My Homemade Yogurt Just Got Better!

I've been making my Homemade Yogurt for a while now.  I've experimented and perfected my process to come up with the Yummiest Homemade Yogurt.  Or at least I thought so, until today.

I've been making yogurt so often lately that my daughter sees me pouring hot milk into jars in the sink and knows exactly what's going on.  It's still good on granola and with fruit, but the plain yogurt is just that - plain.  I was craving some of the grocery store flavors - like key lime, and raspberry.  When I mentioned to HandyMan that I was thinking of experimenting, he requested vanilla.

If you look at the basic flavored grocery store yogurts, the additives are basically flavoring and gelatin.  I checked out a few recipe sites that had varying combinations of adding gelatin to yogurt and knew I wanted mostly yogurt and just enough gelatin to add flavor and get it to set up a little firmer than our homemade plain.

Here's the recipes I tried and they worked beautifully!  The flavors are subtle and the sugar in the recipe and in the gelatin mix adds a bit of smoothness to the plain yogurt.  I got 16 of the little 1/2 cup containers with lids and these make fantastic on-the-go snacks and are easy to toss in HandyMan's lunches.  I think I will probably add some 1-cup containers to the stash too - the 1/2 cups are great for snack size and kiddos, but if I were grabbing one for lunch on the go - it'd be a little small.  I've used yogurt straight from the incubator as well as refrigerated yogurt for these recipes and both worked great!

Homemade Vanilla Yogurt
3 cups Homemade Plain Vanilla
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract
1 envelope Unflavored Gelatin

Bring milk and sugar to a boil.  Add gelatin and stir until completely dissolved.  Then stir some more to really make sure it's dissolved - otherwise you end up with gelatin granule chunks in your yogurt and it definitely takes away from the experience.  Just sayin'.   Add Vanilla and mix thoroughly.  Combine this syrup/gelatin mixture with yogurt in a blender and pour into individual cups or container.  Refrigerate until it sets.


Homemade [Gelatin Flavor] Yogurt
3 cups Homemade Plain Vanilla
3/4 cup boiling water
1- Box of Gelatin (box intended to add 2 cups of water to make 4-1/2 cup servings, flavor of your choice)

Add gelatin to hot water and stir until completely dissolved.  Combine the jello mixture with yogurt in a blender and pour into individual cups or container.  Refrigerate until it set.

***
Cost wise - I've been able to get milk for about $2.15 a gallon and gelatin runs anywhere from $0.35-$0.65 a box.  Calculated out, it runs about $0.13-$0.18 per 6 ounce serving.  The reusable cups were a $5 up-front investment.  All told, it fits quite nicely in my grocery budget!

Next up - experimenting with adding fruits!


Linked up at We Are That Family's Works for Me Wednesdays.

KitchenAid Shredded Chicken

I have had my KitchenAid mixer for 5 and a half years.  It never ceases to amaze me the things that this puppy can do.  If you are contemplating the investment and you like to cook: it's worth every penny!

So in flying by comments on a blog-post somewhere in my recent memory, I saw someone mention that you could use your KitchenAid to shred cooked chicken.  No WAY!  I filed it somewhere in my brain and the thought surfaced again today.

Sometimes I buy a full 40 pound case of boneless/skinless chicken breasts when a local restaurant supply has it on sale.  A friend of mine called and investigated their "regular" price this week and found out it wasn't that much more than when it's on sale.  I had just used the last of my chicken, so I asked if she was willing to split a case. She was game so I gave her some money and promptly forgot about it.

This morning we were in the middle of Domino Projects since Fridays are HandyMan's day off.  The dog goes nuts and up to the door walks my friend with 20 pounds of chicken.  Oh yeah.  So I quickly package about 12 pounds of it up for the freezer and I remembered the shredded chicken trick I had read.  I threw the remaining chicken in my crock pot to cook it:

Five hours later, I chopped each breast into three or four pieces and threw it in my mixer bowl:

Mixer on low, three minutes later, shredded chicken:



Oh yeah!  It was that easy.  I ended up with 8- 2.5 cup containers of shredded chicken in the freezer for tacos, chicken salad, or whatever random meal I need it for in the coming months.  I'm so glad that my mommy-brain held on to this little tid-bit of information!

Frosting & Filling a Layered Cake

I've been playing with making filled cupcakes and layered cakes recently and it has been a very yummy experimentation process, even if some results weren't quite as pretty as I would have liked.  In my experimentation, this is the method that I came up with that makes a two layer cake with filling a breeze!

For this particular cake, I had two round yellow cakes, blueberry filling and lemon frosting.  When I made the frosting, I pulled out about 1 cup of the frosting that was thicker, before I had added enough of the liquid to the frosting to make it easily spreadable.  Here's the step by step.

1.  Slice the top off the cake that will be the bottom layer so that it is as smooth and flat as possible and position it on your tray.



2.  Take the thick frosting and put it in a plastic sandwich bag or piping bag if you have one.  Cut the corner of the bag so that it makes a 1/4 inch opening.  Pipe the frosting around the edge of the bottom cake layer creating a wall of sorts to hold your filling in.



3.  Spoon and spread your filling onto the cake.



4.  Add top layer of cake.  The frosting wall oozed a little bit but the blueberries stayed right in the middle where I wanted them.  The frosting that oozed was easily spread as part of the step 5.



5.  Frost the cake with a thin layer of icing to keep all the crumbs in place.



6.  Frost with a thick layer of icing to cover the cake.



7.  Slice and enjoy!

Kickin' Back Creativity: English Muffins

My kitchen creativity has been limited lately.  I enjoy playing in the kitchen, but the time consuming projects have been tabled a lot lately since my little helper, is a little less than helpful.  Usually by the time I have space to play, I'm ready to kick back.  Tonight I combined kicking back with the creativity.  I queued up the Netflix and set up camp by the stove to make this English Muffin recipe I stumbled across and wanted to try.

They turned out great!  They are so much softer and the nooks & crannies are finer than in the store-bought English Muffins.  I think that we will be having the best egg sandwiches ever for breakfast tomorrow!  Or maybe with cream cheese and Strawberry Jam, or just butter, or ... oh well, the possibilities are endless!

Here are a few of my own tips:

:: I used half unbleached flour and half white whole wheat.

:: Keep the heat under your pan on low to medium-low so that they will cook thoroughly but not burn.

:: Once the dough had risen, I dumped it out onto the board with corn meal and pressed it out as gently as possible.

:: I flipped the muffins with my fingers, very gently so they wouldn't "fall".

:: Use the edges of dough after you've cut out your muffins to test the heat in the pan (and to taste test of course - they were really good with sliced cheese!)

This was not a hard recipe, just a little time consuming on the cooking end.  I saw some comments on the King Arthur Flour site about baking them in the oven and flipping them part way through.  I may try this next time and think it may work on a baking stone pre-heated in the oven.

Freezer Friday: Defying Winter!

This week Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts were on sale at a local restaurant supply house.  A friend and I split a 40 pound case of chicken and got the rock bottom price of $1.39/pound.  In my world hope of spring, is running strong so I decided to pack it up- summer style.  Mind you, it was 31 degrees outside.  But the sun was shining!

So, I took ten pounds of chicken and packaged them up with BBQ sauce and Fajita Marinade.  Thaw and grill.  Yum!  I threw a couple pieces of chicken in the freezer un-touched to use in upcoming recipes.

As far as the other ten pounds of chicken go, that's where this story gets a little more interesting.  And since a picture is worth a thousand words, I'll save myself the typing.  This is my grill:



This is the path that I shovelled to my grill:



And this is the packaged up grilled chicken that came into the house smelling like summer, and tasted pretty close to summer too!  We had to try the little scrawny piece!



It will get thawed and chopped on top of salads and used in recipes in the coming months as the weather warms up and the signs of spring and summer vanquish the the snow and ice!

Homemade Vanilla Extract

Last fall I visited friend while she was baking.  She pulled out a liquor bottle and started measuring it into the recipe and I didn't think much of it until I took another look and saw all the stuff floating in the bottle.  She then introduced me to her family's homemade vanilla. I was enthralled.  I wanted to run home and research it and make it RIGHT. NOW.  I did go home and research and enjoyed the Heavenly Homemaker's Tutorial.  Then I didn't get around to it, couldn't squeeze vanilla beans out of  my grocery budget etc.  But then everything lined up just right.  I had gotten a bottle of vodka for a recipe a couple months ago and never used it.  It sat collecting dust.  Then this week, Amazon had a crazy deal on vanilla beans and I had a little extra cash.  So I introduce you to my Vanilla In Progress:

I've read differing reports on how long to let it live in a dark corner: 8 weeks to 6 months.  In any case it will be ready for fall and Christmas baking.  We'll check back in on it in a few weeks.

Dish Towel Bib: The Utilitarian Version

My beautiful two year old loves meal time, enjoys her food and is learning quickly how to use her fork and spoon.  She usually does pretty well but, she is only two and still learning.  Those cute little bibs we used when she first started wielding a spoon are just not cutting it anymore.  I googled something along the lines of "dish towel bib" and looked through a few different blogs with directions and here's what I came away with.  I wish I could credit said blogs, but I didn't book mark them, and can't remember the exact search terms I used - oops!

As stated in the title, this is the utilitarian version of the dish towel bib.  There are lots of other, more creative people out there who better coordinate their materials.  I was more concerned with protecting my daughters clothes.

Materials: For materials you will need an old bib, dish towels, extra wide double fold bias tape, velcro, sheet of paper and thread.  I used a combination of dish towels I had and some that I picked up at our local DollarTree (love that place!)  Make sure to wash the new towels before you cut and sew them.  The waffle weave towels in particular shrink a lot!

Pattern: To make the pattern, I folded a bib in half and traced it onto a folded piece of paper.  Then, when I cut out the neck hole, I cut about 1/4 inch larger than the traced line.

Put it Together: Cut on the neck hole out of the towel and then cut the fold apart at the spot that will be the back of the neck.  Pin the bias tape on the cut edges of the towel and sew in place.  Sew velcro in place to close the bib in the back.  Ta-da! Done.

It took me about an hour and a half to whip out 9 of these.  That will be enough to cover mealtimes, finger painting, helping mom cook, etc.



And see how much more coverage we get from our old white bib and the new towel bib:



This post is linked up at

:: Finer Things Friday

:: Life As Mom's Frugal Friday

:: Works for Me Wednesday

It's Really That Good! - Homemade Lotion

Over the holidays there were so many great ideas being thrown around I got overwhelmed, but I did take notes.  Often when I see something that looks too good to be true, half of  me wants to give it a try and half of me goes skeptical.  The dichotomy usually results in me putting the web ideas to the test.  That was the case when I saw this post about making your own lotion.

I'm trying to cut as much chemical stuff out of our household as I can and this idea of making my own lotion seemed like the perfect idea,  if it would work.  I make my own laundry soap and it works great.  I  make my own candles and people love them.


I love the idea of knowing what is in my lotion and am often annoyed when reading the ingredients of commercial lotions.  Why do they put drying agents like alcohol in a substance that is supposed to be hydrating my skin?  And what is all that other stuff in my lotion.  I took to purchasing a natural line of lotions a while back, but they can get pretty expensive.  When I read that I could make my own lotion with four ingredients, three of which were in my house already, I was hooked.  So, I ordered a natural emulsifying wax to use with olive oil, water and essential oils to make my own lotion.

A Sonoma Garden does a great job with her lotion directions.  I followed them to the letter including monitoring the temperatures and the result was a great, thick, creamy lotion in about ten minutes.  I used lavender essential oil and only 20 drops (to the recommended 24-36 drops).  The fragrance is very light and I have no qualms about using it on my skin or GBaby's delicate toddler skin.  It soaks in well and doesn't sit on your skin.  I am so excited about this and can't wait to use up all those other random bottles of lotion that are around my house!

I've read that the shelf life of homemade lotions can vary depending on how you package them.  Since I just made mine this week, I can't speak to that yet.  I'm going to be making small batches frequently.  It took less than ten minutes to mix this up, so replenishing frequently is not a big hardship of time.  When I made about 12 ounces of natural lotion for less than $2.  That totally works for me!

Updated 1/30/2013: We've been using this lotion for the last two years and it's great.  I've only had "shelf life" issues with one batch that I substituted coconut oil for the olive oil over the summer.  Other batches with this substitute were fine.  I wrote it off as a fluke and have been through lots and lots of this great stuff!

Freezer Friday: Sugar Cookies Made Easy

Sugar cookies are such a festive cookie adaptable for as many occasions as you can invest in cookie cutters or decorations.  Rolling out the dough and frosting them can be such a fun family activity too!  Most times, I get them rolled out, baked and decorated with the butter cream frosting and stand back and think "now what?"  I can't stack them up on a tray or storage bag or all the frosting will get mashed up.  I could throw them all in the freezer and then stack them and freeze them - but they just wouldn't be as good frozen and thawed later.

A couple years ago I came upon a great frosting recipe that sets beautifully and dry on the surface but moist underneath.  Bingo!  That takes care of part of the dilemma.  But what about the mess of mixing, rolling, and cutting?  This year I decided that I could mix, roll and cut all in one big party, and then freeze the cut out cookies before I bake them.  Pull what I need for a given occasion and bake them.  Mix up frosting and voila! Ready to go with half the mess.

So, here's how it breaks down:

1.  Make a batch (or 2) of your favorite sugar cookie recipe.  I use The Best Rolled Sugar Cookie recipe and it has always turned out great.  When I mix two, I'll mix the first, empty the bowl, and then mix the second - in my world of dish loathing there's no point in washing in between if you're making the exact same recipe.



2.  Roll, cut, layer, freeze.  Repeat. Repeat.  Repeat.  Until the dough is gone.  A round cookie cutter (glass) will give you an all occasion shaped cookie.  I am working with pumpkins and fall leaves as I have three parties coming up for which fall theme will be appropriate.  Once the cookies were frozen between layers of wax paper, I stacked them in a plastic container before they found their somewhat temporary home in the freezer.



3.  Pull and bake what you need and mix up an adequate amount of icing.  I love this recipe because you can dip your cookies in and it dries glossy.  Take a bit of the remaining icing and add a little more powdered sugar to thicken it up and it pipes on nicely for accents.  If you don't have a pastry bag or decorating tips, no problem.  Put the frosting in a freezer zip top bag and cut a tiny opening in one of the corners.  Decorate away.

4.  Once the frosting has set, your cookies can be stacked and displayed on a tray - party perfect!



Then, the next time you need a cookie tray, repeat steps 3 and 4 until your freezer stash of cookies is gone.

This post is linked up at Life As Mom's Frugal Friday: Gearing Up for the Holidays.

Beans & Rice

Stephani over at Cheapskate Cook is hosting a series on Beans & Rice.  More importantly how to work beans and rice into your menu as an inexpensive starch and protein, without sacrificing taste and flavor!  Today, I've guest posted over there on the basics of cooking up large batches of beans and storing them to use in your favorite recipes... check it out!

Roasted Red Peppers

Remember that pile of red peppers that made it to the freezer? I had 6 peppers left over after the pepper bomb construction that needed to be stored.  But I was out of freezer bags (during harvest season - oh the horror!). So I decided to roast them. I love the smell of fresh roasted peppers and the flavor even more.  I roasted them on the grill and it was super easy!

Step 1- Wash Peppers

Step 2- Grill Peppers: Heat up the grill and place whole peppers on the grill over medium high heat. Turn every 3-6 minutes until the peppers are good and charred.

Step 4- Steam: Once charred place peppers in a bowl and cover. Allow to sit for 10-15 minutes to steam the skins off.

Step 5 – Remove skin: Once peppers are cool enough to handle, pull the skin off and discard. Cut out stem and remove seeds and discard. Slice roasted pepper meat as you wish.

Step 6- Store: Place peppers in an airtight container. Top off with Olive Oil and toss. Refrigerate jar and use in a timely manner.

So easy, and a great way to use in-season or discounted peppers!  So far we have used them in sandwiches, scrambled eggs and they are destined to go in some enchiladas this week too.

This post is linked up at $5 Dinners-Grow.Eat.$ave: Peppers

Cheese Making 101: Mastering Method

A number of years ago, I completed a bachelors degree in Applied Mathematics. I am a firm believer in partial credit so I don't consider this cheese making adventure a complete failure. I followed all the directions and ended up with an edible product off of one batch and some amazing ricotta off the other batch. As far as yummy, smooth mozzarella that “pulled like taffy” as my resource web sites here and here described, that was a fail. Overall, in this experience of trying to make mozzarella, I give myself a C.

I tried two batches. One batch I followed the Junkett recipe with a cross between their directions and the directions at Heavenly Homemakers, including hanging it to drain the whey overnight. I think that was mistake number one. The final product of this was a dry, grainy, firm, rubbery ball of curd that doesn't melt, but tastes ok.

With the second batch, the curds looked really promising. I switched to the microwave directions from the Junkett for firming up the curds. Still didn't work. Once it set, the curd was much like a rich, thick ricotta that is very yummy!

I did some research after this project and found this site. From their pictures, I concluded that my milk was not fresh enough. Next time, I'm going to try finding a local brand of milk and give that a try, or try their powdered milk/heavy cream option. Stay tuned for Cheese Making 102.

Make Your Own Powdered Laundry Detergent

As I strive to eliminate unnecessary chemicals from our household, I began to explore options for making our own laundry detergent.  Many of the "recipes" I found were for liquid detergents which required melting soaps and mixing and shaking and more work than I wanted to put into it.

Then I found the recipe for Jabs Homemade Laundry Detergent.  He has a great tutorial on how to make this powdered laundry detergent with three ingredients:  1 bar of soap, 1/2 cup Borax, 1/2 cup Washing Soda.  Here area  few of my notes on the process:

Grating the Bar of  Soap I have used the Fels-Naptha soap and found that it is very difficult to get it to break down into a small grain.  I tired letting the bar dry out as a commenter suggested and that didn't work for me. So I've resorted to grating the bar of soap, adding the Borax and Washing Soda and then running it through the food processor.  This works great

Does it Really Work? Yes.  I have used it on the cloth diapers and they come out clean as ever.  (*Note, this soap may build up on all-in-one type diapers and non-cotton diapers reducing their absorbency) I still add oxy-whitener to the diapers and whites as I always have and have noticed no difference between this and the expensive green detergent I was using before.  The real joy of it -it really only takes 1 1/2 tablespoons per load.  Concentrated detergent, less space used in my laundry room.

Less money, less waste, clean clothes.  What's not to like?

Yummiest Homemade Yogurt

I take a break from Freezer Friday this week as we are working on eating what we have and not "stock-piling".

Instead, to satisfy my cravings for warm summery things, I've been on a yogurt and granola kick.  I had bought really good Stonyfield Farm plain yogurt.  GBaby loves the stuff and I had been reading some tips on making better yogurt.  With the following modification on my original yogurt recipe.

1. Cooling Milk - To start, I brought the milk to 185 degrees per normal, then poured it directly into jars.  Then I put the jars in the kitchen sink and ran cool (not cold) water into the sink around the jars.  I let the milk cool down for about 20 minutes to 80-90 degrees.t

2.  Starter - I put the starter directly from the fridge to the jar, and just dropped the heaping tablespoon(s) into the jars.

3.  Incubation - I kept a closer eye on it and only left it in the warm box for about 5 hours, not letting it get warmer than about 105 degrees.

The finished yogurt was absolutely wonderful, rich and creamy.  There was not even a hint of tartness.  It is particularly yummy alongside the Apple Cinnamon Granola Bars and Blueberry Almond Granola (which I will post soon).

Three Cheese Souffle

Monday is HandyMan's day off and I like to make brunch as our mornings are usually a little slower paced than the rest of the week.  This week I made this Three Cheese Souffle recipe and it turned out beautifully and rather tasty as well.  I think it has made it on the "Christmas Brunch" menu and I'm going to try the Editor's note and mix it up ahead of time and freeze it and see how it turns out.

Souffles are meant to be a light and airy egg dish and by nature will settle a bit once out of the oven.  While there are a few more steps than a quiche or egg bake, the melt in your mouth results are totally worth it.  Skim over the recipe and here are a few of my own notes on the process.

The Cheese Sauce

-My milk & butter mixture started to thicken before it ever showed signs of boiling.  Once I could stir and see the bottom of the pan, I turned the heat off and added the cheese.

-I grated the cheese with the finest side of my grater - helped it to melt quickly into the base.

-Stop here and you have a great cheese fondue or sauce for homemade mac & cheese.

Eggs:

-I cheated and ran the yolks through my mini-food processor for about 10 seconds so I could do the whites in the Mama Mixer.  It seemed to work fine.

-I didn't read the directions close enough and didn't let the cheese sauce cool.  It didn't seem to matter.  I poured the cheese along the side of the mixer bowl so that it actually pooled under the egg whites without disturbing them too much.  Then, gently, mixed with a large rubber spatula until it was all combined.  The mixture should be thick and foamy, but pourable. (think airy cake batter)

Servings:

-This recipe states that it makes 8-1 cup servings.  I got that plus two soup-bowl size souffles too.

Freezer Friday: Cookie Dough

Updated 7/28/2010: If you've stumbled upon this post from Life As Mom's Grab it and Go Recipe Swap, welcome!  This is still on of my go-to methods for a quick dessert.  In the summer, add a small scoop of icecream between two fresh cookies for a great dessert treat!

We are entering the time of year when requests for baked goods and cookie trays seem to come from every direction.  I have a sure-fire system to save you time and energy and put fresh cookies on the table, every time!

The secret: freeze your cookie dough in ready to bake scoops.  The Dough Boy does it and charges you for the convenience.  The fundraiser companies do it.  So why not make your own!  The only special equipment you may need is a cookie scoop.  Mine is a 2 tablespoon scoop (I think). They can be purchased in the kitchen-wares section of many of your favorite retailers.  If you make cookies often, it's worth investing in a solid metal scoop rather than the plastic/metal combo scoops.  I burned through two of those before I got the good one and it's been great.

This time of year, I usually have a stash of Chocolate Chip, Molasses, Sugar and Peanut Butter cookie dough in the freezer.  Then when the call comes for a cookie tray I can just pull an assortment, bake them up and send them off.  No mixing, no mess and very few dishes!

Whenever I make up cookie dough, I make as large of a batch as my MamaMixer can take- usually triple a normal batch.  So, this week it was time to replenish my Chocolate Chip Cookie dough stash so off I went.  The freezing method will work with any drop cookie dough.  For recipes like drop Sugar Cookies or Molasses Cookies that require a dip in sugar, no problem.  The dough is already "rolled" from the scoop, simply dip frozen dough in the sugar before baking.

Once your cookie dough is scooped up to go to the oven, continue scooping and fill up a tray. Put the tray in the freezer for 2-3 hours and allow the dough-balls to freeze.  Then, remove the dough from a tray and place in a freezer-grade zip-top bag for the best freshness.

When it comes time to bake your cookies, place frozen cookie dough on a baking sheet.  Bake at the temperature your directions call for and add 3-7 minutes to the baking time to allow for the frozen dough.  Let them cool, plate them up and enjoy.

I've also discovered the joy of portion control by only baking a small tray in the toaster oven at a time - always warm and fresh!

Freezer Friday: Canned Pumpkin Shortage? No Problem!

Updated 9/30/2010: This post has been linked up at Life as Mom's Ultimate Recipe Swap.  This is a great way to bring fresh pumpkin to your favorite pumpkin recipe- and it freezes great!

This week rumors are flying around the internet about a shortage of canned pumpkin.  While I haven’t been able to find anything on the national news sources, one station in Iowa and one in West Virginia have both carried stories this week.  Oh dear, what ever shall we do?!  With Thanksgiving and Christmas right around the corner, ‘tis the season for pumpkin pies- this could become a major crisis in some households.  Now, while our great-grandmothers are rolling with laughter from their graves at our dependence on commercially canned pumpkin, I’ll share a page I’ve taken from their cook-books.   It starts with these bright orange fruits that are about the size of a bowling ball and that are probably more prevalent than their canned byproducts.  That’s right folks.  You can do more with a pumpkin than carve a face in it!

For baking, you want to make sure you procure good pie pumpkins that are generally smaller in size than their carving counterparts.  They are also bred to have better flavor and cook up great.  Plus, they’re easier to work with!  I was able to get them for about $1 a piece at our local farm stand.

First, cut that sucker open and core all the seeds and goo out of it.



Then, put about a half inch of water in a baking pan and place the pumpkin, cut side down into the pan.  Bake it at 375 degrees for about 45 minutes, or until a fork will slide into it easily.



Next, carefully turn the pumpkin cut side up and let it cool.



Once the pumpkin is cooled, if you want to create your own “canned pumpkin” simply spoon out the flesh from the pumpkin and run it through a blender or food processor. (or take your immersion blender to it).



1 ¾ cups of pumpkin puree is the equivalent of a 15 ounce can.  Measure your pumpkin puree out and freeze these portions.  When you’re ready to bake, thaw and use in your favorite recipes.

So in addition to insuring that we will have pumpkin pie this holiday season, it has been another busy week for the MamaMixer and the Food Grinder/Strainer Attachment .  I have put away pear baby food, another batch of applesauce with results that were as great as last time.  I also made a batch of Zucchini Chocolate Chip Muffins from this recipe that turned out great.  (I stayed pretty close to the recipe but I did sub in 1 cup of whole wheat flour, cut the cinnamon out and upped the nuts and chocolate chips to 1 cup each.)  Did you get anything stashed in your freezer this week?