Canning Week Linky

Link up your canning recipes here! Each entry should include the "Canning Week" badge found on my sidebar. Make sure to "like" your favorite post. The person with the most likes will win a Ball Discovery Canning Kit.  Recruit your friends, fans and followers to come vote for your entry!!!!

Big Thanks to Ball for being a sponsor of this weeks Blog Party Be sure to check back each day for more contests!

Made From Scratch Tuesday 8/16

 Time for the next recipe from What's for Dinner?

When life hands you lemons....we make lemon chicken! This recipe calls for boneless/skinless chicken, flour, salt, oil, chicken broth, chives, lemon zest, and lemon curd. Now, lemon curd isn't something I keep on hand, so I had to make my own. I used Alton Brown's recipe below:

• 5 egg yolks
• 1 cup sugar
• 4 lemons, zested and juiced
• 1 stick butter, cut into pats and chilled

Directions

Add enough water to a medium saucepan to come about 1-inch up the side. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Meanwhile, combine egg yolks and sugar in a medium size metal bowl and whisk until smooth, about 1 minute. 

 Measure citrus juice and if needed, add enough cold water to reach 1/3 cup. Add juice and zest to egg mixture and whisk smooth. 

Once water reaches a simmer, reduce heat to low and place bowl on top of saucepan. (Bowl should be large enough to fit on top of saucepan without touching the water.) Whisk until thickened, approximately 8 minutes, or until mixture is light yellow and coats the back of a spoon. Remove promptly from heat and stir in butter a piece at a time, allowing each addition to melt before adding the next. Remove to a clean container and cover by laying a layer of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the curd. Refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.

Now that the curd is made, brown the chicken lightly then remove from pan.

Add lemon curd and broth to skillet and heat until hot, but not boiling.

 

Add chicken back to skillet and cook until almost done.

 

Next, add in lemon zest and chives and finish cooking.

 This goes great with some wild rice and fresh veggies from the garden! I'm about half way through my Gooseberry Patch recipes....and half way to our giveaway! 


Don't forget...Canning Week 2011 starts next week! Made From Scratch Tuesday will take a break next week, but we'll have a Canning linky up which includes a recipe contest. More details here. 

Now, it's time to link up some of those great dishes you make from scratch!
Here are the rules:
1. You can link up as many posts as you'd like.
2. My only content rule is it has to be made from scratch.
3. The post you link up MUST CONTAIN A RECIPE!
4. If you want to put my button somewhere, that'd be cool. You can grab the code for the Made From Scratch Tuesday button on the top right of my sidebar.

National Can-It-Forward Day

 Today is National Can-It-Forward Day! Jarden Home Brands has teamed up with Canning Across America, a nationwide group of food writers, bloggers and cookbook authors united by a passion for canning, to create the National Can-It-Forward Day. 

This is a great way to get started with canning or maybe pique your interest enough to join us for Canning Week. Ott,A and I will host canning week on our blogs August 22-26.

 We'll feature tips, tricks, jams, jellies, recipes and more each day along with a linky to share all of your canning recipes! You can see all the details (and PRIZES) here. Don't forget to join our group on Facebook-From Garden PlOTT to Kitchen POTT for exclusive info and a great way to network with all of your fellow canning enthusiasts.

P.S. Made From Scratch Tuesday will take a week off during Canning Week, but don't forget to link up all your Canning recipes with Canning Week instead!

State Fair 2011

Thanks to the great folks at Indiana Soybean Alliance, the husband and I spent some time at the Indiana State Fair this week. We started the day off with breakfast thanks to IN Dairy. Then we spent some time checking out everything in the Our Land Pavilion. For those who are outside of Indiana, it's basically a central gathering of Indiana commodities and resources. Have gardening questions? The Purdue Master Gardeners are on hand to help you out. Interested in some Indiana duck, diary, or wine? Yep, they're all there too. Maybe you want to know about Indiana environmental management or conservation. They're on hand to tell you all you want to know.

In the Pavilion, we got to try out some foods fried in Plenish. What's Plenish?

"...a Pioneer® brand soybean with a healthier oil profile and increased oil stability. Plenish™ high oleic soybean oil has 0g trans fat, less saturated fat and the highest amount of heart-healthy monounsaturated fat available in soy. "

Speaking of soy...it's the Year of the Soybean at the Indiana State Fair! No trip to the fair would be complete without a Bennie the Bean spotting!

While making our way through the fair, I saw the most amazing sign....Fried Cookie Dough. Isn't that the best part of fairs? Random foods, deep fried into ooey, gooey goodness?

Next came lunch, thanks to Indiana Pork, Dairy, and Beef. To finish off the afternoon, some of the great ladies over at Real Farmwives of America gave some great tours of the livestock barns. We had a great day hanging out with some fellow Indiana bloggers and exploring the Indiana State Fair!

Make sure to visit the fantastic blog parties on my sidebar, and of course, link up all your made from scratch recipes on my Tuesday linky-Made From Scratch Tuesday!

Made From Scratch Tuesday 8/9

Time for recipe #3 from What's for Dinner?

Over the weekend, we cooked up some easy beef and noodles! The key word here is "easy"! The ingredients? French Onion soup, Cream of Mushroom soup, beef stew meat and noodles. Yep, that's it. Throw everything except the noodles into a 13x9 baking dish, cover, and bake for 2 hours. Add cooked noodles. Done. Yes, it really is THAT easy!

 However, in true Made From Scratch Tuesday fashion, I decided to make my own French Onion Soup. (It couldn't possibly be because I didn't have any french onion soup at home and I can make this soup faster than I can go to the store.)
French Onion Soup

What you'll need:
2 c thinly sliced yellow onions

2 T butter

4 c beef broth

2 T dry white wine

1 t Worcestershire sauce

Salt and pepper

Start by sauteing onions in butter for 8-10 minutes, or until limber and lightly golden.

 My super secret trick for perfect sauteed onions? Kitchen Bouquet's browning and seasoning sauce. All you need is about 1 teaspoon!

 Next, add in all the other ingredients and simmer.

 It only takes about 5 minutes for all the flavors to meld together into this yummy soup!

Use about 11 ounces of this soup to make easy beef and noodles above....or enjoy a bowl of homemade French Onion soup you made in less than 20 minutes! 

For the perfect french onion soup, top each bowl with french bread rounds, toasted in the oven with a bit of Swiss or Gruyere cheese on top.

Now, it's time to link up some of those great dishes you make from scratch!
Here are the rules:
1. You can link up as many posts as you'd like.
2. My only content rule is it has to be made from scratch.
3. The post you link up MUST CONTAIN A RECIPE!
4. If you want to put my button somewhere, that'd be cool. You can grab the code for the Made From Scratch Tuesday button on the top right of my sidebar.

Gooseberry Patch #2 Peanut Butter Bars

For our second recipe from Gooseberry Patch, the husband picked Peanut Butter Bars.

 We started out by mixing butter, sugar, brown sugar and peanut butter. Then added an egg and vanilla.

 In another bowl, we mixed together flour, oats, baking soda and salt. Then we slowly mixed that into the wet mixture.

 Then, press it into a 13x9 baking pan and sprinkle with peanut butter and chocolate chips.

 Then we baked it for about 25 minutes....voila! So easy a husband could do it!

Want the full recipe and many others? Stay tuned as I cook my way though 10 recipes in Gooseberry Patch's "What's for Dinner?" After recipe 10, I'll be giving away a copy.

Make sure to visit the fantastic blog parties on my sidebar, and of course, link up all your made from scratch recipes on my Tuesday linky-Made From Scratch Tuesday!

Made From Scratch Tuesday 8/2

 A couple of weeks ago, some of you voted on which cookbook you wanted me to cook from. The cookbook receiving the most votes was What's for Dinner? One of the reasons I love GP is I can download free cookbooks on my Kindle. And if you like free cookbooks....keep reading for details on how you can win this one!

This is my first of 10 recipes from this cookbook. When I cook my way through ten, I'll be giving away a copy of the cookbook! So for the first recipe, I let the husband pick. Here's what he chose:

I've never made chicken in my crockpot, so I was a little iffy on this on, but I have to say, it turned out great!
I started by putting 3 lbs of chicken wings in a broiler pan and broiling them for 5 minutes on each side. Then, I added them to the crockpot, set on low. In a bowl, I mixed up barbecue sauce, mustard, Worcestershire sauce and honey.

Next, pour that mixture over the wings and mixed it around a bit.

Let it cook for 2-2 1/2 hours.

Beautiful, messy wings! And honestly, wings just aren't wings unless they're messy. The kids had NO complaints, although the girls opted to wear their aprons while eating.

 Next up in the GP series...

P.S. If you like winning things, make sure you check out the latest from The Real Farmwives of America.


Now, it's time to link up some of those great dishes you make from scratch!
Here are the rules:
1. You can link up as many posts as you'd like.
2. My only content rule is it has to be made from scratch.
3. The post you link up MUST CONTAIN A RECIPE!
4. If you want to put my button somewhere, that'd be cool. You can grab the code for the Made From Scratch Tuesday button on the top right of my sidebar.