Prepare to Make Your Homemade Concoctions

Are you ready to get started making your own food, beauty products, and cleaning supplies?

To ensure you have what you need on hand, I'm going to recommend that you start saving containers now. My recipes aren't going to save you a lot of money unless you have the necessary containers in which to safely store your concoctions.

From now on, I'd like you to save the bottles and jars from spices and spray cleaners, and the jars from lotions. I never throw away margarine bowls, spice bottles, or glass jars of any type. Egg cartons are handy, too, as are medium-sized boxes and paper bags.

Do be aware that any type of container holding strong or pungent smells, such as pickles, will retain that odor. Not necessarily the glass - but the lid, which is lined with a paper/wax product, will be difficult to eradicate strong scents. I've learned that the hard way. I once used an old pickle jar to store homemade applesauce and the lid smelled like vinegar and dill - not exactly what you want to smell when you spoon out a serving of sweet applesauce! And once I broke a very large bottle of Worcestershire sauce. In order to save what I could (and without having an appropriate container at the ready), I poured it into a plastic "adult sippy cup". It took two years of washing and filling with plain white vinegar before I could take the lid off and not smell Worcestershire sauce!

I also recommend that you buy the large, economy sizes of such staples as flour, sugar, baking soda, vinegar, salt, etc. Later on I'll provide lists of necessary ingredients you should always keep on hand but for now know that when you see a large size of any type of staple ingredient at a great price, buy it!

Hope you're getting excited to begin this journey of a year's worth of recipes! I know I am - and I can't wait to share my secrets, tips, and advice for living a sweet, natural life.

Getting Ready for the Big Change

There's a few things I want to write about before I begin this ambitious project of posting recipes for the next 365 days (starting February 1st, since I didn't begin January 1st).

Many of the recipes I'm going to share are my own concoctions. Sometimes they're based on a recipe I got from a cookbook or the Internet or watching TV but very rarely do I stick to the directions. Once in a while I find a recipe I can't improve upon and prepare it exactly the same and in those instances I'll give credit where credit is due by citing the source (if I can remember it!).

I am a cookbook fanatic! I absolutely adore old cookbooks, not just for their old-fashioned recipes but for the illustrations. I have saved nearly every cookbook my mother used when she was alive and many of them are filled with photographed diorama scenes, illustrations that deftly portray the era in which it was published, and photos of women with bouffant hairdos in frilly dresses and men wearing suits and skinny ties. My mother was avid about clipping recipes out of women's magazines from the 1950s and 1960s and it's fun to see how much each was costed at (usually a few pennies per serving). The most beloved recipes, however, are those written on scraps of paper in her own hand. One of my favorite books belonged to my grandmother, titled A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband, which includes recipes made with a "fireless cooker". Grandma Roemer wrote notes in the margins and even pasted in a few recipes of her own. Back in those days, a fireless cooker was quite the innovation and an icebox really was an icebox full of chunks of ice that needed to be replenished as they melted. Cookbooks can function as time capsules - they showcase the foods, trends, fashions, and advice of particular periods in our history.

I've also saved all the books I've gotten since I was a teen. I've still got two volumes written by Vidal and Beverly Sassoon on beauty advice and exercise, as well as a slim little paperback published in the 1970s that has some terrific recipes for natural beauty products. My old books on Christmas, including homemade decorations, and how-to books on everything from plumbing to sewing curtains are also treasured parts of my collection.

So when it comes to recipes for food and more, I've got lots of sources.

I am excited to share my passions with you. I hope you enjoy these recipes as much as I love sharing them.

Buon appétit!

365 Days of Recipes - Can I Do It?

OK, here we go with one more change to this blog... After watching Julie & Julia I got inspired to do something big - something that would make me write for myself. I also read about a woman who did a 365 days of crock pot cooking blog. But I wanted my idea to be something unique. I love to cook and bake, I love to do home improvement projects and decorate, and I love to open my "kitchen laboratory" and concoct natural cleaning supplies, beauty products, and the like.

Bingo! 

The focus of my blog is going to 365 days of recipes for all of the above - everything you need for a "sweet" life on a budget, using ingredients you can find easily and going organic/natural whenever possible.

Since I didn't get started on January 1st, I'll begin this new adventure on February 1st. Most of the initial posts will be focusing on Valentine's Day, natch.

In the meantime, if you just can't wait, I'll be happy to send you a copy of the eCookbook, Recipes for Romance. Just leave me a message here (be sure to include your email address in your personal info when you post) and I'll send it right away.

Now I've got to get busy writing blog posts. Hope you'll come back and check them out - a new post every day for the next year!

Another Interview

Now I'm really starting to feel famous. Yet another interview has been posted on Linda LaRoque's blog. Just click the link in the subject line to read it. If you comment, you will be entered to win a free e-book Linda gives away monthly.

Linda is a great author of contemporary western and time travel romances and my co-editor on the e-cookbook, Recipe for Romance. If you would like a free copy, just visit my website at www.candacemorehouse.com and click on the News and Contests link. It contains a lot of great romance book excerpts along with recipes that characterize one scene in each book.

I am also looking forward to being part of the Long and Short Romance Reviews Anniversary Bash in August. They are giving away free e-book readers! If you haven't priced them out, they are worth hundreds of dollars so this is a great opportunity to win a wonderful prize that will have you hooked on reading electronic books. Visit their site here: www.longandshortreviews.com.

Whew! There's a lot going on these days! It's all good, though. Be sure to enter any of these contests or ask for your free e-cookbook. After all, free is a darned good price!

Thanskgiving Dessert

My mother’s favorite holiday was Thanksgiving and it is my favorite, too.

When we were growing up in Wisconsin, Thanksgiving was spent at Grandma Roemer’s house. All the family from my father’s side would converge upon the old Wisconsin farm house. Women would cook and set the table while the men watched football. After dinner, the women would clean up the massive mess while the men played pinochle. Why did we get all the work and the males got all the play?

When we moved to New Mexico, Thanksgiving was a different affair for our little family far removed from extended members in Wisconsin. It was just the five of us plus whatever stray Mom invited. Mom always had a soft spot in her heart for anyone without family during the holidays and we welcomed each and every one as our own.
She would put on a big spread with the traditional turkey, stuffing, vegetables, rolls, and her trademark dessert, Pumpkin Chiffon Torte. I learned how to make Thanksgiving dinner from my mom, who thankfully passed down all her recipes before she passed on. To this day, I make my mother’s stuffing, turkey placed in the oven in the morning and basted all day, peas with pearl onions, and Pumpkin Chiffon Torte.

I have a real hard time spending the holiday with someone other than my immediate family and invited friends. Even though my son and my husband don’t care for Pumpkin Chiffon Torte (crazy men!) and argue about what sides I should serve, for the most part I continue Mom’s traditions.

And for those of who want it, here is the delectable recipe for Pumpkin Chiffon Torte:

Pumpkin Chiffon Torte

Crust:
2 cups flour
¼ tsp. salt
3 tbsp. white sugar
1 cup butter (damn the cholesterol, there is no substitute for real butter)

Mix together dry ingredients in a small mixing bowl. Cut in the butter with two knives. Press into bottom of 13 x 9 x 2 inch pan or sheet pan with sides. Bake at 375 degrees until brown, about five to ten minutes. Take out and cool.

Filling:
2 envelopes Knox gelatin
1 ½ cups brown sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice (I usually use at least 1 tbsp. and this is nothing more than cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and ginger)
6 eggs, separated
1 ½ cups milk (at least 2% but whole preferred)
2 ½ cups canned pumpkin (a single large can of canned pumpkin is fine, no need to measure, just dump it all in)
2/3 cup sugar
1 cup heavy whipping cream, whipped (no sugar added)

In a medium saucepan, combine gelatin, brown sugar, salt, and pumpkin pie spice. Stir together egg yolks and milk and add to gelatin mixture (I just do this all in the same saucepan, stirring the wet ingredients into the dry).

Cook at medium heat, stirring constantly, until it comes to a boil. Depending on your altitude this can take anywhere from 10 to about 20 minutes.


Take the pan off the burner and add the canned pumpkin. Chill in the fridge for a couple hours.
Beat the egg whites (which should be at room temperature), adding one at a time to a mixing bowl with mixer on high speed; add sugar. Beat until frothy (and this is an art, because if you beat for too little or too long, the recipe will fail).

Now fold all these ingredients together. Start with the dense pumpkin mixture in a large mixing bowl, carefully fold in the egg whites, and lastly the whipped cream. Spread this mixture atop the cooled crust and refrigerate for at least overnight (I always make this the night before Thanksgiving). When serving, add a dollop of real whipped cream atop each slice. Yum!

A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband, Part II

Let’s take another look at Bob and Bettina in the continuing saga of “A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband (with Bettina’s Best Recipes)” by Louise Bennett Weaver and Helen Cowles LeCron.

Just like real life, the newlyweds are going through their first year of holidays. With Halloween coming up soon, let’s see how Bob and Bettina are getting ready and how they are going to entertain their friends.

Chapter 72: And Where Was the Dinner? (Bob arrives home, can’t find Bettina and does not smell his dinner cooking)

Bettina: “Dinner will be ready in half an hour.”

Bob: “Half an hour? But, Bettina, where is the dinner. I didn’t see any!

Bettina: “In the fireless cooker, you crazy boy! Are you ’most starved?” (I finally figured out a fireless cooker is a crockpot. Who’dve thunk it? Electricity is really an amazing thing, isn't it?)

Bob: “That cooker was the neatest, stiffest-looking thing in the kitchen!” (Uh oh, the pain of erectile dysfunction already!)

Chapter 73: The Dixons Come To Dinner

Bettina, speaking to her friend Charlotte who wants to know how she stays so organized: “Planning the meals seems simple, but it really requires a lot of thinking sometimes.” (That Bettina was never meant to be a rocket scientist, was she? Oops, I forgot, this book was published in a time when planning meals was the most important part of their existence. Sheesh!)

Chapter 75: Halloween Preparations

Bettina (to Bob): “I feel the same old Hallowe’en thrill that I used to, years ago when I turn around suddenly and see a jack-o’-lantern grinning in the window! Don’t you love them?”

Bob: “Those are the Stewart children.” (Wow, one can only wonder what the Stewart kids’ parents look like if they resemble Pumpkinhead. I'm thinking one of them must be Michael Myers' grandparent). “You girls ought to give at least an imitation of a shriek apiece. You don’t have ladylike nerves at all!”

(I bet if Bob pulled out a knife and started chasing “the girls” around the room, they’d shriek, in a very ladylike manner, of course)

Chapter 76: Hallowe’en Revels (as the newlywed’s first Halloween party begins)

“The two witches, who were evidently the hostesses, commenced a weird chant in a minor key.” (Only several months married and Bettina has already turned into a witch in Bob’s eyes, apparently) “The male ghosts, three in number, immediately took up the music, if it could be so called, howling in loud and uncanny tones.” (What, only chanting in major keys can be called music?)

An interesting thing about Bob and Bettina’s party is that they toasted marshmallows over candles, and played a game with a swinging doughnut. Instead of “Pin the Tail on the Donkey” it was “Pin the Tail on the Black Cat”.

Sounds like a real lively party. If you're five years old, that is.

Until our next adventures with Bob and Bettina, Happy Halloween!

Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever!

While I'm waiting for the results of my research to post on other topics, I decided to share with you a great recipe I've had for decades.

When I moved recently, I decided to participate in a community event - a contest and bake sale for our local community association. I dug out this old recipe which I was sure would be a winner. Alas, the chocolate-mint cookies baked by someone else won the cookie category, but I came in a strong second (drat!!!).

Try baking these delicious cookies and tell me if you think they shouldn't have won the contest!

Crescent Court Chocolate Chunk Cookies
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 sticks butter (make sure it's the real thing, don't use margarine!)
3 tbsp. shortening (I use Crisco butter flavor shortening)
1 tsp. salt
4 eggs
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup milk (whole or 2%)
2 cups pecan pieces
8 oz. white chocolate chunks (or chips if you can't find a bar to cut up)
8 oz. milk chocolate chunks (again, regular chips or large chips work, too)
8 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chunks
1 cup mini chocolate chips

Cream together sugars, butter, shortening, and salt. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each one. Combine flour and soda in separate bowl. Alternately add the flour mixture and milk to the creamed mixture, mixing in by hand just until it starts to come together. Combine pecan pieces, chocolate chunks and chips. Fold into creamed mixture. Using a large spoon, drop on a greased cookies sheet, press down slightly (you may want to refrigerate the dough for a while to make this easier). Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes (depending on your oven; I find it only takes about 10 minutes with my current oven so watch them carefully for over-browning).
Makes 35 two-ounce cookies (they're big!).

Enjoy!