Whether a tornado, floods, economic collapse, or even a zombie apocalypse ... this blog will help you prepare. ... by Author V.P. Lawrence #survivalcookingliving // Instagram @survivalcookingliving
Recipe: Radish and Goat-Cheese Sandwich
Recipe: Zesty Radish Relish
Ingredients:
2 cups shredded or julienned radishes
1/2 lemon (zest and juice)
1/2 orange (zest and juice)
2 tablespoons table (white) sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
salt/pepper to taste
water to cover
Directions:
In a wide shallow skillet, place all ingredients with enough water to almost cover ingredients. Turn to medium and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes. Stir occasionally to prevent burning or sticking, until all water has reduced to just a few tablespoons of buttery syrup. The radishes will be very tender. Serve warm. Refrigerate leftovers and gently reheat on stove (not in microwave).
I suppose this could be canned but it never lasts long enough in this house, and is just as easy to make fresh from dehydrated radish slices.
Suggestion: Try serving this with your next potluck or big family dinner, and see what kind of reactions you get! I'd love to hear about them.
Alternate: If you have dehydrated radishes into slices, they work well here. Rehydrate for 20-30 minutes in water, drain excess water, and continue as above. Fresh summer taste in the cold in winter.
Copyright (c) 2009 V P Lawrence-Williams
Recipe: Spicey Radish Sauce
Preserving Radishes by Dehydrating
We're about to harvest our first radishes of the year, and I'm so excited. They are almost always our first crop, along with lettuces/greens.
We had lots of radishes in our garden last year... so many that I got tired of looking at them. They are one of the quickest crops to grow, and pretty much just "pop" out of the soil when they are ready. We mostly grow Pink Beauty radishes with a few red Cherry Belle and White Icicle thrown in. Sometimes, when we forget to harvest them, the Pink Beauty grow very big, tough, and very hot, almost like a horseradish. Hubby popped a 2-incher in his mouth at our Harvest Party last year, and his face turned so red from the heat I thought I'd have to throw him in the duck's swimming pool!
But that gave us a thought: What if we let them get big on purpose, then dehydrate them. Could we powder the dried radishes and use them like horseradish? Let me tell you ... it works! If you want to use mature (and therefore, hot) radishes to make a spicey-radish sauce for your Winter meals, here's how:
- Harvest radishes about 2 weeks after you normally would. They will be bigger, tougher, and hotter. You could go even longer if you'd like.
- Wash off the dirt. Do NOT cut off the stems yet but do cut off a bit of the bottom/root end and any bad parts.
- Holding the stem, slice the radish into thin slices. Throw out the radish stems.
- Arrange on a dehydrator tray, just barely not touching. When the tray is full, set up to dehydrate.
- Dehydrate between 108 and 115 degrees F. until slices are very crisp.
Store in a tightly-sealed container (we use small jam canning jars - unprocessed). We tape thick construction paper around the jar, labeled with contents and date. Store in a cool dark place. When ready to use as a powdered hot "spice", take out a couple dried slices, grind into a powder with mortar/pestle or spice grinder, and make "horseradish sauce" as usual. Maybe we should call it "spicey radish sauce". Hmmm.... unusual and delicious!
The spicey radish sauce recipe will post tomorrow.
Recipe: Pasta with Artichokes and Feta
Preserving Asparagus by Canning
- Wash the asparagus (green or white). Only use perfect asparagus, with no blemishes.
- Cut off the tough ends.
- White asparagus should normally be peeled before canning.
- Blanch, if desired, for 3 minutes to help retain color.
- Can using the hot pack method, with 1-inch of headspace.
- Pour lemon juice and salt over the stalks.
- Pour hot water over the stalks, keeping that 1-inch of headspace.
- Process in a pressure canner for 30 minutes for pints, or 40 minutes for quarts, at 11 pounds or 10 pounds for a weighted gauge.
- For elevations above 1,000 feet above sea level, adjust. Click here.
- After processing, remove from boiling water. Place jars on a towel, keeping at least 1-inches in between to allow air flow. Cool.
- Label with contents and date.
- Store in a cool dark place.
Preserving Asparagus by Dehydrating
Recipe: Creamy Asparagus Soup
Recipe: Rhubarb Strawberry Freezer Jam
Recipe: Pasta with Black Olives
Recipe: Refrigerator Rhubarb Jam
Altitude and Elevation Adjustments for Canning
Water boils when its vapor pressure exceeds the atmospheric pressure, which reduces as the altitude increases. Water will boil and maintain a lower temperature at higher altitudes than at sea level. These lower boiling point temperatures increase the cooking times for any food, they increase the processing time for canning in a water bath and they increase the pressure required to process in a pressure canner.The temperatures and processing times that we publish are from sea level up to an elevation of 1,000 feet. The charts below indicate the adjustments that should be made for each processing method at different elevations.
Source: http://canningusa.com/IfICanYouCan/TechniqueAltitudeAdjustment.htm
= = = =
If you don't know your elevation, call your County Extension office. They should be able to tell you.
= = = =
Adjustments for Boiling Water Bath Canner:
Altitude in Feet = Increase processing time
1001-3000 = 5 minutes
3001-6000 = 10 minutes
6001-8000 = 15 minutes
8001-10,000 = 20 minutes
= = = =
Adjustment for Pressure Canner:
Altitude in feet = Dial Gauge Canner (PSI) = Weighted Gauge Canner
0-1000 = 10 = 10
1001-2000 = 11 = 15
2001-4000 = 12 = 15
4001-6000 = 13 = 15
6001-8000 = 14 = 15
8001-10,000 = 15 = 15
p.s. Sorry - I haven't figured out how to do charts here!
Recipe: Toffee Chocolate CupCakes
Ingredients:
1 box chocolate cake mix
1/2 cup nuts, chopped fine (pecans are tasty)
1 6-ounce jar caramel topping
3 (1.4 ounce) bars chocolate-covered toffee, crushed
powdered sugar
Directions:
Preheat oven to temperature on cake mix box. Prepare cake mix (adding chopped nuts) according to box directions for cupcakes, line cupcake tin with liners, and bake. Cool cupcakes on wire rack for 5 minutes. While they are cooling, heat a saucepan of water, and place opened jar (don't get water in the jar) in the water to heat caramel. When liquidy, carefully take jar out of saucepan (turn off the heat!). Make a few slits in each cupcake, making sure to NOT go all the way to the bottom. Using a spoon, drizzle a little caramel onto each cupcake. Sprinkle the crushed chocolate toffee bars across each cupcake while still warm. Let them cool completely, then using a shaker, shake powdered sugar on each.
Copyright (c) 2009 V P Lawrence-Williams
Preserving Rhubarb from the Garden
- Place the 1-inch dried pieces of rhubarb in a mason jar, add an oxygen absorber if necessary, and screw lid on tightly. I have my VHTS decorate a dark piece of construction paper with a picture of rhubarb on it, mark on the date, and cover well. Store in a cool dark place, like the basement or root cellar. Use when making a winter's strawberry-rhubarb pie.
- Pulverize the dried rhubarb until it's a fine powder. Store as above, but noting on the label (construction paper) that it's the powder. Add to strawberry jam on biscuits, or when you want to kick-up the taste of an apple pie. Yum!
Recipe: Gluten-Free Sorghum Coconut Pancakes
I bought a bunch of gluten-free flours this week because of our new diet. They will store well, unopened for about a year, longer if frozen unopened. Among these are sorghum flour, coconut flour and brown rice flour. I even found gluten-free chocolate chips and organic butter.
Because we usually have chocolate pancakes Saturday mornings, I came up with this gluten-free recipe for this morning. Sorry... they were all gone before I remembered the camera! (Pic to the right is are regular pancakes).
Ingredients:
1 cup sorghum flour
1 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup coconut flour
1 teaspoon xanthum gum
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 packets stevia sweetener
3 cups water
Additions: chocolate chips, sliced bananas, or blueberries
Directions:
In a mixing bowl, combine all dry ingredients and mix well. Add water 1/2 cup at a time until a little bit thicker than pancake consistency. Add your "additions" if desired and gently mix in. Spray or oil skillet or griddle. Spoon on batter when cooking surface is hot - not too thick though - I spread it around a little bit with my spoon. Cook as regular pancakes. (We drizzle with honey instead of sugar.)
The texture is just a little bit different, but very delicious. Even Hubby liked them!
You will just barely taste the coconut, and the fiber from the coconut and sorghum flours will help you, well, you know!
Copyright (c) 2009 V P Lawrence-Williams
Recipe: Sweet Beans
Recipe: Minty Fruit Cocktail
Recipe: Yogurt, Raspberry and Honey
I noticed that raspberries are on sale this week at King Soopers, buy one get one free, save $4.99 so basically 2 clamshells is $5.00, or $2.50 each. You're only using about 1/4 of a clamshell, so...
Ingredients:
yogurt (vanilla preferred)
raspberries (or berries of choice)
honey
Directions:
Dish out the yogurt, using a pretty little teacup with saucer. Carefully wash the raspberries, and add 4-5 to the teacup, and a couple on the saucer. Drizzle a little honey all over.
Or you could serve as in the picture above.
Simple, healthy, cheap, and delicious.
Copyright (c) 2009 V P Lawrence-Williams
Recipe: Poached Pears with Apricot Syrup
Recipe: Easy Taco Meat
Recipe: Beef-N-Noodle Cassarole
Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1 small chopped onion
32 ounce jar spaghetti sauce
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
8 ounce package egg noodles
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Brown ground beef and drain. Add onion and cook till translucent. Add jar of spaghetti sauce. Cook noodles as directed, then drain. In a 13 x 9 inch sprayed dish, layer the noodles, spaghetti sauce mixture with meat, and top with the cheese. Bake until bubbly or about 45 minutes.
Note: I like adding extra dried garlic granules and/or a small can of mushrooms too.
Copyright (c) 2009 V P Lawrence-Williams
Recipe: Easy Banana-Rum Pudding
Ingredients:
instant vanilla pudding
graham crackers or vanilla wafers
dried banana slices
rum
Directions:
In a large shallow bowl, soak 2 cups of dried banana slices in 1 cup of rum and set aside for 15 minutes. Crush the crackers or vanilla wafers. Make the pudding according to package directions. Drain rum from banana chips (reserving the rum in case you need to soak more). In individual serving dishes or a big serving bowl, start layering: bananas, cracker/wafer crumbs, pudding, and back again. End with pudding and a few more cracker/wafer crumbs. Refrigerate overnight.
Copyright (c) V P Lawrence-Williams
Recipe: Henry Bain Sauce and Jezebel Sauce
1/2 cup chutney
1/3 cup bottled chili sauce
1/4 cup steak sauce
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon hot sauce
1 18-ounce jar orange marmalade
1 18-ounce jar apple preserves
1 18-ounce jar pineapple preserves
5/8 cup ground dry mustard
1 4-ounce jar prepared horseradish
Directions: