking about food which is great but really, a sandwich is the easiest thing to prepare so now I've got to start thinking of something else for the lunchtime meals.

So with that information, I'm gonna have to whip up the old standard--chicken salad. This weekend I'm planning to make another big batch of chicken salad. It is truly so easy to make and once you have the basic salad, you can do so many different things with it besides, you know, eat it!

You start with cooked chicken--grilled, fried, boiled, baked. However you want and whatever might be easy access. This is a great way to use up leftover chicken. I often times can find some chicken on clearance and will grab that up if I'm going to cook it that day or so.

Dice it up and throw it in a bowl. The size of the chunks really depends on the texture you like in your salad. Remember that as you mix it, the chunks will break down smaller.

I like to add diced celery to mine. It gives it a little crunch without being overbearing.

Now let's talk about mayo. I'm a true Southern girl and to me, there is no other mayo but Dukes. This stuff is seriously the best stuff on the mayo planet.

Put a heaping amount of mayo into the salad. Again, the amount depends on your likes. If you don't put enough, you'll end up with a dry salad. Too much and it gets soggy. I always start with a little and add more to get the right consistency.

 

Mix well and you're done! You can eat it immediately but it's even better once it's been in the frig for a few hours.

 

There are endless amounts of yummies you can make with this salad. Kimmie likes it as a heaping spoonful on some lettuce served with some pretzel crackers for her lunch. My sister, Stephanie likes it when I tuck it into some crescent rolls and bake. And, for an easy go-to lunch, it always makes a good sandwich!

With Love,

Reynie

Snow Day

Sometimes God knows when you need some down time... some family time... and He sends you... SNOW. Even to the little old Southern state of Georgia.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28

My two littles were thrilled with the small dusting of snow we got on Friday night. First thing Saturday morning they were up and at it to play with the small amount we got. Their smiles and fascination of it took me back to when I was a child and my own fond memories of snow days.

I went outside about long enough to get a few pictures and I headed back inside. I'm not a cold weather kinda girl. When the temps go below 72, I'm bundling up.

Back inside, with my warm coffee, I had to thank God for this day as I knew already it was gonna be a great one. To my standards anyway.

Psalm 143: Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life.

The morning was begging for a big, warm home cooked breakfast and of course, an extended pajama day! I remember as a kid my Dad would fry doughnuts from time-to-time for breakfast and it was always such a cool thing to me as a kid because the process was awesome to watch and the end product was incredible! I have been tossing this adventure around in my mind but have been a little nervous about it because of the entire hot grease thing with active kids around. But today was my day... Doughnuts were going to be concurred!

So, the doughnut making began...

I pulled one of my cookbooks out and referenced a apple-spice doughnut recipe (Thanks Junior League of Atlanta cookbook!). Sounds perfect for a cold winter morning. Started mixing... Wet ingredients and then alternate dry ingredients with milk. Kimmie loved running the mixer (and she loved licking the mixer blade in the end!).

After a good mixing, add the vanilla and applesauce.

Warm the grease. I love my mini cast iron dutch oven pan. It's perfect for this adventure.

Why the grease slowly heats to 350, drink coffee... Slowly... And enjoy the fact that the kids are watching cartoons and hubs is tending to the fire. And you have two seconds to enjoy the morning--by yourself.

Drop the dough in by heaping spoonfuls and let them fry up!

When they are done, let them dry for a moment on a paper towel lined plate. While they are still hot, transfer them to a paper bag with powdered sugar. Shack... vigorously... sorta like you're mad... but you just had your coffee and it's still morning so you are really not ready to be angry.

And pile them on a plate because a small mountain of home cooked doughnuts looks awesome to a four-year old! And then fry up some sausage on the side. I always have deer sausage in the freezer (aka "venison" to proper folks).

Make sure you sneak one for yourself before everyone else runs in demanding one... or two.

After I cleaned the dishes from breakfast, it wasn't long before the littles wanted lunch... and then I started a pot of chili for dinner. I was in the kitchen most the day but it's my happy place so no complaints. It was only after my son got shipped off to Grandma's for a sleep over with his cousin and the other girl cousin joined my daughter here at our house did I have a moment to sit down and reflect. I reflected that it was a good day. Thank you, Lord for I feel rested!

I hope you enjoyed your snow day as much as I did!!

With Love,

Reynie

Snackers Need Granola Bars

My kids are the eternal snackers. I’m forever hearing, “Mommy, can I have a snack?” They can live on endless supplies of goldfish, crackers, smoothies, fruit slices… you name it.

As I’ve started exploring healthier food options for my family I’ve turned a lot of focus on the snacks that we consume (because you know whatever they are snacking on, Mommy is, too!). My first goal was to cut out anything processed and that contained artificial colors. This included me taking a hard look at what my go-to snacks are and possible alternative replacements.

One of the snacking options I love because of the portability is the snack bar. They are often times loaded with sugars and other ingredients I can’t pronounce so in an effort to cut the processing out, I’ve opted to make my own. I did a little research and found several viable recipes but went down the path to modifying them to fit my family.

I have to start by saying—THIS HAS A LOT OF BUTTER! I hope on my next run of these I can figure out how to cut the butter amount and up the nutritional value. But it is also full of other wonderful ingredients that my kids love such as nuts, berries, and oats. The honey adds the sweetness. I tossed in a small amount of chocolate chips to keep them interested.

Kimmie jumped right in to help me in the kitchen while whipping these up. Start by mixing the wet ingredients.

One of my new ingredients I’m testing out is a peanut butter-coconut spread. This one might need a little more research but the kids seem to like it. I added in a small amount to give it a little more of a earthy, robust flavor.

Add oats and wheat flour and give it a good mixing. #workout! Lastly, add the assortment of extras your family likes. Press the mixture firmly into a pan and bake.

When it comes out, it will need to cool for about 15 minutes before cutting. I suggest letting it cool completely prior to chowing down. If they are still warm (albeit totally yummy that way) they will crumble. The cooling process allows for them to really “set” into form.

I gave my minis a half a bar each for an after school snack and they both gave them the “yum” smile!

I’m a big believer in homemade—you control the ingredients and less processing! And besides, anything made with love will be received with love!

Suggestions on butter substitutes? I’m all ears in growing this into a healthier version.

With Love,

Reynie

Snack "Granola" Bars

Ingredients

• 4 cups Oatmeal
• 1 cup Wheat Flour
• 1 tsp Baking soda
• 2 tsp Vanilla
• 1 cup Butter, softened
• 1 cup Honey
• 1 tbsp Peanut-coconut spread
• 1 tbsp Flax seeds
• 1/2 cup Almonds
• 1/4 cup Walnuts
• 1/2 cup Dried cranberries
• 1/2 cup Chocolate chips

Cooking Directions

1. Mix wet ingredients until well blended.
2. Add oats, flour and baking soda; mix well.
3. Add remaining ingredients and mix well.
4. Spread firmly into 9X13 pan
5. Bake at 325 for 25 minutes
6. Cool 15 minutes before cutting. Completely cool before eating.

Sunday Reflections

Sundays are good for several things: gettin' some Word, guilt-free naps, and a filling Sunday Southern dinner! I like to take a little time at some point in the day and reflect upon my blessings from the weekend. It helps me get my mind right for the coming weekend (although I'm lucky enough to have another "weekend" day thrown into this one as MLK is tomorrow and the kiddos and I have the day OFF!)

I started the weekend with my husband leaving me for his other girlfriend--the boat and the fish (that's multiple loves, isn't it...). I got the kids to bed for a "sleepover" and then cooked myself up a nice little dinner. Whenever hubs is gone I try something that I know he won't like. This weekends special was a tuna marinaded in soy sauce, brown sugar, and EVOO. Hubs highly opposes fish or meat with a sweet sauce. Me, not so much. 

 

Saturday started with having my little man help me make some chocolate-chip muffins from scratch. He loves to help in the kitchen. It adds a little stress but I try to work through it as I so want my kids to learn to cook and love it as I do!

What I love about January is the "nothing to do" season! December always feels so crazy that it is nice to have nothing going on. We took the time for a visit to the local library. Afterwards we fed the ducks and wondered around the surrounding park. Those fellas were hysterical--funny how tame these guys are and the ones at my house won't let you within a mile of them.

We ended the weekend with a great church visit, chili for lunch, and a nice nap. 

I love weekends like this. It just calms the soul to have close family time! #blessed

This is a hymn we sang in church this morning... always a favorite!

What a fellowship, what a joy divine,
Leaning on the everlasting arms;
What a blessedness, what a peace is mine,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.

Leaning, leaning,
Safe and secure from all alarms;
Leaning, leaning,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.

Oh, how sweet to walk in this pilgrim way,
Leaning on the everlasting arms;
Oh, how bright the path grows from day to day,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.

Leaning, leaning,
Safe and secure from all alarms;
Leaning, leaning,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.
   
What have I to dread, what have I to fear,
Leaning on the everlasting arms?
I have blessed peace with my Lord so near,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.

Leaning, leaning,
Safe and secure from all alarms;
Leaning, leaning,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.

I wish you a peaceful and wonderful week!

With Love,

Reynie