Fruit Cake Making Time

Here it is October already and it is time to begin making Christmas fruit cake! Oh, I know what you are saying!  Fruitcake! Yuk!  That's because you've probably never had real fruit cake. Back in the early 1960's "McCall's" magazine published a recipe for "Holiday White Fruitcake". My mother and sister and I would spend a happy Saturday, usually a week or so before Thanksgiving, making this fruitcake recipe. It's a white fruitcake studded with almonds, golden raisins and a plethora of candied fruits. We made it in angel food cake pans, wrapped the cooled cakes in pieces of old pillow cases, soaked them in dry Sherry and stored them in large round metal tins left undisturbed except for the occasional addition of more Sherry, until Christmas. My grandparents and great aunt loved this fruit cake and we feasted on it all through Christmas and well in to January.

Now days we don't always make the fruitcake since we've all become very health and diet conscious. And too, the candied fruit you buy in the grocery just isn't very nice. For a while I bought my fruits from King Arthur Flour. They import candied fruits from England where fruitcake is a fairly common thing and their candied fruit is very good. It's also very expensive, so a few years ago I began candying my own. I use the recipes from a book called "Better Than Store Bought" and without sounding too braggadocios, I have to say, my fruitcake is the best I've every eaten. 

Now you might think this is really going too far, but honestly, its worth the extra time it takes and it's easy. . To candy pineapple, for example, use canned pineapple in its own juice, a little light corn syrup and granulated sugar and boil it all together. I also buy frozen or canned pie cherries and candy them as well. My fruit cakes have no green cherries, only red.  I've tried candying the black cherries but they don't have the flavor of pie cherries. I also candy the lemon peel and orange peel.  I'd candy the citron as well, but haven't been able to get my hands on any citron melon, so I just add extra lemon peel. 

So, this weekend I will begin my fruit cake baking by candying the pineapple. I plan to make several small loaf pan sized fruit cakes so everyone can have a little fruit cake to keep on hand to have with tea over the holidays. The recipe calls for 8 ounces of candied pineapple. I'm going to candy two 20 ounce cans of pineapple chunks, so should have more than enough. 

Very Good Pound Cake

I love taking a recipe I find somewhere and making it better. Here's one from Martha Stewart's magazine "Everyday Food" that needed some improvement. It's important to have the ingredients at room temperature. The last time I made this it was a Monday morning  (my turn to bring dessert to the family dinner) and I used eggs I'd just gathered from the hen house. Country life is so good sometimes. Having to run through the pouring rain tonight to lock up the chickens in their hen house (so the bad guys can't get them ) is not so good, but I'll take not so good for those moments of good any time.

Very Good Pound Cake

1 cup of butter (2 sticks) at room temperature

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour, measured and then sifted

1 teaspoon vanilla

5 eggs at room temperature.

1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt (or regular salt, make it a scant 1/2 teaspoon)

Per heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease and flour a 4 1/2  inch x 8 1/2 in loaf pan. This is a smaller than standard pan, but works the best.

Cream butter and sugar in an electric mixer set on medium high speed until very light and fluffy, about 7 minutes. I know that seems like a long time but you need to beat a lot of air into the butter and sugar mixture. Scrape down the bowl and beat one minute more. Beat in the vanilla and then each egg, one at a time, beating well between additions. At low speed add the salt, then slowly add the flour, beating well and scraping down the bowl as you go.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake about 60 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted in the center of the cake comes out with a few moist crumbs attached. Cool on a wire rack for an hour. Remove form the pan and cool completely.

This time of year you could serve this with fresh red raspberries. I like to put a lemon sugar glaze on the top of the cake just to give it a little extra zip.  Zest a lemon and juice it. Whisk together 1 cup confectioner's sugar with 2 or 3 tablespoons of the lemon juice and a teaspoon of the zest. Pour over the top of the cake and let it set to firm. Delicious.

The first time I made this cake it was too dry. It has no liquid other than the eggs so I increased the sugar from 1 cup to 1 1/2 cups and that did the trick. It's all just chemistry after all!

More Mushrooms and Chicken Salad

Yesterday morning as I walked around the west side of the house on my way to feed the chickens, I noticed more mushrooms. The whole west side of the house is planted in different kinds of hydrangea bushes and under those bushes are hundreds of a little brown button type mushroom. I spent a good hour pouring through my mushroom book last night and I think they are a type of waxy cap but as usual, I can't really find a picture in the book that exactly matches. Oh well. I'll just look and not touch.

Now that apples and grapes are readily available at the orchards, my salad of choice - other than a nice green salad with lettuce fresh from the garden - is my Waldorf Chicken Salad.  This was a favorite at Copperfield's Coffee Cafe and I am happy to share the recipe.

Copperfield's Waldorf Chicken Salad

 2 cups diced cooked chicken meat (we used breast meat only, roasted bone in and then cooled and diced  but any parts will do)

1/2 cup of diced celery (one good sized rib)

1/2 cup sliced red seedless grapes (if no grapes available substitute raisins)

1 apple diced (I like Gala best, but any good eating apple will do. You want at least a 1/2 cup or more.)*

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

1/4 teaspoon salt

pinch of fine ground black pepper

1/2 cup Hellman's real mayonnaise

*I love to keep the skins on the apples for the color and the fiber, but unless they are certified organic apples, I would peel them. Wash them first and then peel them so your knife doesn't contaminate the flesh of the apple.  I am reading more and more that pesticide residue cannot be washed off apples completely.

Put all the ingredients in a wide bowl, except the mayonnaise. Toss and stir all the ingredients together so that they are well distributed with the salt and pepper.  Don't skip this step. Then add the mayonnaise and fold it into the chicken mixture until its well distributed. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. You can add a little more mayo if the mixture seams dry. White meat chicken breast my need a little extra mayo sometimes, but I prefer a salad that is lightly dressed with  mayo. Chill and serve. Keep leftovers in the refrigerator about 36 hours.

Mushrooms Everywhere!

We've had some record breaking rains this month and that combined with the cool temperatures has had mushrooms sprouting up everywhere!  Puff balls in the pastures are common and Shaggy Mane's show up both spring and fall in rainy weather.

Some friends of ours mushroom hunt in our woods sometimes and are always thrilled to find morels. I've also found some bright red mushrooms last spring growing on a wooded hillside. They might have been Wine-cap Stropharia, a choice eating mushroom, but they could also have been Emetic Russula, a very poisonous mushroom.

I have the National Audubon Society's "Field Guide to Mushrooms" with full color pictures but I am never sure if the mushroom I find is safe to eat. Remember that Clint Eastwood movie where the little girls feed him a dish with mushrooms in it and then tell him they are poisonous and he dies of heart failure?  I simply can't tell one from the other so I just enjoy looking at them, but never eat anything.

I have two new mushrooms growing near the house this fall. One is a white umbrella shaped mushroom that sprouted in the front yard and the other has a smooth white domed cap and likes the manure pile.  The umbrella one looks like the picture of the White Waxy Cap which is edible, but it also looks like a couple of the poisonous types as well. The domed cap one looks suspiciously like a Destroying Angel - very poisonous - but it also looks like the edible (with caution) Smooth Lepiota. Bottom line, it is look but don't touch for me. Also, I've notice that the chickens eat grocery store button mushrooms without a thought, but they haven't touched any of the mushrooms growing around the house. I bet you anything those dombed ones are Destroying Angels.  What a name! Creeps me out!.

Potatoes Au Gratin Update

Just arrived home from dinner with the family where I served my Potatoes Au Gratin dish. For some reason the potatoes remained firm - didn't cook up and soften as they should.  I've made this recipe a lot - in fact, I think the last half dozen times I made this dish I used Yukon Gold. Anyway, for what it's worth, the Russet potatoes I bought at the store today and used in the casserole did not cook up as they should. Everyone ate them anyway because the flavor is so yummy, but it was disappointing just the same.

Potatoes Au Gratin

Almost every Monday night my family gets together at either our parent's house or mine for dinner. We each bring a different dish to a pre-made schedule; entree, green, starch, dessert. It's a good way to bring everybody together at least once a week to catch up and especially to visit with my elderly father who suffers from Parkinson's disease among other things. No one person has the burden of the entire meal and we can all relax and visit.

It's my turn this week to bring starch and since its a cold rainy day I've decided to make my Cheddar Potatoes Au Gratin dish. It's always popular because its loaded with cheese and it travels well.  A more traditional version would have less cheese and a white sauce, which is also very good, but I like the splurge of the extra cheese. Also, without a white sauce you get more flavor from the shallots, chives and garlic.

Cheddar Potatoes Au Gratin

6 medium russet potatoes sliced very thin (I use a mandolin)

2 shallots, minced

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon butter

1 glove garlic finely minced

1 tablespoon snipped chives (optional)

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

8 oz white cheddar cheese shredded

1/2 cup dry bread crumbs.

1 tablespoon melted butter

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese grated

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease a 9 x 12 inch casserole.

In a small saute pan melt the butter with the olive oil and add the shallots. Cook the shallots over medium heat for one minute. Add the garlic and cook another minute. Set aside. In a large mixing bowl toss the sliced potatoes with  salt, pepper, chives and shallot/garlic mixture. Coat the potatoes well. Layer 1/4 of the potato mixture on the bottom of the greased casserole dish. Sprinkle 1/4 of the shredded white cheddar cheese on top of the potatoes. Continue layering potatoes and cheese until you have four layers. Toss the breadcrumb, melted butter and Parmesan cheese together in a small bowl. Sprinkle the mixture over the last layer of cheddar cheese. Cover the dish with foil and bake 35 to 40 minutes. Remove the foil and bake 10 minutes longer. If the breadcrumb mixture isn't brown and crisp put the dish under the broiler for a few minutes. Serves 6 to 8.





Date Pinwheel Cookies

I work with a lot of volunteers at a local history museum. Most of the volunteers are retirement age or older, with the average age about 75. They are all great cooks and one in particular, a 91year old retired gym teacher, is an excellent baker. Mary Jane comes in every Thursday to work in our research library and always brings cake or cookies to share at lunch time. She's one of my egg customers and likes to bake with my rich, free range eggs. This week she brought in her Date Pinwheel Refrigerator Cookies. They were so buttery delicious I thought you might like the recipe. The recipe makes a big batch and since its a refrigerator cookie it will be great to have on hand to slice and bake this fall right into the holidays. It will be very comforting to know I have a roll or two of this cookie dough in my freezer just waiting for me to slice and bake.

Mary Jane's Date Pinwheel Refrigerator Cookies

Heat oven to 375 degrees

In a medium saucepan cook together until thick 2 cups of pitted chopped dates, one cup granulated sugar and one cup water until thick. After mixture thickens you may add cup of finely chopped walnuts. Let mixture cool while you make the cookie dough.

Cream together a cup of butter  (2 sticks) with 2 cups of granulated sugar. Beat in two large eggs, one at a time and a teaspoon of vanilla.  In a separate bowl stir together 3 1/2 cups of sifted all purpose floor (sift it into the cups), a teaspoon of baking soda and a teaspoon of salt. Beat the dry ingredients into the butter and sugar mixture one cup at a time.

Divide the dough into four parts. Roll out the first part into a six inch by ten inch rectangle. Spread with 1/4 of the date mixture and roll dough starting with a long side to form a log. Repeat with the other three portions of dough. Wrap each in plastic wrap and freeze for at least 30 minutes or up to three months.

Unwrap dough, slice into 1/4 in rounds and bake on parchment lined cookie sheets for 12 to 14 minutes (depending on your oven) or until cookies are golden brown. Remove cookies from sheet and cool on wire racks.

Some of My Favorite Wildflowers

I was beginning to think that this year of very strange weather was going to take a toll on the wild flowers. Several of my favorites seem to have disappeared this year. However, this week three of my favorites are blooming at last - anywhere from two weeks to six weeks late - but blooming none the less.

One of my favorites is Greater Blue Lobelia. It seems to prefer moist soil and some shade though I've seen it blooming in the cow pastures in full sun. It is usually blooming here in August.

Another favorite is wild White Aster. It reminds you a little of Baby's Breathe. It's one of the plants that likes fence rows so I am always careful not to cut it down. The same goes for the Golden Rod. Both of these are good dye plants. White Aster gives a soft clear yellow with an alum mordant (fixative). Golden Rod is a brassy yellow.

The last of the three to bloom is the Purple Aster. I always love to see the fence rows full of Golden Rod and Purple Aster with the White Aster underneath. Both the Purple Aster and the Golden Rod are tall, while the White Aster is shorter.

An update on the cider. My sister and I decided we might just try pressing only one or two gallons as apples are expensive and it takes a bushel or so to get a gallon.  We can go to Irons Fruit Farm which is next door to us and get their cider blend of apples to press our own cider. They make really good cider but the law now makes them pasteurize it. I suppose that's the best thing to do now days since we have so much wildlife poohing all over the place.  Irons wash their apples thoroughly, but its better to be safe than sorry. We will wash our apples as well, we always do, and we've never had any problems. And too, if we make it into hard cider the alcohol will kill any bacteria.

When I was a kid we went over to Iron's to get cider every fall. We'd bring our own jugs or they would provide one. Leon's sister would be sitting inside the big old barn up against the wall where there was a tap in the wall. You gave her your jug and she opened the tap to fill the jug with fresh sweet apple cider. That was the best thing in the world!  It's still good, but not as good as that fresh raw cider way back when. Hopefully my sister and I can come close with our cider. Our mother reminds us that back in the 1950's was a time of DDT and consequently we didn't have the wildlife we have now.  I'll take the wildlife anytime and be glad we have forstalled the "Silent Spring".

Cider Wine

I subscribe to "Early American Life" magazine and "Organic Gardening" magazine. EAL is all about 18th and early 19th century antiques, houses, and well, articles about early American life. This month's issues of both magazine have articles about cider - not sweet cider like you get at your good apple orchard farm, but what we in this country call hard cider or cider that has an alcohol content. Since these are two widely diverse magazines in general content I found it very interesting that both had articles on this relatively unknown product in the United States.  Am I sensing a trend?

The EAL article talked a lot about the history of cider as a drink in this country. It was fairly common in the "old days" as it was a safe liquid for all members of the family to consume - especially when water supplies were easily contaminated and apples were easy to grow. Thomas Jefferson grew specific apples for cider, one of which was a large fruit crab apple called Hewes Crab.  This sounds like a great apple to add to the my orchard so I'll be on the hunt for it this fall.

You could press your own cider or you could take it to a cider mill, store it in wooden barrels and let the natural wild yeasts turn your cider into what is, based on the alcohol content of about 7%, cider wine.

Our family has a home cider press and we regularly press a few gallons each fall. We drink it sweet and quickly freeze what we can't drink because we don't want it to "turn".  Now in my experience, if I forget a jug of cider in the back of the frig it tends to go to vinegar, not cider wine. I keep thinking its "turning" to vinegar, but maybe it's really making alcohol. I think I need to experiment a little.

I'll keep you posted.

Wildflowers

Its been an unusual weather year with too much rain in the spring and now early cool temperatures in September. Many of the wildflowers I usually see throughout the spring and summer made no appearance this year, so I was glad to see the golden rod, the wild white aster and the Jerusalem artichoke this month.  In fact, the stands of these flowers seem more lush than usual. The one fall wildflower I've not seen  yet is the purple aster, but it often blooms later in September, so I hold out hope for it.

I keep a copy of Robert Henn's "Wildflowers of Ohio" book on hand and like to see how many wildflowers I can find. It's a great book with color pictures.  However, not everything is included in the book so I am on the hunt for additional sources. For example, this year I found a sweet smelling blooming vine in among the asparagus. It had little white flowers with a light sweet scent.  I consulted Henn's book and thought it might be Virgin's Bower, but now with it setting a large seed pod that looks a lot like a milk weed pod, I am not sure.  If any of you have any please let me know.

Many of the fall wildflowers are classified as weeds, though some of them are really quite pretty. Golden Rod is one of those. It also gets a bad rap because a lot of people find its irratates their hay fever. Some sources say Golden Rod isn't the culprit, its rag weed.  I remember bringing a big bouquet of Golden Rod into the house once and my sister immediately started sneezing, so I'm pretty sure its a hay fever plant, though maybe not so bad if its kept outside. According to Henn, Ohio is home to several different species of Golden Rod and if you check out the fall perennial plant catalogs you will find Golden Rod listed as a garden plant.

All of our garden plants were wild plants originally. Somewhere along the way they caught the attention of plant enthusiasts who selectively bred them for various reasons. The herbs, vegetables and flowers we purchase and spend hours nurturing in our gardens all are the progeny of ancient wild things.