Becka's blog

If you have read this blog for any length of time you know that I enjoy trying new things in the kitchen. Some time ago Tammy of Tammy's Recipes posted about her mom making Beef Chop Suey and growing her own mung bean sprouts for it. I gathered up all the different ingredients for the recipe and put the meat in the freezer and the other ingredients in the pantry and then set about sprouting the mung beans. I found a small package of mung beans at one of our local oriental grocery stores and have since seen large packages of them at Walmart with the Bob's Red Mill items. A small package was plenty for us since three tablespoons of the beans filled a quart jar after the beans sprouted. The process was easy and I will definitely sprout more in the future when I need them for a recipe. I did find that the jar was pretty well full of sprouts after only four days. Maybe in our warmer, more humid climate they sprout more quickly.

Here are the sprouts after a day or two:

Here they are after they are completely sprouted:

Here's the finished Chop Suey:

A second recent experiment has been making sauerkraut. I had heard about making sauerkraut by the jar and decided to try it out.

My jar is still in the fermenting stage, so I'm not sure how it will turn out. We did try it after about a week and it was starting to taste like sauerkraut. You are supposed to let it ferment for two to three weeks and then either refrigerate it or can it, so I'll let you know in a future post if it turns out.

Have any of you ever grown sprouts or made sauerkraut?

Becka

A few weeks ago I had the discouraging experience of finding weevils in a brand new bag of flour in the pantry. This necessitated a thorough checking of everything in the pantry. I ended up disposing of some things and putting some things in the freezer and as much as possible in glass jars or tupperware-like containers. In the process I found some odds and ends that needed to be used up. One of these items was a half bag of dried blueberries. I found this cookie recipe and tried it recently. These cookies are really good--now I may need to go out and buy some more dried blueberries!

Oatmeal Cookies

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
3 cups old-fashioned oats
1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
3/4 cup dried blueberries
3/4 cup white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In mixing bowl cream butter with sugars and vanilla. Add eggs then baking soda and salt. Stir in oats, flour, blueberries, and chocolate chips. Drop dough by heaping tablespoonfuls onto parchment-lined cookie sheets and bake for 10-12 mins. or until lightly browned. Cool briefly on cookie sheets before removing. Makes about 5 dozen small cookies.

You can substitute raisins or craisins for the blueberries. The white chips would be good with cranberries but you might want to use chocolate chips with the raisins or you could substitute chocolate covered raisins for a taste thrill.

On a totally unrelated note another wild creature was in our house this evening:

Becka

I had my unbiased assistant draw a name from the hat and the winner of the fall give away is Robin S.! Since I know where you live, Robin, I will see that your prizes are delivered to you. It was fun to see who has been lurking around my blog. Thanks to all who entered the contest and thanks for reading and commenting.

I'm always happy when I find a new recipe that utilizes things that we have on hand. A couple of weeks ago friends from church gave us a large bag of green peppers from their garden. That same week Christy Jordan, the author of the Southern Plate blog and cookbook, posted a recipe utilizing green peppers. I tried it right away and both Rob and I really thought it was good.

Whenever I try a new recipe, Rob always asks how I changed the recipe. I do often change things to utilize what we have on hand or to make it more to our liking. The only thing I changed from the original recipe this time was to use bread crumbs instead of crushed saltines since I didn't have any saltines on hand. So, if you need a new, tasty crockpot recipe I would encourage you to try this one.

Becka

There's still time to enter the fall give-away. I know some of you prefer not to make comments directly on the blog. You could still enter by emailing me if that would work better for you.

I realized recently that I had never posted the recipe for Cabbage Rolls. I've been making these for over 40 years and they are one of our fall favorites.

Cabbage Rolls

12 large cabbage leaves
1 cup cooked rice
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 tsp. salt
dash pepper
1 egg
1/4 tsp. thyme
1 lb. ground beef
8 oz. tomato sauce
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 Tbsp. lemon juice

Prepare cabbage leaves by parboiling or steaming in the microwave. Cut out the hard center "vein" of each leaf to facilitate handling. Combine the egg, rice, onion, salt, pepper, thyme, and hamburger. Place a portion of this mixture in each cabbage leaf and then fold the sides in and roll up. Fasten each leaf with one or two toothpicks. Place in a large kettle, skillet, or crockpot. Combine the tomato sauce, brown sugar, and lemon juice. Pour over the cabbage rolls and bring to a boil. Simmer covered for one hour. If using crockpot cook for 6-8 hours on low. You may want to remove the lid for the last few minutes to thicken the sauce.

There are several ways that you can soften the cabbage leaves; by boiling, freezing, or steaming in the microwave. I like to put them in a glass pie plate covered with waxed paper and microwave for about two minutes.

If you cut out the tough center "vein" the rolls will be easier to roll up without cracking or splitting. You will need to be careful to place the filling so it will be pretty well covered by part of the leaf.

Fasten securely with a toothpick or two.

Do you have a favorite cabbage recipe?

Becka

We are thinking pink at our house this week! DD Megan and her husband Jim found out via ultrasound that baby #2 is a girl. We dearly love our two little grandsons, but are excited that there is going to be a little grand-daughter joining the family in the spring. Things are going well so far during this pregnancy and we would appreciate your continued prayers for Megan and baby girl.

For several weeks now I have been planning to host a give-away. Here is what is included:

I had so much fun making my new fall table runner that I decided to make one of these insulated mats with the same turkey applique. The mat contains Insul-Bright which will deflect the heat from the table or counter-top and it is sized to fit under a 9" x 13" baking dish so you may find it will come in handy under a casserole this fall.

The second item is this little holder for calling cards or loyalty cards. I saw the idea on Copper's Wife aka Cheryl's blog and thought it would be perfect for all those store loyalty cards that were making it hard for me to close my wallet.

The final items in the give-away are a couple of knitted dishcloths. The winner can choose either two off-white or two blue, or one of each.

To enter the contest leave a comment telling about your favorite fall food or tradition. I will enter your name into the hat. Comments must be received by Monday, October 24th to qualify.

I'm looking forward to hearing from you.

Becka