Striped Pie – One-Liner Wednesday

It tastes like turkey and I wanted something with gravy so we’re having shepherd’s pie…with raccoon.

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My neighbors caught a raccoon in their live trap. It had been slaughtering their chickens and so they set out traps. They didn’t know what to do with it and my older brother’s had it while on a mission in Louisiana and wouldn’t stop singing the meat’s praises. So of course Mom, who’s from the South anyway, insisted that if the neighbors were okay with it then could we please have the meat? So we’re having shepherd’s pie made with raccoon meat tonight.

I have no idea how this is going to go.

Check out the original One-Liner Wednesday. (Will update link when able.)

Storage – Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for food storage and how useful it is when you’re still settling into a new house and trying to figure out schedules for when you’re going to be able to go to the store and stock up on food and such. (Yes, I am aware that it has been almost 6 months by now.)

Check out the original Thankful Thursday. (Will update when able.)

Cookbooks – Thankful Thursday

Today I am grateful for cookbooks. I like to bake and, sometimes, I even like to cook. I am not good at cooking something out of the box with little instructions on the back. (I’m not the only one in my family with this problem, but there are only two of us out of our eight siblings with this problem.) I can, however, follow a recipe on a little card from the recipe box that our mother has spent the majority of her life collecting or from a book.

I’ve gotten pretty good at it, as long as I don’t leave the kitchen and forget that I’m cooking something. The kids are always really happy when I bake and they’ve grown to like when I cook as well now that dinners during the week have to be made by me and their Granny Mary (Mom). We have a nice system where we switch off who makes the main thing plus one side dish while the other makes the other side dish.

So I am grateful for cookbooks and that my mother made sure I knew how to use them.

Check out the original Thankful Thursday. (I will update the link when able.)

EDIT: The correct link has been added.

They Will Feed And Clothe You – Thankful Thursday

So, my sister’s youngest boy has this thing where he needs to feed people. Usually people that he knows, but I have known him to steal all of our cracker packets and fruit snacks (back when we did bagged lunch at the first elementary school they went to before we moved) and then take the to school and give them to other students who, and I quote, “looked hungry enough.”

Even now, he likes to make things (sandwiches, hot dogs, breakfast burritos with eggs and potatoes that he’s cut up and fried himself) and then ‘discover’ that he’s made ‘too much’ and then start handing them out to anyone at the house. The last five breakfast burritos that I have had were because he ‘made too much and don’t I always tell him not to throw away perfectly good food?’

Seriously, my nephew likes to feed people.

His older brother is like that, sort of. He likes to make sure people aren’t thirsty. Every time someone comes over he asks them if they want milk or water or herbal tea or hot chocolate or juice or whatever we currently have in the house. Even if it requires him taking the time to heat up the water and then mix it all up. He gets this kicked puppy look if you don’t accept the drink, waits for you to grasp it (even if you were only going to take a sip of his soda) and then he runs off, yelling that you can’t give it back now.

He likes to give things away that are his if you even look like you like it.

My sister’s boys, I tell you. Someday I’m going to walk out of a store and see them feeding people while my niece is trying to convince those with less warm clothing to put on one of the jackets or other warm clothing that she’s holding.

One time when I was in high school, early high school, I fell over (this was after The Accident and it happened a lot) and she worried that I would get too cold because I couldn’t move for a while. So my little three-year-old niece (at the time) went for the nearest thing she could find to cover me so that I wouldn’t get too cold. I had fallen over by the tea cart that had these really long drawers where we kept all of our table linens and napkins. So my little niece, who didn’t want to leave me in the room along long enough to get a blanket, emptied the drawers and placed every single table linen and napkin over me. She hunkered down next to me to share body heat and together we waiting for someone to come.

She still likes to wrap people up whenever they look cold.

So this week I am grateful for the generosity that lives in my niece and nephews which is something that they share all year ’round but also during Christmas time.

Check out the original Thankful Thursday. (I will add the link to this week’s post for the original when it’s up.)

EDIT: Proper link has been added, go check it out!

Wiggle Room

At times I find myself browsing through online,

Readily seeing what I would have, should more money be mine.

Even though I forget that the whole wide world is Thine.

 

You give me more than enough to face my longest days

Or gently take my hand in yours when I don’t know Your ways.

Until I walk beside You in peace and nevermore will I strays.

 

Just keep in mind as the days go by that there’s more to life to see

Even though there’s more I want, I have all that I need.

Life is not about gaining all and letting more go to seed.

Life is about who you surround yourself not only in times of need.

Yet there is more that I would say because this is not quite all I see.

 

I didn’t used to understand why jealous was shortened to ‘jelly’ other than it took less articulation to say. Now that I’ve had time to think about it, jelly wiggles all over the place even when it hasn’t been broken up and stirred whenever there’s a big movement (or not so big movement.) When we see something we want that someone else has, we wiggle around in discomfort (even if only in our minds) because we want it too.

When jealous, we are just like jelly except the emotion isn’t quite as good when we swallow it as the food is.

This little poem and thought was inspired by the quote from this week’s Light and Shade Challenge.

Jealousy is all the fun you think they had.

–Erica Jong

Well-Deserved Munchies

She tiredly placed the slabs of bread into the toaster and then while they fused better together, she gathered up the jar of peanut butter and pulled the glass jar of strawberry preserves from the refrigerator. Once the toast was finished, she combined the ingredients slowly, still worn out from kneading the dough an hour ago.

With a glass of milk to finish it off, she tucked into her well-deserved lunch.

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Written for Suzie’s Weekly Word Challenge: http://suzie81speaks.com/2014/06/02/weekly-word-challenge-food/#like-14758

My morning, like most Tuesdays for me, began with making bread dough as today is my Baking Day. Unfortunately, I’m still rather worn out from yesterday’s swimming so I probably won’t get as many batches made up as I normally do.

Letter to the Editor

Dear Editor,

I would like to file a complaint.

This complaint is about cookies. The last two different batches of the same recipe (different changes) have failed utterly. They were delicious and good for you (sort of), but absolute failures as cookies.

My mother has informed me that they weren’t just failures. She insists that they were, in fact, EPIC failures.

On further attempts with this same recipe I have on a third attempt succeeded masterfully, but failed the fourth attempt. (Though they did make strangely good granola bars after prying them from the pan.)

This recipe:

 Cream – 1/2 c. white sugar, 1 c. brown sugar packed, 3/4 tsp. salt, 2 eggs, 1 tsp. vanilla, 1 tsp. baking soda, 1 c. peanut butter

Add – 1 c. oatmeal, 1 (12 oz.) chocolate chips, 1 c. nuts

Mix well. Drop on cookie sheet. Bake at 350 Degrees until lightly browned about 10 to 12 minutes. If too dry add a few drops of milk.

That is the extent of the instructions. I have learned that the peanut butter, oatmeal, nuts and chocolate chips can be optional if you want and that the length of cooking time can vary as well. This recipe is able to be turned into a low sugar recipe, though it is easier to do so if you have doubled or tripled the batch recipe and then substituted some of the white sugar for Splenda (or your equivalent). (Don’t mess with the brown sugar too much or it will change the cookies a lot; that’s why it’s good to convert to low sugar and not no sugar added. I have tried this, it makes weird biscuit/bread cookies that are good, but still strange.)

One of my sisters compiled a recipe based off of the previous one.

It goes as follows:

Ingredients –

1/2 cup Splenda/Sugar Substitute

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1/4 cup margarine/butter

2 eggs

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup oatmeal

1 bag chocolate chips

1 cup chunky peanut butter

Mix: Splenda, brown sugar, salt, baking soda.

Add: Peanut butter and margarine to sugar mix. Cream together.

Mix in eggs and vanilla.

lastly, stir in oats and chocolate chips.

Drop cookie dough by spoonfuls on cookies sheet.

Bake cookies in a preheated 350° until lightly browned, approx. 9 1/2 mins.

Once again, the amount of time in the oven varies and the chocolate chips and oatmeal and even peanut butter can be optional.

The second recipe is the one I usually use as it has slightly better instructions and I like to switch out the butter/margarine and some of the peanut butter (if needed, you don’t always have enough peanut butter when you quadruple the batch. There are a lot of people in my family…) with applesauce or some other fruit that has been turned into a sauce (or mashed up). The amount of applesauce (or other fruit) I haven’t really measured (which might be the cause of some of my problems now that I think about it…) but have added using how much I think I need. (If it looks like it needs more, I add more.)

On further thought, it occurs to me that this letter might be better used should I actually measure the amount of mashed fruit/applesauce I put in and record the results.

Either way, the ‘epic failures’ were still mostly edible and some of them were even delicious.

As such, please disregard this letter, Editor and I thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Martha Stout

Suspicion

image from: ciscopa on rgbstock.com

 

They looked around in wonder, never having seen anything like this place before. There was food on every counter, a vast array that included things they didn’t even recognize by sight, though they smelled heavenly.

If not for the suspicion and caution that had practically been bred into them, it was likely the children would have fallen upon the food before them and eaten until they could eat no more. Though they would be carefully and with great sneakiness, be hiding food that would last longer and not spoil too quickly.

They were street urchins who had never had anyone other than themselves to rely on. They weren’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth and take for granted what was on display.

In fact, several of the children were wandering around the tables already, carefully looking and never touching anything, much to the adults’ consternation.

“Why do they not eat?”

“There is plenty for everyone!”

“I checked myself to make certain that none were allergic to anything.”

What the adults didn’t notice was that several of the children had already pocketed a fair amount to take back later and check with their own leaders, hidden away though some of them were, to make certain that everything was safe. One by one, and never in a way that anyone who they didn’t want to notice noticed, children would slip away and then return several minutes later. As each item was checked by someone they trusted, the word was spread without sound to those who had stayed behind just what was safe to eat.

Even then, the food was eaten very cautiously and still more was pocketed quietly.

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Written for this Monday’s picture prompt from Light and Shade Challenge: http://lightandshadechallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/challenge-monday-5th-may-2014.html

I missed the Friday challenge last week because I forgot that it was a twice a week challenge (looks sheepish). Hopefully I have marked it better on my computer to remember this week.

Failed Food

I’ve messed it up once again,

Always something going wrong.

The recipe was easy to read?

That’s a laugh, so laugh along.

 

It said tablespoons, I’m sure.

Oops, was supposed to be 4 teaspoons.

Well, salt is supposed to be savory, right?

With corn, ketchup, mustard, barbecue sauce…

 

The cookies are muffins or bars or crisps,

They never seem to look quite right.

Yet I’m assured that they taste just fine.

That would mean more if you actually swallowed.

 

The bread is wholesome and quite tasty.

It’s good for you and all homemade.

The grains were ground this morning.

Now if only it didn’t look like a little brick.

 

You can cook all kinds of things with a roast:

Onions, potatoes, carrots, tomatoes…

All of them come out just right,

But not the broccoli, not even ketchup will save it.

 

There are a lot of different noodles these days.

Not all of them from Asia or Italy.

There are many ways to cook them, many sauces,

But if you’re using peanut butter, just stop.

 

Trying to make brownies

Even followed the box.

Still ended up with too much oil

And not enough chocolate.

 

My family likes to make things from scratch,

Most of it’s pretty good, too.

There were a few learning moments, but in the end?

It all worked out without any food poisoning.

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I didn’t write this for a prompt (though I seriously considered it), but because another attempt at cookies failed yet turned out all right. Had some cookie dough I’d made yesterday that tasted fine, but was too structurally unsound to be used for cookies. (They were the flimsiest cookies I’ve ever seen and would not harden at all or stiffen up the way you need cookies to do. It would have made weird granola, but at least taste good.) Finally I added some flour to it today (it wasn’t part of the recipe originally) and then just baked it all together in a cake pan. Turned out just fine after that even though I’ve been told it looks like cake. (It tastes like cookie and once it’s been cut up will make lovely cookie bars.)

The fail-succeed process reminded me of other times in my family when we’ve failed epically in making something.