i like making autumn and winter desserts and holiday stuff. so shaddup if you don't like soupy-chicken recipes in MOCK, just don't look in here, you can starve! no cookies for you! or apple dumplings. or stuffed turkey. or my hand-harvested cranberry sauce. go to macdonald's where you belong!
here are the BEST ginger cookies in the world...make them! you'll be glad you did. they are delicious with apple cider~
....this cookie is very crisp, large, aromatic and spicy. when you bake them your home will smell like heaven with a can't-resist scent of spices ...you need an electric mixer, like a kitchen-aid....................in the mixer bowl mix up the following: 2 cups sugar.1 1⁄2 cups shortening. 2 large eggs. 1⁄2 cup dark molasses. 1 tsp. salt. 2 tsp. baking soda. 2 tsp ground ginger. 2 tsp. cinnamon. 2 tsp. ground cloves. dash of mace. DON'T SKIMP ON THE SPICES, AND DON'T LEAVE ANY OUT. once it is blended start adding 4 cups of flour, sometimes i need more. you want a dough you can work with, not too sticky. heat oven to 350 degrees F. grease cookie sheets and have cooling racks and a spatula handy. ~~by hand roll one and one-half inch balls of dough. take a glass and dip the base in sugar. use the sugared glass to press the dough balls semi-flat. that gives the cookies a bit of sugar on top when done. bake for about 15 minutes. remove to cooling racks with spatula and let them set, they will be crisp when cool. ~~~i promise you will love them! they also pack and ship well.
make some New England baked beans~~have them with good hot dogs like nathan's and brown bread ... it's the yankee saturday supper~ do it from scratch, soak dried white navy beans overnight first.
use lots of molasses, bacon, brown sugar, onion, and slow cook for hours in low oven. i don't measure a damn thing.
it's good to have a ceramic bean pot.
2 cups navy beans 1⁄2 pound bacon
1 onion, finely diced
3 tablespoons molasses
2 teaspoons salt 1⁄4 teaspoon ground black pepper 1⁄4 teaspoon dry mustard
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce 1⁄4 cup brown sugar
Directions
1.Soak beans overnight in cold water. Simmer the beans in the same water until tender, approximately 1 to 2 hours. Drain and reserve the liquid.
2.Preheat oven to 325 degrees F
3.Arrange the beans in a 2 quart bean pot or casserole dish by placing a portion of the beans in the bottom of dish, and layering them with bacon and onion.
4.In a saucepan, combine molasses, salt, pepper, dry mustard, Worcestershire sauce and brown sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil and pour over beans. Pour in just enough of the reserved bean water to cover the beans. cover.
5.Bake for 3 to 4 hours in the preheated oven, until beans are tender. Remove the lid about halfway through cooking, and add more liquid if necessary to prevent the beans from getting too dry.
Martha Stewart's Oct. magazine is in the store now. her Oct., Nov. and Dec. mags are worth buying and keeping, i have YEARS of them. they are so full of neat holiday shit you'll like them even if you're helpless, hapless and hopeless and can never do stuff like she does. the photos, decoration ideas and recipes are brilliant~~
watch for her TV holiday specials too, they're great! check her website for schedules/stations. they do get repeated.
i wait all year for this stuff, and have been checking for a month...Williams-Sonoma just today made their turkey gravy base available. it flies out of the stores for only a few weeks each year, and is sold out online very quickly.
THIS STUFF MAKES THE BEST TURKEY GRAVY YOU EVER HAD, and that includes mine and your grandma's! trust me!
since i just ordered a lot of it for myself and a few people, i will share it it will be gone fast! ~~~
you may have heard that last year canned pumpkin was VERY high in price and often unavailable due to a poor crop. i have read that it will be available and reasonably priced this year. so it may be a good time to stock up for pies, pumpkin bread, pumpkin butter, etc.
it is VERY nutritious as well as delicious~
i have never made pumpkin pie from scratch with a real pumpkin, but i have a large crop of them so i'm going to try it out. and a good substitute is butternut squash, they make a pie that is just as good~
i have butternut squash from my garden also, i cut them in half lengthwise, put in a little butter after scooping out the seeds, and sprinkle with brown sugar and nutmeg~~ scrumptious!
i have discovered English Huntsman cheese, WOW! it sounds weird, but WOW!
if you love excellent cheeses, try this~
it's a double Gloucester rich cheddar layered with silky Stilton. heaven! decadent indulgent heaven!
it deserves this ode~~
G.K. Chesterton~
Stilton, thou shouldst be living at this hour
And so thou art. Nor losest grace thereby;
England has need of thee, and so have I--
She is a Fen. Far as the eye can scour,
League after grassy league from Lincoln tower
To Stilton in the fields, she is a Fen.
Yet this high cheese, by choice of fenland men,
Like a tall green volcano rose in power.
Plain living and long drinking are no more,
And pure religion reading "Household Words",
And sturdy manhood sitting still all day
Shrink, like this cheese that crumbles to its core;
While my digestion, like the House of Lords,
The heaviest burdens on herself doth lay.
OK QB reminded me to mention and extoll a necessity for Autumn...Bell's Seasoning.
In 1867, William G. Bell, a Boston inventor and cook, created Bell's Seasoning. A unique combination of rosemary, oregano, sage, ginger, and marjoram - today's blend is unchanged from the original recipe.
For generation after generation, Bell's Seasoning has been the essential ingredient with Holiday turkey, stuffing, and more.
stuffing is blah without it, and so is the skin of the turkey or chicken. once you have used it, it will be a staple in your kitchen. except for Duchess, whose rolodex for caterers is the kitchen staple.
usually it only appears in the stores this time of year, so i stock up with a bunch of boxes. put LOTS in your stuffings, and after you slather butter on poultry skin, sprinkle it on there too. the delicious aroma will drive you crazy!
go get some in the little yellow boxes! stash it in a zipper baggie and it's fine all year.
(10-07-2010, 10:45 AM)Lady Cop Wrote: stuffing is blah without it, and so is the skin of the turkey or chicken. once you have used it, it will be a staple in your kitchen. except for Duchess, whose rolodex for caterers is the kitchen staple.
heh. i wish i could invite you to dinner. i just took 2 large 7 lb roasting chickens, stuffed their butts full of sage from my garden, buttered them and added Bell's. then scooped out an acorn squash, filled it with butter, and put the entire mess in the oven. can you get here in 2 1⁄2 hours?
Someone dropped off a bushel of apples up at the barn. What the hell am I going to do with that many apples? I suppose if I liked to cook I would look at them & think of all the wonderful things that could be made but, the reality is, I look at them & think," Jesus, that's a lot of peeling".
i know, i need a house servant to do all that peeling!
the horses and deer will like the apples.
one of my trees is loaded with them, and hundreds on the ground. i couldn't possibly use them all.
with a can't-resist scent of spices ...you need an electric mixer, like a kitchen-aid....................in the mixer bowl mix up the following: 2 cups sugar.1 1⁄2 cups shortening. 2 large eggs. 1⁄2 cup dark molasses. 1 tsp. salt. 2 tsp. baking soda. 2 tsp ground ginger. 2 tsp. cinnamon. 2 tsp. ground cloves. dash of mace. DON'T SKIMP ON THE SPICES, AND DON'T LEAVE ANY OUT. once it is blended start adding 4 cups of flour, sometimes i need more. you want a dough you can work with, not too sticky. heat oven to 350 degrees F. grease cookie sheets and have cooling racks and a spatula handy. ~~by hand roll one and one-half inch balls of dough. take a glass and dip the base in sugar. use the sugared glass to press the dough balls semi-flat. that gives the cookies a bit of sugar on top when done. bake for about 15 minutes. remove to cooling racks with spatula and let them set, they will be crisp when cool. ~~~i promise you will love them! they also pack and ship well.![[Image: apple_cider_spiced.jpg]](http://www.recipetips.com/images/recipe/beverages/apple_cider_spiced.jpg)
![[Image: ginger_lg.jpg]](http://img.foodnetwork.com/FOOD/2005/12/02/ginger_lg.jpg)
me, but i won't go away. heh. 
![[Image: Pumpkin_Pie.jpg]](http://www.greatwaywellness.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/Pumpkin_Pie.jpg)
the delicious aroma will drive you crazy! 
![[Image: Zy3rKpW.png]](https://i.imgur.com/Zy3rKpW.png)
