Kids preparing for gathering Trash Can Turkey

The kids are helping get ready for a gathering here

and you can see all the plants started in the window, ready to be put out in the garden :) 

 Kota is making my awesome vegetable dip

all this for the dip? he asks LOL well ok not quite all goes into the dip

 doing what she does best ha ha

 trash can turkey!!!

 oh yeah, it was pretty good too

Homemade Vegetable Beef Soup Recipe

Today I wanted to share an easy homemade veggie beef soup recipe

I love to make this in the fall months

We grow our own vegetables, then I freeze or can everything, sauces, you name it, so my recipe is strictly from vegetables we have grown, if you don't have fresh or canned, use frozen or store bought canned ingredients. Our beef is from the farm next door.

HOMEMADE VEGETABLE BEEF SOUP

1 quart jar of stewed tomatoes

1 quart jar of tomato juice

2 carrots cut into chunks

4 celery stalks cut into chunks

4 medium potatoes cubed, diced or sliced

1 onion sliced or cubed

half stick butter

pint peas

pint beans

pint corn

3 chicken-tomato bouillon cubes (or whichever you prefer)

stew meat bite sized pieces

salt & pepper

garlic minced up (tablespoon)

start by heating up your dutch oven, add a pat or two of butter

stir in your carrots, celery & onions and saute until cooked

(or like I used this time a HUGE stock pot because I doubled recipe)

dump all the rest of the ingredients into the dutch oven.

simmer until done

*note* I use my fresh garden vegetables that have been blanched and frozen and sealed in FoodSaver storage bags, you can either use fresh, frozen or canned in yours.

       I say quarts and pints because these are things I have canned or frozen from my gardens.

Remember you can use store bought and it will still be just as yummy!!

I always make BUTTERED ROSEMARY DINNER ROLLS when I make this soup

Fresh Apple Cake

Time for a recipe, how about Fresh apple cake?

Fresh Apple Cake

    2 cups sugar

    3 eggs

    1 1/2 cups of vegetable oil

    1/2 cup orange juice

    1/2 tsp. salt

    1 tsp. soda

    1/2 tsp. cinnamon

    1 cup coconut

    1 cup pecans, chopped

    1 cup finely chopped apples

    3 cups plain all-purpose flour

Stir together the sugar, eggs and oil in a large bowl. Add orange juice. Sift dry ingredients together and stir to mixture. Stir in apples, coconut and nuts. Bake at 325 degrees in a greased, floured pan for 1 hour or so (check after an hour with toothpick to come out clean.)

Now, do you really want to go over the edge??

Glaze

    Melt one stick of margarine in a pot

    Add 1 cup of sugar

    1/2 tsp baking soda

    1/2 cup of buttermilk

Bring to a boil and remove from heat. Pour over the apple cake after it is baked and while it is still in the pan. Let stand one hour then turn cake out. ENJOY!!

PS: This is a wonderful cake to bake in the small foil loaf pans with the plastic lids. Place loaf pans on a cookie sheet (minus the plastic lid of course), fill each pan about 2/3 of the way full with batter and cook probably half the time. You'll have to watch them because they will bake much faster.

or just sprinkle with powdered sugar!

Chicken Pot Pie recipe

Need to get away a bit from the new house postings and give you all a recipe!

How about some home made chicken pot pie, sooo yummy, try it out!

See ya again soon . . .

Buttered Rosemary Rolls + Recipe

Let's talk rolls, yes, buttery-scrumptious-rosemary-sea salt DINNER ROLLS!

I love these rolls, they are super awesome whether you make them in your oven at home or out over a fire in a dutch oven, but we like cast iron either way you look at it, CI heats better and just makes everything taste better, I use some of my great grandmother's CI, have picked up a few pieces over the years of the vintage stuff (found 2 pieces in the house we moved into all rusted and crusted in the basement) and we have also purchased back in the 90's some Lodge CI, however, I am spoiled, and the old stuff is the best, it's lighter and is much better made, but that's another story, today we are talking rolls!!

These delicious rolls never last long in my house EVER! Between the kids and the guests, they will be gone within hours, but I usually steal the middle one, you know . . . my tester taste, gotta make sure they are really done before I sit them out for everyone to eat right?

To start out this is the simple part about these rolls, you just use frozen dinner rolls, yes any brand will do, the cheapest bag of frozen dinner rolls you can find OR make your own, I always keep a supply of the frozen bags in my freezer "just in case". In the frozen section you will find them, they are about golf ball sized frozen little balls.

What you need: bag of frozen dinner rolls

1 stick butter or margarine - melted

sea salt

rosemary

smidgen of olive oil (or vegetable oil) or cooking spray

Get our your big CI skillet, drizzle bottom with oil.

Place frozen dinner rolls in skillet leaving a little space between them.

Cover with clear wrap to help rise faster . . .

Let rise to just top lip of skillet.

Drizzle with melted butter (save some for little later drizzling too)

sprinkle rosemary and sea salt on

Put in preheated oven at 400* for 15-20 minutes

Here is a recipe card you can save, try them, they are really REALLY good!

A friend from CA turned me onto this recipe :)

If cooking outside in the dutch oven, here is a nice temp chart showing amounts of coals for top and bottom of your DO, found on web to share with you :)

Handy little thing to have!

Enjoy!