Purging, Prioritizing, and Parsimony: AKA Thrifty Thursday

 Hello dear friends!  Hope you are well and safe.  I used to feel I needed to address each and every tragedy that was happening in the world, but it seems so many horrible things are happening to so many people worldwide, that I can't keep up. My news source doesn't even mention a lot of tragedies that would have been headlines for days just a few short years ago. We are living in crazy times my dear friends!  That is why I just hope that you are well and safe.  Even in my own quiet life, I was thinking nothing happened since my last post and then I remembered we had a trip to the emergency room, a court hearing and a tornado watch in those few weeks!  

Well, we had a few days in the upper 70s and lower 80s, followed by two days of snow. I was watching a little robin outside of my kitchen window while washing dishes and he was just standing there staring at the snow on the ground in disgust.  I think I could read his mind.  He looked pretty perturbed. Ha!  But the warm days made the daffodils bloom.

And we harvested the first of the asparagus.

And a few days in the eighties reminded me that I really hate summer.  I know that the warmer weather is necessary for the garden to grow and that is necessary for our lifestyle, but it only took two days for me to long for the quiet days along the fireside. I've noticed that most people that enjoy summer spend most of their days inside their air-conditioned homes or lazing about beaches and golf courses. To me, summer means days of work, often from sunrise to sunset.  And the noise!  Lawn mowers, leaf blowers, motorcycles, and sirens. Most people have seasonal depression in winter. I would have to be different. Ha!

In order to cut down on some of the work, I been purging and prioritizing my garden. I cut down several rose bushes, they are just too fussy.  And Ran dug up my herb garden.  We will still have an herb garden, but it will just be in practical straight lines in a rectangular plot instead of anything fancy. Sometimes practical has to take priority over pretty. Last fall Ran pruned my hydrangeas, and they don't look like they are coming back to life.  Can't say I'd be heartbroken if they didn't.   If they don't, we will replace them with something practical and evergreen. And easy to care for!

In The House

We are still trying to make room in our freezer, so we've been having some rather unusual meals.  Each day, we just grab something out of the freezer and try to figure out a meal from it combined with what needs using-up in the refrigerator.  We've also been going through our pantry and trying to use all the things that have been sitting there too long, or that were purchased to make a specific meal that we have long forgotten about.  One day we will have Mexican food, the next Asian and the following German. It's a good thing we have cast-iron stomachs!

We did have a wonderful meal for Easter, however.  I bought a leg of lamb for a price I haven't seen in years.  The rest of the meal was typical "Jane" thrifty, however, with the remainder of our root-cellared  potatoes and winter squash roasted and we had banana cake made from bananas that needed using up for dessert.   I had forgotten all about this recipe.  It was the one recipe that people most requested, way back in the olden days before the internet, when people used to swap recipes instead of googling them:

1890 Banana Cake

1/2 C. butter

1 1/4 C. sugar

2 eggs

1/2 C. sour cream

1 tsp. lemon juice

1 tsp. vanilla 

1 C. mashed bananas

1 1/2 C. flour

1/2 tsp. salt (omit if using salted butter)

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 C. chopped nuts

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs, sour cream, lemon juice, vanilla and bananas; beat mixture well.

Add flour, salt and baking soda; combine well.  Stir in nuts.

Pour into a lightly greased 9 X 13 pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.   Especially good if frosted with a cream cheese frosting.

It's very important to use very ripe, brown bananas when baking with this cake.  And sometimes, if I have it, I will use a 1/2 tsp of banana extract.  As with all my cake recipes, this makes a very moist "country" cake.

While cleaning out the freezer, I found quite a few bags of cranberries, so I canned six jars of relish and eight jars of cranberry catsup.  We love our homemade grape catsup, so I thought I'd give cranberry a try.  It's a winner.  Weren't cranberries inexpensive this year?  I also had bags and bags of pecans in the freezer, so I canned pecan pie filling.  I love having pie fillings on hand, it makes for a quick and easy dessert.  Just toss the filing into a lightly greased pan and make a quick crumble like the topping in this apple crisp and bake it up while dinner is being served.  Although, I must confess that more than likely I just use the recipe on the side of the Jiffy yellow cake mix for a quick dessert.

Fruit Magic

1 pkg. Jiffy yellow cake mix

1 can pie filling (21 oz.)

1/2 C. chopped nuts (optional)

1/4 cup margarine or butter, softened

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Select your favorite pie filling and spread into an ungreased 8" square pan. Combine cake mix and nuts. Cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over top of pie filling. Bake 45-50 minutes.  (I think I bake mine less, about a half hour, just until the top is lightly browned and the filling is hot and bubbling.)

Even someone that doesn't know how to bake can handle that recipe! It's a good "starter" recipe for children. Did I ever tell you the story of my first attempt at baking?  I was five-years old.  I had a gotten a cute little recipe booklet from the grocery store for free.  It was a tie-in for the Wizard of Oz, which yearly airing around Easter time, was a big event for us kiddies back in the early 60s. Anyway, I informed my mother that I was going to bake some cookies and back then children were pretty much ignored and unsupervised, my mother just said something like "That's nice".  So off to the kitchen I went!  At five, I could read but I hadn't gotten to fractions in school, so when the recipe called for 3-4ths cups of brown sugar, I figured it meant 3 to 4 cups of brown sugar! Well, you can imagine how the cookies turned out!  They ended up more like peanut brittle and were quite a chore to scrape off the cookie sheets.  But they weren't wasted, my sister's boyfriend ate them all.  After the first batch, my mother finally came into the kitchen and discovered what I was up to and sent me out to play while she tossed the batter. You'd think that first foray into baking would have discouraged me, but after learning fractions (ha!) I became quite the little baker, winning many a blue-ribbon at various fairs.  By the time I was ten, my father preferred my baking to my mother's (not the accomplishment that one might think) and I became the chief baker in the family.

Crafts

Whenever someone asks me what I've been up to, I always answer, "cleaning out the freezer or cleaning out the attic" You'd think that one day it would come to an end!  I keep all my crafting items in the attic and my fabric stash is immense.  My problem is that I love fabric, particularity the pretty reproduction fabrics put out by quilting companies. I can't bear to waste a scrap.  So, I began this scrap quilt last winter.

I was thinking of making a quilt for our bed, which is a two-hundred-year-old rope bed and an odd size, but quickly into the project I decided that it was too busy for my taste.  So, I tucked it away and forgot about it. It was a shame, since I only had about five more squares to finish it into a nice lap-sized quilt.  Guilt got the better of me and I had to take it out and finish it.  I am glad to have it behind me, so I can get on to something more enjoyable.   While I was quilting and quilting (did I mention I hate quilting?) Ran kept me company by whittling these two adorable spoons: 

The larger spoon is a coffee measure, the tiger maple came from our firewood pile. And the little spoon is a little scuttle for salt. He used a dye I made from rose galls to stain the tiger maple piece.  I also used the rose galls to dye some cross stitch fabric for this picture on the left:

The little picture to the right is made from a scrap of fabric that was used in some strapping for an antique chair that I had saved.  We never waste anything! I used the oil some fancy olives were packed in to roast our asparagus in this week.  And to sauté some onions and peppers.  Rose gall dye, olive oil from a jar of olives, old upholstery used as cross stitch fabric, may seem like carrying thrift to extremes and some might think it is downright miserly, but to me, it is a fun adventure.  

So that is it for this Thrifty Thursday.  Stay safe and stay thrifty!

Hugs

Jane

Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day dear friends!  Can you believe that we have already reached the end of May?  It seems that you wait for spring to arrive and it feels like it will never get here, then one day, ta-da! it's Spring!

Tomorrow is Memorial Day here in the States and I want to take this opportunity to thank all who are serving or have served.  On Memorial Day, my thoughts always go to my father, who served in World War II.  He never talked of his time in the war except to jokingly recall of the incident when his ship was torpedoed and he volunteered to don diving equipment and go down in the deep ocean waters to weld a make-do repair back on.  He always joked that he was the only one too stupid (his words, not mine) to know any better.  It wasn't until after he died that I discovered all the heroic things he did in the war.  Lately, I've been pondering what he would think of all the goings-on that have been happening lately.  I have a feeling I'd be bailing him out of jail a lot. Ha!  Makes me sort of glad that he's not here to see what a mess we've made of of the freedoms he fought so valiantly to defend.  But mostly, I think of all the things I'd like to share with him.  I know he'd love our little cottage and would be thrilled to be able to go fishing with Ran.  Whenever he visited I was always sure to bake him something special.  He could eat half  of one of my pies in one sitting!  I learned to bake at an early age and one of my duties was to bake goodies for his lunch pail. So in his honor, I made a strawberry-rhubarb pie.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

1 C. sugar

1/4 C. flour

3/4 tsp. nutmeg

3 eggs, beaten

2 C. strawberries, sliced

2. C. rhubarb, diced

1 9" pie shell 

Streusel:

1/2 C. flour

1/4 C. sugar

1/3 C. butter, softened

Combine first four ingredients.  Fold in the strawberries and rhubarb. Put into the pie shell.

Combine the streusel ingredients until crumbly.  Sprinkle over top.

Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes then turn down the oven to 350 degrees and bake an additional 40 minutes. 

This year everyone decided that the like rhubarb, so I'm making sure to can some up.  

How to Can Rhubarb

Wash stalks and cut into 1/2" pieces. removing any strings or tough pieces (young springtime stalks are the best) In a large pot add 1/2 C sugar for every quart of rhubarb.  Let stand covered, until juice appears. Heat gently to boiling.  Immediately pack into hot jars. leaving a 1/2 inch headspace.  Remove air bubbles.  Wipe rims and adjust lids. Process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes for pints or quarts

We are also beginning to harvest the first of our asparagus.  Here's a quick recipe for a simple  little casserole:

Asparagus Casserole

1 1.2 lb. fresh asparagus, boiled until tender

1/4 C. butter

1C. cracker crumbs (we like our homemade ones made from cauliflower flour)

1/2 C. toasted almonds (optional but good)

1 can cream of mushroom soup (or 1C, of the white sauce, I write frequently about)

4 rashers bacon, fried and crumbled

Combine butter and cracker crumbs.  Pat half into a 8 inch buttered pan. Combine almonds, asparagus, and the soup. Pour over the cracker crust.  Sprinkle the remaining crumbs on top, then sprinkle the bacon over that.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until hot and bubbly.

Gardening

Memorial Day weekend is when we plant our garden.  It's slow going this year because the back  plots are very wet.  We are hoping and praying that the potatoes that we planted earlier in the season are not rotting in the ground. Such is the trials of a gardener!  That's why it's important to reserve some of your canned goods for the next season, you just never know when a crop will fail.  It looks like our poor peach tree didn't survive the winter.  It was such a dependable little tree, it certainly lived up to its name "Reliance",  it's going to be sad to cut it down.  I'm glad I  canned so many peach preserves last year!  

While Ran is busy putting in the vegetable garden, I've been busy getting the flowerbeds weeded.  Sometimes I regret the folly of planting so many flowers.  If I had to do it all over again, I think I'd just plant huge banks of tiger lilies, but oh well! I have the flowers now, so weeding will just be part of my life until, I'm too old to do it. On the other hand, one of the most enjoyable garden tasks is planning  the urns plantings.  This year I found some unusual plants called "toothache plant".  Some might think that are rather ugly ducklings but they reminded me of the flowers in crewel embroidery.

And you can see from this picture, I love my crewel embroidery!

Sorry about the dark picture, it's just a foggy, pussy-willow-gray kind of a day today.

Finding Time

After a very long winter,  it seems that springtime arrives and so do so many chores.  It's easy for all those little things that need to be done fall by the wayside. I've found that if you make a list and just make an effort to cross three of them off each day, things don't pile up.  For me one of the "chores" this week was to defrost and can all the bacon that was in the freezer.  Canning bacon is one of those "guerilla " methods of canning that isn't "Ball Blue Book approved", but something I've been doing for years, so I won't explain how to do it.  When I pulled all the bacon out, I told Ran that now we had room for all the fish he will catch, "so get out there and catch some".  It was less than an hour later that our neighbor, Ed, dropped off several pounds of frozen cod that came from his sister's restaurant. She has been closed down because of you-know-what and needed to get rid of stuff before it goes bad.  The Lord works in mysterious ways! He also gave us several dozen eggs.  What a blessing to have nice neighbors!

I also use the checking-off-the- list method for cleaning up the pantry.  Each week I take five ingredients that are unusual (why did I buy that?) and are reaching their expiration date and challenge myself to use them up.  It results in some strange meals sometimes, but we also discover a lot of new and fun flavors.  Keeps things interesting. Since I had just purchased a couple dozen eggs before Ed gave us several more, I tried pickling them this week.  The guys love them!  Who knew?

This is also the time of the year that we take our remaining onions and dehydrate them.  We never waste anything and I hate buying onions.  We use this dried onions from May until September, when we harvest our next crop.  I also fill in with chives, Egyptian Walking onions,  and spring's green onions.  We also dried all our  remaining garlic and ground it into garlic powder.  What a smelly undertaking that is!

Well, I guess I've rambled on here long enough.  I hope that you all have a lovely weekend ahead and  again, thank you veterans and those serving presently.  So that's it for another week at the old Zempel boarding house!

Hugs
Jane

THE OBLIGATORY POST REDUX

June 6, 1888:  A Michigan girl had found 2,125 four-leaf clovers and isn't married yet.  An Omaha girl who found out how to make a pumpkin pie was married in three months.

~Quote from Prairie Farmer magazine, cited in A Prairie  Kitchen: Recipes, Poems and Colorful Stories from the "Prairie Farmer" Magazine, 1841-1900 ~

Well, you didn't think I'd let November pass without posting something about pumpkins did you?  Especially since they are my favorite thing to grow in the garden.  So easy!  I just pick out promising seedlings growing  in the compost and replant them.  Of course, I do plant some the traditional way also!

Pumpkins are high in Vitamin A, which promotes healthy eyes, skin and bones.  That deep orange color is high in beta - carotene, so enjoy it!  Beside the traditional pies, breads and muffins, you can use it any way that you would a traditional winter squash.  You would have to have a pretty sophisticated palate to tell the difference!  I like to add cubed pieces to stews and soups.  Anything to add more nutrition!

To prepare fresh pumpkin:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line a jelly roll baking sheet with aluminum foil.  Cut the pumpkin in half crosswise and scoop out the seeds and pulp. Place the pumpkin cut side down on the baking sheet  and bake for 1 -1 1/2 hours or until the flesh is tender.  Scoop out the flesh and mash until smooth. You could use a food processor for this, but I don't own one so I couldn't tell you how.

How to can pumpkin:
Clean pumpkins,  Remove seeds and pulp.  Cut into 1-inch cubes.  Cut off the rind.  Place in a large pot and cover with water.  Boil a few minutes to heat thoroughly.  Pack into sterilized pint jars leaving 1" headspace.  Add 1/2 tsp. salt to  jars.  Ladle the boiling cooking liquid over the cubes, leaving 1" headspace.  Wipe the rims and place a sterilized lid on top.  Screw on the ring and process for 55 minutes under 10 pounds of pressure.

Of course, I couldn't write a pumpkin post without including a recipe for pie.  Here's the one we use:

Amish Pumpkin Pie

1 C. brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 C. pumpkin puree
1 can evaporated milk
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. flour
2 eggs, beaten
9" unbaked pie shell

Mix together the sugar, spices, salt and flour.  Stir in the pumpkin, then the eggs.  Lastly the milk.
Pour into the pie shell.  Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes.  Reduce the heat to 350 degrees and bake for an additional 25-30 minutes or until the filling is firm.

With this recipe you'll have enough pumpkin left over in the can to make our family's favorite; pumpkin pancakes.  Here's the recipe:

Pumpkin Pancakes

2C. flour
2 tbsp. brown sugar
1 tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ginger
1 1/2 C.  milk
1/2 C. canned pumpkin
1 large egg
2 tbsp. oil
oil for the skillet

In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients.  In a small bowl combine the milk, pumpkin, egg and oil; stir into the dry ingredients until the dry ingredients  are moistened.  The batter will be thick.  Pour  1/4 cup batter into heated, lightly oiled griddle.  Spread batter into a 4 inch circle. Cook as you would any pancakes.

Or maybe these muffins would be more up your alley:

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

1 1/4 C. flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. soda
1 egg
3/4 C. brown sugar
2/3 C.  pumpkin
1/4 C. oil
1  3oz. pkg. cream cheese
3 tbsp. sugar
1/3 C. chopped nuts


Combine  the dry ingredients.  Mix the egg, brown sugar, pumpkin and oil together.  Add to the dry ingredients.  Mix until combined.  In another bowl combine the cream cheese and sugar.  In lined muffin cups spoon 1 tbsp. batter, top with 1 tsp. of the cream cheese mixture.  Spoon another 1 tbsp. of batter over top.  Spread evenly and sprinkle with the nuts.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

Well!  This has certainly been a long post!  But before I go, I want to wish you all a blessed and joyful Thanksgiving.  Here's my favorite poem on the subject:

He who thanks but with the lips
Thanks but in part;
The full, the true Thanksgiving
Comes from the heart.
~J. A. Shedd~

Happy Thanksgiving!

MAKING SAUERKRAUT

Regina wrote to me and asked how to make sauerkraut.  Since it is a bit complicated, I thought I'd write a post on it.  Now, I know most of you won't be interested in how to make it, but if you scroll down to the end of the post, I share a recipe for a delicious Alsatian-style pork roast that uses sauerkraut.  Perfect for Octoberfest!

Step 1:  Wash and scald a large crock or a large food safe plastic bucket.  Wash your cabbages and cut out the cores.  Remove the thick outer leaves.

Step 2:  Shred and salt the cabbage 5 pounds at a time.  You do not need to go to all the expense of buying a special kraut cutter.  Just use a very sharp knife and cut in very thin strips.  Use 3 1/2 tablespoons of canning salt per 5 pounds of cabbage.  Make certain the salt is evenly distributed or the cabbage may turn pink.  (This is caused by certain kinds of yeast.)  We use a large Ziploc  bag to mix the salt and cabbage together. 

Step 3:  Repeat the shredding and salting until the crock is filled to within  5 inches from the top.  Tamp the cabbage down firmly to extract the juice.  If there is not enough juice to cover the cabbage make a brine of 1 quart of water and 1 1/2  teaspoons of salt.  The brine should cover the cabbage.

Step 4:  Fit a clean scalded plate or lid that fits just inside the crock.  Weigh it down with a sterilized  quart jar that is filled with water.  The cabbage must be completely submerged in the brine.  Cover the crock with a clean towel and place in a dark place.The  best temperatures for fermenting is 70 degrees.  Warmer temperatures may cause the kraut to spoil.  Cold temperatures take longer.

Step 5:  In a few days you will see  bubbles starting to appear.  That means the cabbage is fermenting.  Check the kraut daily and remove the film as it appears.  Remove the lid and remove any film or mold on it.  Wash and scald it and place it back on the cabbage.

Step 6:  When the bubbling stops (usually in 2-4 weeks depending upon the temperature) tap the side of the crock.  If no bubbles appear, it means the fermenting has ended.

Step 7:  Now you can eat your sauerkraut or you can can it.  To can it, heat the sauerkraut but do not boil.  Pack into hot sterilized jars leaving 1/2 headspace.  Remove the air bubbles.  Process in a boiling water bath for  15 minutes for pints or 20 minutes for quarts.

Now you have the sauerkraut, here's a wonderful meal that's perfect for an October day:

Alsatian Pork Roast

In a large Dutch oven, brown 2 large onions, roughly chopped in a couple tablespoons of oil.  Sprinkle a pork loin roast with a spice mixture of 1 tsp. salt and  1 tsp. pepper, 2 tsp. sage, 1 tsp. rosemary,  1 tsp. thyme and 1 tsp. dry mustard.  Brown the roast in the oil.  Pour a pint of sauerkraut over top of the roast.  (If using store bought, use a good quality kraut, not the cheap stuff that you can buy in a can.) Combine 2 tbsp. each of  ketchup and brown sugar.  Stir into the sauerkraut.  Add clean whole potatoes (or cut up if the potatoes are large) as many as needed for your family and an equal amount of coarsely chopped carrots.  Cover the Dutch oven and simmer on top of the stove until the internal temperature of the roast  reaches 170 degrees.  About 30-35 minutes per pound.  The meat should be falling apart.   Check from time to time to make sure all the liquid hasn't boiled out and that the roast isn't sticking to the bottom of the pot.  Add a bit of water if needed.

 Place the roast on a pretty platter and arrange the potatoes and carrots around it.  Serve the sauerkraut on the side.With the leftovers, you can chop up the roast and and add it to the sauerkraut,  adding  some Italian or Polish sausages to it stretches the leftovers for a few extra days.  Are you ready for October now?

V IS FOR VICTORY GARDEN

Sorry about the long stretches between posts.  I have been busy doing this:














I was thinking that I'm almost through with the canning for the year, then I started listing what I have left; eggplants, pumpkins, potatoes, squash, sweet potatoes, apples, pears,one more bushel of tomatoes, some peppers, more blackberries and let's not forget sauerkraut.  Well!   Let's just say I'm two-thirds through the canning season.  Going to need some more shelves!

I do not live on a farm, just a regular sized city lot.  Just goes to show you  what you can do with a little bit of gumption.  The other day I was talking to a relative who was unemployed.  She was making herself sick with worry about how to make ends meet.  The whole time I was wondering  why she didn't put in a garden as she lives on several acres out in the country (even volunteered to help her get it started).  I read a statistic that one in seven Americans receive food stamps.  That means that some of the people I know are using them, but when I tell friends and neighbors to just come and pick whatever they want or need,  they rarely take me up on the offer.  Now, the very same people will gladly accept produce if I pick and clean it and present it to them in a nice plastic bag, but it is too much work for them to do those couple steps themselves.  They'd much rather go to the grocers and buy it that way.  I stopped offering.  If a person cannot bend their back and use a bit of effort to help themselves,  then I surmise that they are not truly needy.

Well, enough of that rant!  Just had to get it out.  We've had cool weather the last couple of days.  One day it was in the nineties and the next  the high temperature was fifty-one!  It was as though nature said, "Labor Day has come, summer is over, let's get on to autumn!".  It would be nice to have an extended fall season.  Usually it gets smooshed between a too long summer and a too soon winter.

It smells wonderful outside.  The Concord grapes are ripening,  Looks like a bumper crop this year!  This is the first year we are getting more than one apple on the trees we planted five years ago.  We planted my favorite "pie" apples;  Rhode Island Greening, Wolf River, and Smokehouse.  Old antique varieties.  Also, just for eating, the delectable Snow or Fameuse apple.  The neighbor also allows us to pick the pears and apples in her orchard. Lori is such a nice neighbor!   While I was writing this,  it reminded me that grape juice is also on my list of things to can.  The work never ends.  But it is a joy.  Next time I post something, I'll have a more informative article.  Just dropped in to say hello, and say I'm still here on Earth.  Just buried under garden produce!

THE BOUNTY OF THE EARTH

It's a busy time here at Sweet Briar Cottage.  The garden is producing and we are kept hopping harvesting and preserving.  It is such a joy to go out and pick our dinner.  One day a meal of sauteed  summer squash,onions and tomatoes  all fresh from the garden.  The next day a tomato sandwich warm from the sun. Another day new potatoes just dug minutes before popping them in the pot.  Not to mention the corn and melons!   Life is good.  You can't help but believe in miracles when think back to the fact that just a few months before we were planting seeds,some no bigger than a grain of sand, that are now food that nourishes both body and soul.  You'll never take your food for granted if you have labored over a plot of land weeding and hoeing, harvesting and preserving.  I'll guarantee you that!

We make a lot of this oven roasted spaghetti sauce.  As a matter of fact, I can't make enough of it.  So good!  It uses a lot of tomatoes, but that is what makes it taste so delicious.  The good thing about this recipe is that you don't have to peel the tomatoes, so if you do what I do and plant too many of those cherry tomatoes, you can use them in this recipe.  And since those are usually the sweetest ones, your sauce will turn out especially good!

Oven Roasted Spaghetti Sauce

7 lbs. of tomatoes
1/2 dozen garlic cloves (or more if you really like garlic)
1/2 dozen onions
1/4 C. olive oil
1 tsp. salt
1 C. fresh  herbs (I use lots of oregano and basil. And rosemary, thyme, fennel and chives.  But feel free to use what you like best)
pepper
1/4 C. sugar
3-4 peppers, seeds removed and roughly chopped

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Coat a large roasting pan with the olive oil.  Wash and remove the stems from the tomatoes.  Roughly chop the onions.  and wash the herbs.  Place all the ingredients in the roasting pan.  It will look like this:














Roast for a half hour.  Give it a stir.  Roast for an additional half hour and stir again.  Roast for another hour, watching it carefully that last half hour so it doesn't burn.  The top will start to brown and the liquid will evaporate.  The tomatoes will become soft and the herbs and onions will start to meld together.  It will cook down quite a bit.  Here's how it will look:

Take it from the oven and put the mixture through a food mill.  Now you can freeze the sauce or do what I do and  pressure can it.  Pints are processed at 10 pound of pressure for 35 minutes.

BTW, yes that is a plastic bag drying in the background.  I never thought I'd become one of those people (i.e. an old fuddy duddy), but they've become so expensive, I do now.  I have purchased a lot of covered containers from garage and estate sales and rarely use plastic wrap anymore too.  Of course, I recycle a lot of containers too for that purpose, like Cool Whip containers. :)

HEIGH-HO CHERRY-OH!

This week has been one of those one step forward, two steps back kind of weeks.  On Saturday I took a jaunt through the farmer's market and was mesmerized by the beautiful cherries.  They cost a king's ransom, but after viewing all of your blogs, I was craving cherries  in the worst way.  So many wonderful recipes out there!  I had every intention of making Montmorency  cherry squares but when I got home I thought better of it.  Jamie only eats sweets that have chocolate and peanut butter in them, so I knew if I made them, I would be eating the better part of the tray myself.  So I decided to make cherry jam instead.  I just made it the same way I made the strawberry preserves but boiled it for a bit less.  Seems sour cherries have more pectin in them.  Turned out lovely and I was anticipating a piece of toast with the jam on it once the clean-up was finished. Isn't toast wonderful?  By scraping the pot, I was able to eke out just a dab to keep.  Anticipation.  Opened the refrigerator door and out jumped the jam and the lovely antique spongeware custard cup holding it with it.  I don't know what upset me more, the broken custard cup or the lost jam.

Well, now my craving was not abated so I uncovered a can of cherry pie filling that had been shoved to the back of the pantry and made the squares anyhow.  And you know what?  They tasted just as good as they do when I make the filling from scratch.  And a lot less dithering with pitting cherries to boot!   BTW, Montmorency Squares are simply  a pie crust fitted into a small rectangular pan with a layer of cherry pie filling, then another layer of pie crust,baked at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.  Then glazed with a nice almond flavored icing.  

Also spent a good amount of the last couple of days  picking and shelling peas.  I had a huge trayfull dried and was certain the were dry when I placed them in the jar, but just to be certain I left the lid off.  After a couple of days I put the lid on and thought no more about it.  I glanced over to the jar as I passed it and noticed that the jar was covered in mold.  In just one hour!  The humidity has been ghastly lately.  All those lovely peas wasted!  All that time!  Well, you live and you learn.  Glad I canned some of them.

Here's a closer look at the bouquet.  All the flowers were growing in the hedgerow.  I never can bring myself to pick flowers that I plant. But I'm always blessed with some of the prettiest orphans.

TIMES TIDE AND PEAS WAIT FOR NO MAN

Do you know that scene in Raiders of The lost Ark where the ark is revealed and their eyes begin to melt out of their heads?  That's how hot it feels lately.  OK, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but not a lot.  Of course, all this humid heat is just the thing for the garden so we are harvesting things left and right.  The cool spring and early June was a real boon for the peas. We had quite a bumper crop.  And the shells are plump with their green goodness.  Strawberries needed picking also. And the blueberries are ripe.  Hurray! Time to get out the canner.  I know that I write a lot about canning and some of you don't can, but I really want to encourage you to give it a try.  Before you go out and buy a lot of expensive equipment. maybe it would be a good thing to try your hand at making up a small batch of jam.  You don't need a canner for that.  I often use a large stockpot for making jam instead of dragging out the large canner.  Just place a couple of tea towels on the bottom so that the jars don't come in contact with the bottom of the pot or the jars might crack.  I had a real Lucy and Ethel moment when I did this once.  Apparently the tea towels I was using hadn't been rinsed well enough and all that boiling produced a lot of suds that boiled all over the stove and the kitchen floor.  So make sure you use well-rinsed towels before attempting this!

A lot of people are afraid of canning because the think they'll accidentally poison their families.  To make certain the food is safe use your senses.  LOOK at it.  It should be the same color as the day you canned it.  SMELL it.  It should smell the same as the day you canned it.  FEEL it.  The lid should be hard to pry off.  If it comes off easily, toss it.  When in doubt, throw it out.

Jars not sealing properly are what causes most spoilage.  Two things that I find causes most failures in the jars not sealing are that I didn't allow for the proper amount of headspace.  I use a ruler and measure now, instead of just guessing.  The other thing is forgetting to wipe the rim before placing on the lids.Another thing to remember is that canning is serious business, treat your preparation area like a lab and make sure every thing is clean, clean, clean.  There's no such thing as overkill when it comes to this.

The hot days are good for drying herbs also.  I put mine in the bottom of my broiling pan and put them inside of my car.  It makes the best dehydrator.  And your car smells like the herbs afterward.  Be forewarned,  if you dry dill in your car, expect to have cravings for dill flavored potato chips.  Or maybe that's just me!

Speaking of herbs, my favorite herbalist Marqueta is having a giveaway on her blog:  sweetefelicity.blogspot.com/  If you've never visited her blog, I'll know you'll enjoy it.  Marqueta is a wonderful mother with the most adorable children.  She is also one of the kindness, most Godly woman that you could ever hope to meet.  As we say around here, she's the real deal.  Her giveaway is for her E-Book, The Young Lady's Guide To Natural Health is chockablock full of  wonderful information.  And although no one will ever call me a young lady anymore, I enjoyed it also and found it informative.

I know that you probably have your own favorite recipe for strawberry jam but just in case ....

Strawberry Preserves

1 quart of roughly sliced strawberries or whole ones if the do not have hollow centers ( I measure them by placing them in a quart-sized  ziploc.  When I can just barely close the bag, that's the right amount)

5 C. sugar
1/2 C. lemon juice

Place the  the strawberries and sugar in a large non-metallic  pot and let them set in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.  Heat the berries/sugar and bring to a boil.  Boil for 20 minutes.  Add the lemon juice and boil an additional 10 minutes.  Remove from the heat.  Stir and skim the foam.Place in sterilized  half pint jars, leaving a 1/2" headspace.  Wipe rims and place sterilized lids on.  Process in a hot water bath  for 15 minutes.

GINGER AND PICKLES

Well it had to happen sometime,   my mind is starting to go to pot.  I try to keep it sharp by reading, involving myself in lively conversations, and doing mind games like NY Times crossword puzzle and Sudoku, but it hasn't improved my memory any.  Case in point, I had ginger on my shopping list so I bought some.  The next time I went to the grocers, I had a nagging feeling that there was something I had forgotten.  Oh yes!  Ginger!  So my second bottle of the expensive little spice went into the cart.  Then the next day I was organizing my pantry when I found a little tin that holds all the rarely used spices like cardamon and chervil, well, there was another bottle of ginger.  Since when did ginger become a rarely used spice?  The end results is that now I have almost a pint of  it.  We will be eating gingerbreads and spice cookies for a very long time.  But that's ok.  I've forgotten how nice and homey  a  humble little cookie made from pantry staples tastes.  Seems now days, if a cookie doesn't contain some exotic and often expensive ingredient, it isn't worthy of baking.  When the boys were home and our budget was meager, we made a lot of these types of goodies.  They even request custard once in a while.  They never guessed that I made it to use up the milk that was beginning to go sour.  Here's a recipe:

Ginger Creams

1/3 C. shortening
1/2 C. sugar
1 egg
1/2 C. molasses (I made a mistake and bought the "robust" flavored molasses and had to cut it with Lyle's Golden syrup)
1/4 C. water
2 C. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda (why do we put "baking" in front of soda?  If you don't know what we are talking about perhaps you shouldn't be allowed near an oven?)
1 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. cloves
1/2 tsp cinnamon
white frosting

Cream shortening, sugar, egg, molasses and water together.  Stir in dry ingredients and blend well.  Chill dough.  Bake cookies at 400 degrees on a lightly greased baking sheet for approximately 8 minutes.  Cool.  Frost with white frosting.
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While I was at the grocers, I noticed that they had a big bag of cucumbers on the reduced for quick sale bin.  This was providential as our dill has just began blooming and it looks like the cucumbers we planted are a major failure this year. It seems dill and cucumbers never are in synch in my garden anyhow.  Makes me wonder how pickles were ever invented.  The abandoned compost bin yielded the nicest dill this year.  For the last couple of years, we have been reluctant to till it over as it produces some of the best little gifts.  This year dill and onions.  Last year tomatoes and pumpkins.  And the perfect tomatoes too.  Hardy enough to survive through a Michigan winter.  I saved the seeds and grew some for this year.  So far the are outperforming all the other tomatoes.  If you would like some of these compost tomato seeds, just let me know, and I'll be glad to send some to you in the fall.

Anyhow, back to pickles.  Aren't they wonderful?  At the end of summer when we dig the potatoes, we always have a meal of them just boiled with a dab of butter and these pickles.  Perhaps not nutritionally sound, but so delicious!  They taste of the good Earth!

Bread and Butter Pickles

15 C.  sliced pickling cukes
3 yellow or white onions (I once used red and it made the most unattractive peach colored pickles)
1/4 C.  pickling salt
4 C. cider vinegar
 4C. sugar
 1 1/2 tsp. turmeric
1 tsp. celery seed
2 tbsp. mustard seed
fresh dill heads

Cover cukes, onions and salt in a large bowl.  Cover with ice.  Let stand for 3 hours.  Drain.

Combine vinegar, sugar and spices in a large pot. Bring just to a boil.

Place 1 dill head in each sterilized pint jar.  Fill with cucumber mixture.  Pour brine over the cukes, leaving a 1/2 inch  headspace.  Poke a sterilized knife in the jar to make sure there aren't any air bubbles.  Place sterilized lids and rings on the jars.  Process 10 minutes in a hot water bath.
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Lastly, I leave you with a picture of my Issac Perrier rose.  It looks so lovely growing up the weathered shingles.  The cool weather is a real boon to the roses this year. By the by, we have finally settled on a name for our cottage.  We needed to have one, as we are having a quarterboard made up for the entrance. And the name is ...... Sweet Briar Cottage!

THE TRIALS AND TRIBULATION OF RHUBARB

Dear House, you are very small.
Just big enough for love. That's all.
~ old sampler saying~

Today I had the bright idea to can up some rhubarb strawberry  pie filling...Well as in true Jane fashion,  the simple task wasn't accomplished without a lot of frustration.  I simply could not locate my canner.  How can a person lose a fairly large canner in a 1000 square foot house?  I looked in all the logical places, such as the basement and the attic.  Nothing! I suspect that it might be in the garage, but you must understand my dear husband's idea of organizing.  I love my husband with all my heart, but his one flaw is his need to pack things up.  Well that, and the fact that he's so chipper at the wee hours of the morning, but I digress.  He takes great pride in being able to fit the entire contents of a huge Victorian house into a u-haul.  Which makes unpacking an adventure.  All boxes will be  marked "misc."  And when you open them, you'll find that an understatement.  The contents being one of the boy's christening gowns, a spatula, a monkey wrench and a roll of toilet paper.  Another box might contain one shoe, an empty jar, a toilet plunger and a baggie filled with twist ties.  One good thing about his method is that it forces you to unpack. I'm betting that the canner is lurking behind  several old windows, a bed frame, and  several rolls of insulation out there in no-man's land, uh er, the garage.

But all's well that ends well.  I just canned up the jars in my pressure canner,  therefore, I had to use pint jars instead of quarts because the water wouldn't be deep enough for the quart jars.  But now that I think about it, that will work out better for us anyhow, since we rarely eat an entire pie anymore.  I'll be able to make small tarts with no waste.  Or maybe old-fashioned filled cookies.

Speaking of pies,  I always make up a large batch of pie crust and freeze it, that way it's easy to just thaw the crust when it's needed.  No excuse to not make a pie or tarts for tea. Or a quick potpie from the leftovers.  The recipe I use, stirs up quick and makes the nicest, flakiest crusts. And it really rolls out nicely.

Pie Crust (enough for  4 crusts)

1 lb. vegetable shortening
1 Tbsp. salt (I use less)
5 1/3 C. flour
1 C. water

Cut the shortening into the flour and salt.  I just use my hands to make pea-sized crumbles.  Stir in the water.  At this point, you are going to say to yourself, "Jane you're nuts!"  because the mixture will definitely be gluey.  Just pop it in the fridge for several hours and it will roll out beautifully.  Or divide the dough into fourths and freeze.

CHAT OVER THE GARDEN GATE

Hello everyone!  Hope you had a lovely weekend.  I had a glorious one!  On Saturday my son Erik and daughter-in-law Erin came for a visit.  They had a purpose in mind.  To tell Ran and I that we were going to be grandparents!  They were just glowing with joy!  A wonderful thing to behold.  Guess I'm getting thoroughly entrenched in the Grammy generation.  Our adorable little Tatianna just had her kindergarten entrance exam.

The above picture is of my garden.  Not much going on yet.  Right now I can look at it and see hope and promise.  In a couple more months all I will be able to see is chores that need to be finished.  Please ignore the long grass, we were letting it grow so that we could harvest dandelions.  Ever since I first spied the cover of  Joan E. Aller's cookbook, Cider Beans, Wild Greens and Dandelion Jelly, I have yearned to make a batch of dandelion jelly.   Here's a picture of mine.  Goodness!  My windows are dirty!  It never stops raining long enough to get them cleaned.  And when it does, there's so many other jobs that need attention outside, washing windows gets moved down the list.  Anyway,  the flavor of the jelly was a pleasant surprise.  It tastes like a mild lemony honey.  It will be great  in the winter  with biscuits.  As they say, summer in a jar.

I lost a lot of comments in my past three posts from Blogger's snafu. Such a shame because the best thing about this blog is the "conversations" that we have back and forth via the comments posts. Unfortunately,  some of the comments were from new commenters, that I was using to backtrack to their blogs.  That's what I get from procrastinating about putting their blogs on my favorites list.  When will I ever learn?

Speaking of procrastinating,  after Erik and Erin's announcement I dragged my scrap bag out of the attic and started working on a postage stamp crib quilt that I began over twenty years ago!  I might be a master of putting things off until tomorrow, but eventually I do finish my projects, even if it does take me two decades!  I'm hoping that by posting this project, you will all help keep me on track by shaming me into finishing it.

AH! ASPARAGUS!

Are you casting asparagus on my cooking?
~Curly Howard~

One of the first things we did when we bought this little cottage was to put in an asparagus bed.  Growing asparagus is a lesson in patience.  In typical Ran and Jane fashion, we went overboard and planted about ninety crowns, but for most people a couple of dozen plants should suffice.  Just plant the crowns in the spring in good enriched soil about a foot apart for each crown. 

Now the patience part comes into play.  The first year you must restrain yourselves from picking any of those wonderful green stalks.  The second year, only pick one third of them.  But on the third year, you can go hog wild and pick to your heart's content.  I guarantee,  you'll get sick of the stuff before you exhaust your supply

To care for the plants, we lay newspaper down in the spring to keep out the weeds, then cover it with composted manure.  Leave the plants until the fall, then cut back the foliage.  But I like to keep them well into winter, because they look pretty in the frost.  Don't cut them back to soon, because the foliage strengthens the plants, just like tulips and daffodils.

Our favorite way to  prepare it, is to simply drizzle olive oil over the stalks and sprinkle them with our own herbes de provence (garlic powder and rosemary will do in a pinch) and salt.  Roast in a hot oven, or even better grill them until they are tender.

Spent a pleasant afternoon yesterday, canning fourteen pints up.  To can asparagus, clean the stalks and cut them into desired size.  In large pot, cover the asparagus with water and bring to a boil; simmer 10 minutes.  Pack into hot sterilized pint jars, adding 1/2 tsp. salt to each jar.  Wipe down the rims and place sterilized lids on; screw on the rings.  Process for thirty minutes at ten pound of pressure.  Easy peasy!

THIS AND THAT

 When God blesses the harvest, there is enough for the thief as well as the gardener.
~Polish saying~

We started planting our garden this weekend.  Hurray!  In our neck of the woods we will still have frost for another month, but we got in our carrots, onions, parsnips, lettuce, peas and radishes.  I quick peek at the asparagus bed is encouraging, as the little green and purple tips are beginning to emerge.  You can't help but be hopeful when you plant a garden.  I guess last year was a terrible year for those who wallow in the dirt, but my little plot of land thrived.  I'll tell you my secret, I always ask the  Lord to bless my garden as I plant so that I may be able to feed  anyone in need as well as my own family.  We've never had a bad crop yet, and we've been gardening for almost three decades.  Of course you need to be knowledgeable also.  You can't start a garden in the shade, sand, or a low spot  that gets flooded and expect great results.  You'd be surprised on how many people I know that do, though.  Seems that they are more interested in landscaping their yard than the productivity of their garden.

We had tornado warnings yesterday, so it was time to get out the oil lamps and make sure they are filled, because you can bet that we will lose our electricity at least once this summer.  It's a good time to go over the safety procedures with your children, in case there's a tornado and you're not at home.  One time my husband and I had just dropped of our son  Erik at the grocery store store where he worked and were headed home when we heard the tornado sirens.  We had to make an agonizing decision whether to go back and get him, or go home where to our other  teenagers.  Since we were  halfway from either place, we just continued on and prayed.   Fortunately everyone was safe, although the village, Frankenmuth, where Erik worked was hit.  Never want to go through anything like that again!

I received my order for  my Tattler reusable canning lids yesterday.  I've been reading all the articles and reviews on them that I could find, trying to decide if they would work for me.  Finally decided to take the plunge.  The only downside to them I can see is that you won't hear that satisfying "ping" when the jars seal.  I'll let you know how they work out .

Been staying up late to read Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum.  I'll be honest and say this book will not be for everyone.  It has graphic violence and sexual (and somewhat unnecessary) content but that was the reality of the times and the character's life, very disturbing. In a nutshell, it is the story of Anna Schlemmer and what she did to survive in Nazi Germany during the war, basically from the point of view of her daughter, who tends to feel disdain for her "Nazi" mother.  In the end, the daughter, Trudie, realizes that whatever shameful things her mother has done, it was so that she, the daughter, could survive.  It's a good study about the ambiguous gray area between right and wrong.  I've been curious ever since I watched a show on the History channel about the fall of the Reich as to how the regular German people felt about the war during that time, and this book helped explain it.  Like I said it is not for everyone, if you read it plan on having some sleepless nights!  The new book I'm reading is something I picked up at the dollar store,  A corny, cliched romance book set in a lighthouse.  I call these books junk food for the mind.  But they are fun to read too.

Lastly, I'm knitting the birch bark mittens that were in the Pieceworks magazine  about a year ago.  Each year I knit my husband a pair of Norwegian style mittens  for Christmas.  This year I'm way ahead of schedule.  Most years you will find me putting the finishing touches on them on Christmas eve!

CANNING WATER

In the previous post, I mentioned canning water for emergencies.  When I was growing up, most people had wells and when the electricity went out, so did the pump,so they would have a supply of  "canned" water on hand to cook with and to  drink.  I do not know what the extension office says about this, but I assume that if food is safe after canning, water should be also.  To be on the safe side, I would boil it for 10 minutes before using it, but at least it will be clean and handy.  Here's how you do it:

Canning Water

Fill the sterilized jars with boiling water to the depth you are filling the other jars. It's important that the water is boiling, not only to kill the "bugs", but also because your jars will crack when you put them in the boiling water otherwise.  Usually the headspace  for the hot water bath method is 1/2 inch and for the pressure canner it's 1 inch.  Since I only can water when there's extra space in my  canner,  I process it for the amount of time that I need to process whatever I'm making.  For canning the hot water bath method, the jars need to boil for at least ten minutes so the seals can soften and seal properly.

MARCH COMES IN LIKE A LAMB

It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold:  when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.  ~Charles Dickens~

 Hurray!  March is here!  The snow is starting to recede  and today I found tiny buds beginning to form on the miniature lilacs on the south side of the house.  Time to put  the pussy willow wreath on the door as a nice welcome to spring.

Yesterday I canned.  This old Mother Hubbard went to her cupboard and found that it was bare of kidney beans.  Had to buy some at 75 cents a can and that was the cheap store brand.  So I canned up two pounds that were purchased from local growers at $2.29.  It ended up costing a little over 33 cents a jar.  I also canned up four and a half pound of ham  from the deli end pieces that we can buy at the little grocery store down the street.  At $2.29 for one and a half pounds it came to $1.53 a pound.  And it was all meat, no bones!  I just cubed it up, saving some for Jamie's sandwiches, boiled it 10 minutes, then packed it and processed it for 75 minutes at 10 pounds pressure.  Now I'll be able to make up a quick soup for friends and neighbors.

Remember when I mentioned that I bought a 100% linen blouse at the thrift store to make a pillow?  Decided to make this cute tea cozy instead.  I've been carrying around the picture from the old McCall's Needlework  magazine for decades.  Finally got around to it.  All the crewel  yarn came from crewel kits that I picked up at garage sales through the years.  I've come to the realization that I will probably never complete them, but I can never resist those pretty Jacobean designs. By the way, I tried that blouse on and all I can say is that  while Mandarin collars look chic on Katherine Hepburn, on me they look like I'm a member of Mao's army!

Lastly, here's what I did with some of the sprouts.  I made chop suey.  Just sauteed up onions, garlic, and mushrooms.  Added that to some brown rice. Added some carrots (mine were canned, but if you use fresh, you might want to parboil them a bit) and a can of drained water chestnuts.  Stirred in about  a cup of bottled teryiaki  sauce and a dash of soy sauce and topped them with some chow mein noodles. Oh!  And stirred in the sprouts!

PANTRY STAPLE: BEANS

Better beans and bacon in peace than cakes and ale in fear.
     ~Aesop proverb~

 During my Sunday conversation with my mother, she once again worried about the rising costs of groceries.  Like many elderly, she lives on a fixed income.  Because we grow about 75% of what we eat (I canned  and dried over 500 jars this year), I'm sort of oblivious to rising food costs.  For the rest, I use my price-book method and buy at the lowest price and stock up.  Like a mini commodities trader, I always buy  low.  Meat is usually the most expensive item on the shopping list, so it makes sense to find substitutions for it.  Here's some ideas:

First, use meat sparingly.  More like a flavoring, rather than the main focus of  the meal. It is a tradition in New England to have baked beans and brown bread for Saturday night dinner.  A few rashers of bacon that wouldn't satisfy  one becomes a rib-sticking meal for several, with plenty left over. Does anything smell more wonderful  and homey than to come in from the cold and smell the smoky aroma of a pot of beans?

Another way is to add beans to stretch the quantities in soups and stews.  For instance, in chili, rather than using your usual amount of hamburger, halve it and add an additional can of beans.  We have always added kidney beans to our sloppy joes.  Makes it go from 6 skimpy portions to 8-10 servings.  Now days we completely eliminate the hamburg and make them with just the beans.  It is one of our favorite vegan junk foods.  You can add mashed beans to meatloaves.  Red beans and rice is a classic "poor mans" food.  Here's the recipe:

Red Beans and Rice

1 lb. dry red kidney beans
2 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp.  pepper
2 bay leaves
1 tsp. cumin
1 quart water
1 lg. smoked ham hock (it's important it is smoked)
3 tsp. salt
1 1/2 C. chopped celery
1 1/2 C chopped onions
2 cloves garlic, minced
cooked rice

Sort and rinse beans.  In a large Dutch oven, place all the ingredients except the rice.  Bring to a  boil, the simmer 3-4 hours or until beans are tender.  Stir occasionally, adding water as needed to make a thick gravy.  Just before serving, remove the bay leaves and ham hock.  Remove and chop the meat from the hock and return the meat to the pot.  Serve over rice.

Note: We like to serve this with cornbread and our home-canned corn relish.  To make this vegan, we substitute two  Morningstar Italian sausages (a soy product) for the ham hock.  It makes little difference in the taste and reduces the amount of fat and cholesterol.
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Consider using beans as the main source of protein.  Because I have a thyroid condition I cannot eat very much soy (it interferes with the medicines effectiveness) so we make our own bean cakes.  They taste better than the store ones and  cost a lot less.  Here's the recipe:

Black Bean Cakes

1 1/2 C.  salsa (drained in a sieve)
2 cans black beans (rinsed and drained)
1  (8.5 oz.) pkg. corn muffin mix (we use Jiffy)
2 1/2 tsp. chili powder

Mash the black beans.  Stir in the remaining ingredients and form into patties. (Hint:  put the patties into the freezer a while to firm them up)  Fry in a small amount  of olive oil until browned and heated through.
                                                                      ~

Dried beans are the thriftiest way to buy beans.  I recently stocked up on a 15# bag of  of pinto beans for $10.  That's 66 cents a pound.  I also bought some one pound bags of black beans from the Dollar General for 69 cents.  They were on the reduced for quick sale rack. Dried beans will last forever if they are kept dry.  I do admit that it is a pain to deal with the reconstituting of dried products, so when I'm bored I can up a batch.  (my pressure canner is never put away).  Here's how:

Canning  Dried Beans

Wash and pick over bean.  Cover them with water and set overnight.  Drain.  Cover the beans with a couple inches of water (at least two) and bring to a boil.  Boil for one half hour, stirring to keep them from sticking.  Pack the beans into hot sterilized pint jars.  Add 1/2 tsp. canning salt to the jars. Pour cooking liquid over the beans.  Remove air bubbles.  Allow 1 inch headspace.  Wipe the rims and place hot steralized lids on jars.  Screw down the rings.  Process for 75 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure.
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I realize that not everyone has a pressure canner.  You can prepare a batch of beans and freeze them in quart sized containers.  One pound of dried beans is more or less equivilant to 3-4 cans of beans.  At  $1.50 a pound that's less then half the price of the canned ones. They last about 6 months in the freezer.

Here's what a 1 lb. bag of dried beans will yield:

6 C.  black beans
7 1/2 C.  garbanzo beans
5 C.  pinto beans or kidney beans
6 C.  white kidney beans (cannellini)