Old-Fashioned Lemonade
It’s been awhile since I’ve added anything to my recipe blog, so here’s an easy one. The perfect summer drink anyone can make. 🙂 If you prefer Limeade, just substitute limes for lemons. 🙂
The yield of this recipe is 3 quarts. I tried it at this strength and found the flavor to be nice, but nowhere near as tart and tangy as modern store-bought lemonade. For a stronger flavor add the water a little at a time, tasting along the way. Stop when it suits your preference.
Old-Fashioned Lemonade
Ingredients:
5 large, or 6 medium size lemons
1 1/2 cups sugar
Ice
Also gather a large 2qt bowl, a towel, a 3qt pitcher and a wooden spoon or potato masher.
Preparation:
- Place your lemons in the large bowl and cover with boiling water, let stand for 2 minutes. This will dissolve the wax coating on the outside of the lemon, and will increase the juice yield of the lemons.
- Pour off the water and rinse and dry your bowl. Place the lemons on a towel. While pressing down on the lemons, one at a time, roll them until they are completely dry. This will also help free up the juice in the lemons.
- Slice lemons very thin on a saucer, or grooved cutting board, so you don’t lose any juice.
- Place slices into the bowl, a layer at a time, sprinkling with sugar before starting the next layer. Repeat this layering process until you are out of lemons and sugar.
- Let stand 30 minutes.
- Press lemon slices with spoon or potato masher. Be careful not to break up the pulp too much.
- Pour contents into pitcher, fill the pitcher with water to the 3qt mark.
- Stir before pouring into glasses with ice.
Tip: Don’t like pulp, or are there too many seeds floating around in your pitcher? Pour lemonade through a cheese cloth to serve.
Lemonade Chicken
Lemonade Chicken
Serves 2
Ingredients:
Minute Rice 1 cup rice, and 1 cup water
2 Chicken Breasts
2 Tbsp Vegetable Oil
1 (6oz) can Frozen Lemonade Concentrate *
1/2 cup water (divided, 1/4, and 1/4)
1 Tbsp Chicken Bouillon
3 Bell Peppers (using 3 different colored peppers is festive)
2 tsp Cornstarch
Preparation:
- Cut chicken into strips. Saute chicken in 2 tbsp oil until cooked through, reduce heat to medium.
- Add lemonade concentrate, 1/4 cup water, and bouillon. Simmer 10 minutes.
- Cook minute rice according to package directions, set aside.
- Add peppers to chicken mixture, cover and cook 5 minutes until peppers are crisp-tender.
- In a small bowl mix cornstarch and 1/4 cup water until smooth. Pour into chicken mixture and bring to boil for 1 minute stirring constantly.
- Serve over rice.
*Note on Lemonade Concentrate: I’ve never been able to find 6oz frozen lemonade concentrate in my area. I usually take a 12oz, stir it up to mix the separated corn syrup back with the lemonade. Divide it in half, use half in the recipe, then mix the other half with 2 cans of water to make lemonade.
Bramberger Meat & Cabbage Casserole
Bramberger Meat and Cabbage Casserole
Serves 4
Prep: 45 mins Bake: 45 mins
Ingredients:
1 small head cabbage
2 medium onions, chopped
1 lb ground beef
3 cups white potatoes (approx), peeled & cut into cubes.
1/2 cup white wine, dry
3 slices of thick sliced bacon
1 tbsp & 1 tsp vegetable oil
1/2 lb ham cubes
1 tsp caraway seeds
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
Preparation:
- Preheat oven to 350 degree’s.
- Remove outer, wilted, cabbage leaves, wash cabbage & finely chop.
- Heat 1 tbsp oil, add onions, pork, and ground beef to dutch oven. Cook until lightly browned. Drain excess fat.
- Add chopped cabbage, potatoes, caraway seeds, salt, pepper, and white wine. Cover and simmer 10 minutes, stirring often.
- Grease a 13×9 baking dish with 1 tsp vegetable oil, place mixture into dish.
- Cut bacon strips in half and arrange on top.
- Bake 45 minutes.
Pumpkin Pie
Since it’s fall I think it’s time to start enjoying lots of pumpkin flavored goodies. So, let’s start with an old classic. Pumpkin pie. Everyone has their own way of making pumpkin pie and everyone thinks theirs is the best, until they try mine. 😉 Now, if you’ve had my pumpkin pie don’t expect this to taste exactly like it though it should be close. Mine has a secret ingredient which I won’t disclose here. This is the recipe I use minus the secret ingredient. 🙂
I’m going to start by giving the recipe and prep. Then at the bottom I’ll include instructions for preparing a fresh sugar pumpkin in you want to try it the old fashioned way, which is pretty fun if you have the time.
As far as the crust goes I usually just use a plain refrigerated pie crust, whatever happens to be cheapest and everyone always loves it, also, I’ve used a graham cracker crust for this as well and that was actually pretty awesome. Don’t be afraid to break tradition and try something fun.
Pumpkin Pie
Ingredients:
Pastry for 9-inch pie
2 Large eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1 can (16oz) pumpkin, or fresh, prepared pumpkin
1 can (12oz) evaporated milk
Preparation:
- Preheat oven to 425 degree’s, gather all your ingredients together & place refrigerated pie crust in a warm area to warm up a bit.
- Beat eggs slightly with a wire whisk, then beat in remaining ingredients.
- Line your pie plate with the crust and do whatever you like to make it pretty, I usually press around the edges with fork tines.
- To prevent spilling you can place the pie plate on your oven rack and pour filling into the plate, otherwise be very careful when you move the pie, as it can spill easily.
- Bake 15 minutes
- Reduce oven temperature to 350 degree’s. Bake 45 minutes longer.
- The pie will have a balloon of air in the middle, which will fall when you take it out of the oven, also the pie may seem undercooked and jiggle. Resist the temptation to insert a toothpick or knife into the center of the pie, if you cook the pie until a knife comes out perfectly clean you’ll only end up burning it. Let the pie sit out for half an hour or so, then chill it for at least 4 hours before serving. Keep leftover pie refrigerated.
Preparing Fresh Sugar Pumpkin for Pie-making.
- Preheat oven to 400 degree’s.
- Wash pumpkin, then cut pumpkin into quarters and remove seeds & fibers.
- Place pumpkin quarters cut sides up in an ungreased baking dish, add about half an inch of water to the bottom of your pan and dot the pumpkin quarters with butter.
Cover with foil and bake 30-40 minutes. - Remove and allow to cool enough to handle.
- Once pumpkin quarters are cool take a spoon and scoop the soft pumpkin from the rind.
- Place some of the pumpkin scrapings into blender or food processor with a little water. Process until it looks like canned pumpkin, repeat until you’ve processed all of your pumpkin.
- Squeeze excess water from pumpkin using cheesecloth and set aside.
- Depending on your pumpkin you may have extra pumpkin, sometimes enough even for 2 pies. You can freeze the excess until next time.
Key Lime Pie
(recipe from gourmetsleuth.com)
Ingredients:
Crust:
8 whole graham crackers
3 Tbsp sugar
1/4 cup butter
Pie:
4 Large or extra large egg yolks
1 (14oz) can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup fresh key lime juice (approx 12 key limes)
2 tsp grated lime peel (green portion only)
Whipped Cream for garnish (Opt.)
Preparation:
Crust:
Preheat oven to 350 degree’s.
Crush the graham crackers by placing them into a plastic zipper bag and roll a heavy rolling pin over the top of the bag.
Mix the ingredients, then press them firmly into a 9 inch pie plate. Bake for 10-12 minutes until lightly browned. Remove from oven and allow to cool while you prep the pie filling.
Pie Filling:
Use an electric mixer to beat the egg yolks until they are thick and turn a light yellow, don’t over mix. Turn the mixer off and add the sweetened condensed milk. Turn speed to low and add half the lime juice. Once the juice is incorporated add the other half of the juice and the lime zest. Continue to mix just until blended. Pour the mixture into the pie shell and bake at 350 degree’s for 12 minutes to set the yolks.
Remove from oven and refrigerate.
Serve with whipped cream if desired.
Braised Balsamic Chicken
This is another recipe I don’t remember the source. This is one my husband found. This is a fabulous recipe I make any time I feel the need to impress my guests with my mad cooking skills. 🙂 This easy but very yummy meal can quickly make any ordinary night feel like a special occasion!
Recommended side dishes: Steamed Fresh Green Beans & Buttery Herbed Potatoes
Note: This recipe can be done with 4 or with 2 chicken breasts without reducing the other ingredients. It just means extra sauce, which we never complain about in our home. 🙂
Braised Balsamic Chicken
Ingredients:
- 4 Boneless, Skinless, Chicken Breast Halves
- Pepper, to taste
- 1/4 tsp Garlic Salt
- 2 Tbsp Olive Oil
- 1/4 Cup Balsamic Vinegar
- 1 (14.5 oz) can Diced Tomatoes
- 1 tsp dried Oregano
- 1 tsp dried Basil
- 1 tsp dried Rosemary (crush well with morter & pestle)
- 1/2 tsp thyme
Prep:
- Trim chicken of excess fat & pound to 1/4 inch thickness, if desired.
- Season chicken with pepper & garlic salt.
- Heat olive oil in skillet and cook chicken until browned on both sides.
- Pour tomatoes & vinegar over chicken. Add remaining ingredients seasonings. Simmer about 15 minutes turning chicken every 2 minutes.
Simple Buttery Herbed Potatoes
Here’s a very easy recipe that can be made in your oven or on a campfire. This is by no means a healthy side dish, but it’s really tasty!
Buttery Herbed Potatoes
Ingredients:
- Potatoes (round white, new potatoes, fingerlings, purple or blue potatoes all work really well).
- Herbs, any kind you like (I recommend Rosemary & Thyme)
- Butter, 1 stick
This whole recipe is relative but basically you want a good double handful of small potatoes, or however many you think you need to serve your party/family.
Cut your potatoes into nice, small, bite sized pieces and place them in a baking dish.
Sprinkle them with a good amount of herbs. I use dried (or fresh if it’s available) Rosemary & Thyme (about a tablespoon of each, more if you’re using fresh). Crush up your dried rosemary sprigs with a morter & pestle before sprinkling.
Place a stick of butter on top of the potatoes, cover, and bake at 350 degree’s for 1 hour.
To prepare on a campfire:
You want to make sure your campfire has burned completely down to coals. You want a lot of really good, hot coals too because you need to cook this for an hour on the coals; you want them to last. This can take a little practice, coals too hot you may burn your potatoes, too cold, you’ll have undercooked, crunchy potatoes.
Instead of placing in a baking dish you’re going to prepare a double-thick packet out of heavy duty aluminum foil. Place the potatoes in the packet, sprinkle the herbs on and place the stick of butter on top. Be sure you close the packet up really tight to avoid butter leakage!
Place the packet directly on the hot coals and turn it every 20 minutes or so until thoroughly cooked.
Be REALLY careful opening your packet of potatoes, the melted butter will be really hot and may have made it’s way into any crevices available around your opening points. 🙂
Last time we made this while camping they were amazing. I don’t have any pictures of camping prep. If we make them this year I will revisit this post after we get back from our annual camping trip which will be towards the end of September.
Dutch Oven Dinner
I don’t remember where I got this recipe now but it’s one that quickly joined the rotation once we tried it. It’s very easy and full of flavor. It’s also a pretty forgiving recipe. I have screwed up and forgotten to buy corn only to discover it in the middle of cooking. I substituted chopped green beans in their place and it tasted fine. I have also stretched 1/2 pound of beef by using crushed cooked pinto beans, hubby didn’t care for that modification but I liked it. I think that’s about it for major changes I’ve tried.
Dutch Oven Dinner
(Serves 4 -6)
Ingredients:
- 1lb lean ground beef
- 1 bell pepper, chopped
- 1/2 medium yellow onion, chopped
- 2/3 cup chopped fresh mushrooms
- 2 cups frozen corn
- 1 (10-12oz) package egg noodles
- 1 (28oz) can diced tomatoes, undrained
- 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
- salt & pepper, to taste.
Preparation:
- Brown ground beef in a Dutch oven.
- Stir in bell pepper, onion, mushrooms, & corn. Season with salt & pepper.
- Spread uncooked noodles evenly over the top of mixture.
- Sprinkle cheese evenly over the top of noodles.
- Pour can of tomatoes over the top of the cheese. Be sure to cover all the noodles or you may come up with a crunchy few.
- Simmer, tightly covered, 1 hour.
I recommend serving this dish with your favorite sliced bread with butter or with corn bread.
This recipe reheats well. Just mix it all together to reheat in the pot on the stove, you can add a little water (about 1/4 cup) to keep it from drying out while you heat it.
Homemade Laundry Detergent
I wasn’t planning to make a Household Cleaning Supply the first entry here. However, the recipe I made last night needs to be revisited and tweaked before I share it. It was a new recipe I’d never tried before.
So, onto the Homemade Laundry Detergent. You may be wondering why I have chosen to make my own laundry detergent? Well, I like to use natural products with few ingredients. The cheapest way to acquire natural products is often to create them yourself. Also, it’s just plain fun.
I got this recipe off of thesimpledollar.com, though I’ve made a couple very minor tweaks.
Homemade Laundry Detergent
Ingredients:
- 1 bar of soap
- 1 cup Washing Soda (Sodium Carbonate)
- 3 gallons plus 4 cups of water
- 1/2 cup Borax (optional)
- 5 gallon bucket, with lid
Steps:
- Put 4 cups of water into a pot on your stove and heat to just below boiling. Shave the soap using a knife or a cheese grater. Keep the water just below a rolling boil. Add the soap and stir occasionally until the soap is fully melted.
- While the soap continues to melt put 3 gallons of hot water into your 5 gallon bucket and mix in the 1 cup of washing soda. You can also add the Borax at this time if you desire. I prefer to only add Borax to my wash load if I feel the load is dirty enough to warrant it.
- After the soap is fully melted add your soapy water to your bucket and stir thoroughly. You should have a bucket full of water that is a slightly lighter shade of whatever color soap you used.
- Let it sit, covered, in the bucket for about 12 hours. You should end up with a bucket full of slimy, lumpy goo. If that’s the case good job! Shake the detergent well before use and use about 1 cup/full load. If your detergent came out any way other than lumpy goo, you may want to try again with a different type of soap.
Notes: Washing Soda (Sodium Carbonate) is NOT the same as Baking soda (Sodium Bicarbonate), if you have trouble finding Washing Soda in the laundry isle of your local stores try a pool supply store. It is also sold as “Soda Ash” or “PH Increaser”. Just check the ingredients and make sure Sodium Carbonate is the only ingredient listed.
You can pretty much use any soap you want. Don’t use body wash, you want soap. I have only tried this with dial so far though I plan to switch over to an all natural lye soap once the dial I have stockpiled is used up.
I’ve used this for several weeks now with excellent results. Dirty laundry comes out smelling fresh and with no dirt. It’s very gentle so it should be safe for use on delicates. The biggest problem is if you don’t make sure the soap is thoroughly melted you may end up with soap bits stuck to your clothing. You may want to pour your soapy water through a strainer when you add it to your bucket in step 3 to ensure you don’t end up with soap bits in your wash.
Fabric Softener: White Vinegar in the final rinse water makes an excellent fabric softener, it also helps remove odors. I fill my downy ball up to the line and throw that in. Works great. 🙂
Pictures of my last laundry detergent prep (I cut the recipe in half to make it so my pictures will show smaller amounts than the recipe calls for):
Come back tomorrow for a recipe for Ham & Potato Soup
Welcome to my site
I just set up this recipe blog. I will be trying to add a recipe or two a week, all recipes will include detailed pictures of preparation. I hope you will stop back by again soon and see what yummy things I have posted.
B in the Kitchen. 