Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara

Cheesecake Cookies

September 2, 2010 By Judy

Here’s another recipe that’s great for us empty nesters. These are so good and definitely not hard to make. I often make these when I need to send a finger food type dish. They’re very easy to freeze and then fix just what you need.

Ingredients:

3/4 c. butter, at room temp
3 oz. cream cheese, at room temp
3/4 c. granulated sugar
2 tsp. lemon zest
1 T. lemon juice
1-1/2 tsp. vanilla
2-1/4 c. all purpose flour
2 T. butter, melted
1/2 c. finely shopped pecans
1/2 c. graham cracker crumbs

Directions:

Beat together butter, cream cheese, and sugar. Add the lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla. Stir in the flour until well combined. Refrigerate while preparing the nut mixture.

Mix together the pecans and graham cracker crumbs with butter. Pour half into an oblong dish or onto a piece of waxed paper.

Form a log with half of the cookie dough and roll it in the crust mixture. Repeat with the remaining cookie dough. Wrap separately in plastic wrap and freeze at least 30 minutes. (I often make it the night before and leave it in the fridge overnight, then stick it in the freezer for 30 minutes before slicing.) And, you can keep the logs in the fridge for several days before slicing and baking.

Slice dough into 1/4″ thick rounds and place on an ungreased baking sheet. I use parchment paper to line the baking sheets.

Bake at 375º for 8 – 10 minutes. Makes about 5 dozen cookies.

If you’re like us and don’t need 5 dozen cookies, here’s what I do. I doubled the recipe! Makes sense, huh?

Divide into 9 or 10 balls and roll those into logs. Wrap in plastic wrap.

Stick those in a freezer bag and label, freeze til needed.

When it’s time to bake them, take them out and let them come to room temp. Mix up as much of the pecan/butter/graham cracker crust that you’ll need just for this batch. Depending on how cold (and hard) your cookie log is, you may have to really mash the crumb mixture into the cookie dough.

Then re-wrap these logs, stick them in the freezer for at least 30 minutes. Take them out and slice into 1/4″ slices.

Now you can spread them on the cookie sheet and bake them.

Most of this batch went to work with Vince. These few stayed home with us but there’s plenty more dough in the freezer.

Tagged Cookies, Cooking for Two Filed Under Cooking 8 Comments

Food Preservation & Storage

September 2, 2010 By Judy

I hesitate to talk a lot about food preservation and storage on here for several reasons. Because I’m getting lots of questions, I’m going to do this post but please realize that what’s right for me isn’t necessarily right for you. My mom has a pretty well stocked pantry, though she seems to go to the grocery store every day. My niece with four kids probably never cooks a meal that she doesn’t have to go to the store at least once before she starts cooking. Who cares? The way I do it would make some people crazy. Having to go to the store more than once every 2 or 3 weeks would make me crazy! (no comments please!) There’s no right for everyone way to prepare and store food for your family. As I’ve said before, in the fairly recent past, either myself or my immediate family have lived through weeks without power due to ice storms, tornadoes or hurricanes. For us, no matter how prepared I think we are, there are things I wish we had when the lights go out. I just try to do the best I can with no guarantees!

We are very lucky to have the storage areas in this house that we have. If you’re living in a small place or don’t have storage room, obviously my method isn’t going to work for you. If you’re living on a tight budget and barely have $$ to buy this week’s groceries, it may be hard to build up a supply of food. We all have to make it work in a way that fits our lifestyle so please don’t think that what I’m doing is what I’m telling you to do. Just because I mention food prep so much on the blog, I understand the interest in knowing what I do.

This method of keeping food actually saves $$ on my grocery bill because once I have a stockpile, I hardly buy anything that isn’t on sale. And, its very rare that I find a recipe I want to make that I don’t have everything I need to make the recipe. That saves not only on gas but I seem to be one of those people who can’t go to the store for just one thing. I always come out with several bags, if not more.

This blog post provided more pictures and info on my pantry.

This photo may give you a better idea of the room. It’s all concrete except for the ceiling and it is about 6′ wide and 40′ long, then there’s about a 12′ x 12′ room at the end (see where there are some batting rolls), and then the room comes back towards the opening and that part is about 6′ x 30′ but it’s a dead-end. You have to walk back out past the food shelves, stacked packages of batting and filing cabinet that you see above. The “out” door is right past that filing cabinet.

Around the corner and what you can’t see because I don’t like going back there, are 5 gallon sealed buckets of flour, sugar, wheat, and beans.

I try to keep at least 20 jars of homemade, home canned chili, beef stew, Cincinnati Chili, spaghetti sauce, cooked pinto beans and baked beans on hand. That supply is very low now because I’ve used every available jar for tomatoes, green beans and such. Each week, I empty 12 – 15 jars and within the next month or so, I’ll start restocking these items. If the power goes out, it’s so easy to heat up something that’s ready to serve!

I don’t necessarily think there’s going to be a time when groceries are in short supply, though I’m not saying I feel 100% confident with our food supply either! But . . if we ever need our own supply of food, I’m ready. If we don’t . . no problem. We use it all anyway.

Also, we have solar panels set up so we can charge cell phones, laptops, batteries for flashlights, and small fans. I’m working on getting Vince to build me a solar oven and a brick wood fired oven, both outside of course. I would love to bake bread and pizza in a wood fired oven every day but it would be very useful if we didn’t have power for a while.

In my opinion, there’s nothing like being prepared. We all have to decide what level of preparedness we’re comfortable with and then work to get to that point.

Tagged Canning, Food Storage, Preparedness Filed Under Home & Garden 12 Comments

Apple Pie Filling to Can

September 2, 2010 By Judy

The recipe I use is a pretty basic, “been around forever” recipe for canning apple pie filling. You can use any recipe for canning apple pie filling and just put it into smaller jars.

Start with a firm, cooking type apple. I used Granny Smith from a friend’s tree. They haven’t been well cared for which means they’re kinda ugly but also means they haven’t been sprayed with any chemicals.

The recipe I use makes 7 quarts of pie filling, which will be about 28 half pints. You know how I think . . 28 half pints means apple pie about twice a month for us. I did the same thing with blueberry, cherry and peach pie filling. If we need pie for four, I can simply use 2 half pint jars and make two different flavored pies or I can make a larger crust and make one medium pie that will serve 4.

For canning pie fillings, you need Clear Jel®. Do not use flour or cornstarch for canning pie filling! I get mine from the Amish store. I’m not sure if grocery stores have it but farm supply stores that carry canning supplies might have it.

You will need 6 quarts of peeled, sliced apples. Fix a bowl of water/Fruit Fresh combination and as you peel and slice the apples, place them in the Fruit Fresh liquid to keep them from turning brown. Once they’re all peeled and sliced, blanch them in boiling water for 1 minute. Remove them from the boiling water but keep them warm.

In addition to the 6 quarts of peeled, sliced apples, you need:

5 cups granulated sugar (see note below)
1-1/2 cups Clear Jel®
1 T. ground cinnamon
3 cups cold water
4 cups unsweetened apple juice
3/4 cup bottled lemon juice
1-1/2 teaspoons nutmeg

Note: If your apples are really sweet, you can use less sugar. If you want really sweet pie, use a little more sugar. We like our apple pie to be tart so the 5 cups of sugar usually works fine for us. For the apples I canned last week, I did bump it up to 6 cups of sugar because the apples are pretty sour.

Combine Clear Jel®, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, water and apple juice in a large pot. Stir constantly while heating til mixture thickens. Add lemon juice and bring to a boil. Boil for one minute. Stir in drained apples and keep on heat only until apples are hot, stirring the entire time to keep mixture from scorching.

Fill hot jars, leaving 1″ head space. Run something non-metallic (I use a wooden shish kabob skewer), around inside the jar to release the air bubbles. Wipe rims til they are completely clean. This mixture, of course, is really sticky and not the easiest to get clean but the rims have to be completely clean! Add lids and rings. Process in water bath for 25 minutes.