Make Your Own Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup Substitute

So last night I was making a recipe which called for a can of condensed cream of chicken soup. I don't normally keep that on hand in the pantry. I'm S.....L.....O.....W.....L.....Y trying to cut out processed foods. Seriously, if you can't pronounce the ingredients on the label and do not even know what they are, should you really be putting that in your body? Nope.

Anyways, I really wanted to make this recipe. It was one that my mom used to make and I haven't had it in probably 15-20 years (just recently found the paper where I copied the recipe). Off to Pinterest I go to find an alternative to cream of chicken soup. Up pops hundreds of pins relating to the topic. The recipe I used was super simple, consisted of 4 ingredients, and took maybe 8  minutes to whip up. And a huge plus.....it tasted so much better than the crap you get from the can! I could have eaten it straight out of the saucepan!

Next time you need cream of chicken soup, say no to the can and whip this up instead!

Cream of Chicken Soup Substitute

Ingredients: 

• 1 Tbsp flour
• 3 Tbsp butter
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 1/2 cup milk
• salt and pepper to taste (I didn't add these)

Directions:

Melt your butter in a small sauce pan over medium-low heat. Once completely melted, whisk in the flour and continue to whisk until it is smooth and bubbly. Remove the pan from heat and then slowly whisk in the  milk and chicken broth. Return pan to heat and bring to a gentle boil, whisking the entire time, until the soup thickens. Add salt and pepper to taste. This will make an equivalent to one can of soup. 

Ok, so as I type out the recipe, I think I made a mistake and added too much flour when I made this last night. Mine did look thicker than what you get out of a can. Well, it still tasted pretty darn awesome! I'm not sure how this would turn out using gluten free flour. The good thing is that all of these items are pretty cheap and it wouldn't be too expensive to experiment with gluten free flour! 

How to Make Your Own Holiday "Cheer", AKA Apple Pie Moonshine

So a while back I wrote about making apple butter using fresh picked apples courtesy of the North Georgia apple houses. I made apple butter and apple sauce to my heart's content, but then decided I wanted to make an apple pie. For whatever reason, I've never made an apple pie. Off to Pinterest I went to search for apple pie recipes; however, when I typed apple pie into the search box, a miraculous thing happened. The search box auto filled the rest of my phrase with apple pie moonshine. Not what I went looking for, but I sure did spend the next 30-40 minutes looking at different apple pie moonshine recipes. They ranged in difficulty from opening bottles and heating everything in a pot to actually making your own mash and all the other illegal steps involved. I wouldn't recommend the latter method. After perusing the recipes, I pinned a pretty easy one and decided to make it one day.

Fast forward a month or so. The Woodman went to help a friend de-clutter his parent's house. I guess they are pack rats. While helping, he came across a bunch of mason jars. A. BUNCH. Woodman's friend gave them to him, which he then brought home to me. After several bleach water soaks, a hand wash, and a run through the dishwasher, I had a lot of jars that needed to be used. And....what goes perfectly with mason jars? MOONSHINE! The holiday season was quickly approaching us and since we've been on a limited income, we've been giving homemade gifts for the last few years. I pulled up my saved recipe and got to work on this year's Christmas presents. (Sorry to our close friends and family reading this....I'm sure you're going to guess what your present is this year. But, if you hadn't figured it out yet based on pics I've posted on Facebook, then maybe you aren't good enough for my 'shine...) Hence, the inspiration for my post.

So, without further ado.....

Apple Pie Moonshine

You will need:

• The booze. 

For this recipe, you first need 190-proof Everclear Grain Alcohol. This stuff is no joke. It has warning labels all over the bottle about how flammable it is and how the bottle might explode. Apparently, it isn't even sold in some states. If not, get the highest proof you can find. Also, depending on how you want your moonshine to taste, you will need either vanilla vodka or some spiced rum. I used the vanilla vodka for my first batch and it gave the moonshine an apple pie with vanilla ice-cream on top taste to it! For my second batch, I used the spiced rum. You will need 3 cups of the Everclear and 2 cups of either the vodka or the spiced rum.

WARNING!!!!

Not going to lie- I made Woodman open the bottle. I was kind of scared!

• The rest of the ingredients

 Besides the booze, you will need 1 gallon of apple juice, 1 gallon of apple cider, 1.5 cups white sugar, 1.5 cups brown sugar, and cinnamon sticks. 

Other items needed are 9 quarts jars or any equivalent, a big stock pot, and a plastic funnel.

The procedure:

In a large stock pot(mine is a 12 qt. pot), add the apple juice, apple cider, both types of sugar, and the cinnamon sticks. DO NOT ADD THE ALCOHOL! For the cinnamon sticks, use at least 9 sticks. You will be putting a stick into each jar of 'shine, so if you use 9 quart jars, use 9 cinnamon sticks. I was using pint jars, so I threw in 18 sticks. Also, the first batch came out super sweet. I actually cut back and only used one cup of each type of sugar when I made the second batch and it was just fine. 

Over low to medium low heat, bring ingredients to a simmer, stirring frequently to dissolve the sugar. Once it reaches a simmer, let it simmer for  30 minutes, all the while enjoying how awesome your kitchen smells. Remove from heat and let the mixture cool COMPLETELY. If you are in a rush, sit the pot down into a sink of ice water to help speed up the cooling process. Once completely cool, add in your alcohol and stir to incorporate. If you add the alcohol while the mixture is warm, the alcohol will burn off and you'll just have super sweet apple cider. 

Fish your cinnamon sticks out of the pot and put one into each jar.

Using a funnel, fill each jar full of 'shine. If you notice from the last picture to this one, I needed more jars than I thought. I even had enough for a small "quality control" glass.

Put your lids on and label your jars. Because these are gifts, I ordered labels from a company called Evermine. If I weren't giving these out, I would have just written on the lids!

Store in a cool, dark place or a fridge. This stuff tastes good the first day. It tastes great 2 weeks later. It tastes AMAZING after a month. Point to the story- let it sit at least 2 weeks. It needs to ferment a bit. The longer you let it go, the less of the alcohol you'll taste. 

I made one batch and let it sit for a month. About that time, my grandfather died. I remembered him telling me one time how he met my grandmother because he had to run moonshine over to her daddy from his daddy. He apparently ran moonshine all over the North GA mountains. Now, is this story true or just a tall tale? I'm sure some of my family reading this might be able to verify the facts. Either way, after his funeral, I had some of the moonshine in honor of him. I also wanted to do a little "research" on how strong this stuff was. 

Out of a quart jar, I drank about a third of it in one sitting. There was no alcohol taste to it at all. But holy cow...it sure does sneak up on you and packs a punch! So, as a disclaimer, don't drink and drive, and no underaged drinking!

Bottom's up!!!

PS- I just realized while typing this....I still never made my apple pie!!!

Bird Seed Ornaments

While perusing Pinterest about a month ago, I came across a pin for bird seed Christmas ornaments. I thought it might be a fun crafty thing to do with Peanut so I gave it a whirl. This is a pretty cheap craft to do. You probably have most of the items at home! Free or free-ish is always good, especially around this time of year. An added plus- apparently a lot of recipes for something like this calls for peanut butter. If you have a peanut allergy in your family, this is a safe recipe for you!

Bird Seed Ornaments

Ingredients:  3/4 cup flour, 1/2 cup water, 1 envelope unflavored gelatin, 3 Tbsp corn syrup, 4 cups bird seed, molds (I used cookie cutters), nonstick spray, straws, wax paper, ribbon or twine 

Step 1- Get a super cute helper. It helps if they are wearing Christmas pjs. Add the flour, water, gelatin, and corn syrup in a large bowl.

Step 2- Mix until well combined.

Step 3- Add bird seed.

Step 4- Mix until well combined. Apparently Peanut didn't think this looked too appetizing.

Step 5- Coat molds or cookie cutters with nonstick spray. I placed my cookie cutters on wax paper to help cut down on clean up.

Step 6- Fill each mold with bird seed, pressing the seed flat. Place a straw through the seed to create a hole for your ribbon. ***Note- this is STICKY!!! You will have bird seed all over your hands. You might want to spoon some into the mold and then place a piece of wax paper on top of it before you press the seed down with your hands.

Step 7- Let the ornaments harden in the molds for 2-3 hours. Carefully pop them out of the molds, remove the straws, and place face down onto wax paper to let the other side dry. At this point, I let them dry overnight.

Step 8- Attach ribbon or twine through your ornaments.

Step 9- Make sure you have some sunny days ahead and then hang your ornaments. From what I've read, these will dissolve in wet weather. Not a huge problem though- the little birdies can eat the seed off the ground!

Good thing Woodman was home to assist with the ornament hanging!

I love those faces!

It's always helpful to have a Lucky Pup as a supervisor.

By the time I got back inside from the ornament hanging and to the bay window, birds had already found our ornaments and were flitting about! I did notice that the birds had a harder time perching on the ornaments with longer ribbon loops. The ornament wasn't very stable and would shake around, scaring the bird. I probably would make smaller loops if I did this again. I also read how some people made larger holes and just threaded the tree branches through the holes to stabilize the ornament, skipping the ribbon step altogether. 

To my teacher friends- this is a super easy project you can do with your class! Doesn't take long at all....don't want to eat up that instructional time! ;)

Sweet Potato and Sausage Soup

When I first started this blog, my main goal was to really critique ideas found on Pinterest. I've seen so many pictures of Pinterest fails. Every project or recipe I've tried has so far worked (or tasted) great. So about ten months ago, while searching for some new recipes to try, I came across this Sweet Potato and Sausage Soup recipe from Martha Stewart. I thought to myself, "Hunh. Not too sure that sounds good, but I do happen to have all the ingredients in my kitchen." I mentioned trying it out to the Woodman. He didn't seem too thrilled about trying it either. Score, I thought! I'd have my first negative project to write about. I made it, we tried it, and....CRAP. WE LOVED IT!!! It even got a 4 year old's seal of approval. The sweet potatoes kind of scared me in this recipe (I love sweet potatoes, but seriously? Boiled in soup???) Holy cow....they were so savory. They melt in your mouth and blend perfectly with all the other flavors.

Fast forward to several days ago. I'm scouring my recipe board trying to come up with meals for the week. I was excited because it was super cold out and that only meant one thing....SOUP WEATHER! The sweet potato soup popped up, thank goodness, because I had completely forgotten about it. I dashed hobbled into the kitchen (broken ankle...read my last post), grabbed a recipe card, and wrote that sucker down. It takes a super special recipe for me to actually take the time to write it down. And now, it's time for you to write it down....  :)

Sweet Potato and Sausage Soup

Prep time- 20 minutes

Cook time- 20-30 minutes

Ingredients-

• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 large, yellow onion (diced)
• 2 cloves garlic (minced)
• salt and pepper
• 3/4 lb. sweet Italian sausage with casings removed (or hot Italian sausage if you want to kick up the flavor!)
• 2 sweet potatoes (peeled, diced into medium chunks, 1 lb. total)
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 3/4 cups small pasta shells
• 4 cups roughly chopped mixed greens, such as kale and Swiss chard (I just used kale)
• Parmesan cheese for topping

Directions-

Gather up all your ingredients. I have some lovely, homemade chicken broth stored in my basement, but I forgot to have the hubby get it before he left for work this morning (stupid broken ankle...ginormous Aircast boot and narrow stairs do not mix well). I used Better Than Bouillon Chicken Base instead and added it to 4 cups of water for my broth. 

 Add 1 Tbsp. olive oil to a pot and heat over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic and cook until the onion is translucent (about 6 minutes). Season with salt and pepper.

 Add sausage and cook until it is brown.

Add sweet potatoes, 4 cups chicken broth, and 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil. 

Add pasta and cook 3 minutes less than what is indicated in the instructions on the package. (Can't have gluten? Skip this ingredient or add gluten free pasta!)

 Add the greens, reduce heat, and cook until the noodles are done and the greens are wilted (about 3-4 minutes). Dish up and top with Parmesan cheese, if desired.

Peanut approved! So thankful that I have an adventurous eater! (Please excuse the kale hanging out of his mouth!)

Give this recipe a shot and let me know what you think. I hope you enjoy!

Making Apple Butter, or My House Smells Like What I Imagine Heaven Will Smell Like

It's autumn and here in the North Georgia area, that means it is apple season! I always enjoy heading up to the North Georgia mountains in mid October to visit Burt's Pumpkin Farm, peep at some pretty leaves (the last two years we have done this by hiking at Amicalola Falls with Peanut), and hit up the apple house. This year I haven't been able to do any of these things. At the tail end of a family vacation to Disney World in mid-September, and I mean literally the tail end of the vacation because we had already checked out of our hotel and were about to head home, I slipped, fell, and broke my right ankle. I could have gotten a shirt, but no, I decided to go all out and get myself a trip to two of Orlando's hospitals for a couple of extra nights, two ambulance rides, emergency-ish surgery, and a pin and a couple of bolts in my leg. Next time I'll just get the shirt. It has taken me about a month to actually start to feel like a normal person. I'm hobbling around in an Aircast boot now, but still have to rely heavily on people to drive me around anywhere. ***fingers crossed the doctor will clear me to drive at my next appointment*** So, there have been no trips up to the North GA mountains to do all my fall activities that I look forward to every year. 

Last week, my mom was coming up to take me to one of my physical therapy appointments. Because the appointment was later in the day, I asked her to drive me up to one of the apple houses along Hwy 575, almost to Ellijay. I was able to see some pretty leaves, get some apples for baking, and some fried apple pies. Yummo! I had it in my mind to make apple butter. I've always loved apple butter but it's usually so darn expensive to buy at the store. I looked around on Pinterest to find the easiest and cheapest apple butter recipe and this is what I've come up with. It has received the Peanut stamp of approval, so it's a keeper. The first time I used this recipe, it ended up only making four half pint jars of apple butter. I just finished a second batch using the same recipe and got six half pint jars. Not quite sure of the difference....maybe I didn't let the apple butter cook down long enough. Oh well, it's still delicious! 

I started out by cleaning all my jars, lids, and rings so that I could can my apple butter once it was finished. I'm sure you could freeze apple butter, since you can freeze apple sauce...but you might want to research that first.

Gather up 6 lbs. of apples. From everything I read, it really doesn't matter what type of apple you use. I ended up using Golden Delicious. Because they are sweeter to start with, you don't have to add as much sugar later on!

Peel, core, and slice your apples. You can do this any way you like. My mom bought me one of these handy, dandy, apple peeler, corer, slicer thing and IT. IS. WORTH. THE. COST. I was able to prep the apples in about 10 minutes, once I figured out how the contraption worked. 

Apple peeler, corer, slicer thing in action. It makes Slinky Apples!!!

Fill your crock pot full of your apple slices. I have either a 4 or 5 qt. crock pot. You want the apples all the way up to the top because they will cook down a lot. In a bowl, mix up 1-2 cups of sugar (I only used one), a tsp. of cinnamon, a 1/4 tsp. of salt, and a 1/4 tsp. of ground cloves. I only had whole cloves, so I used my mortar and pestle to ground up the whole cloves. 

Pour the sugar mixture over the top of the apples. Cover and cook on high for about an hour. Give the apples a good stir, turn the crock pot down on low, put the lid back on slightly ajar, and then go to bed! Let it cook overnight (at least 8 hours). Leaving the lid ajar will help some of the liquid to evaporate and will help to thicken the apple butter. 

 The next morning, stir and mash your apples up. I ended up running mine through the food processor to get them to the right consistency. At this point, I canned my apple butter. I used my water bath canner, filled hot jars (leave 1/4" headspace), removed air bubbles, wiped the rims clean, and then processed the jars for 10 minutes. ***Check your altitude for processing times

While the cans were processing, I had to have a taste test of some extra apple butter that wouldn't fill a whole jar. It was so much better tasting than mass produced, store bought apple butter! 

Two batches of apple butter all ready to be eaten!!!

Apple Butter Recipe

Ingredients

• 6 lbs. apples
• 1-2 cups of sugar (to taste)
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. ground cloves

Procedure

1. Peel, core, and slice apples. Put into your crock pot.
2. In a bowl, mix together sugar, cinnamon, salt, and cloves. Pour over the top of the apples.
3. Cover and cook on high for one hour. 
4. Stir apples, reduce heat to low, and put lid back onto crock pot, slightly ajar.
5. Cook overnight, for at least 8 hours.
6. Mash your apples up into an apple butter consistency. You can let your apple butter cook longer now until it has reached your preference of consistency.
7. Following standard canning procedures, can your apple butter. Leave 1/4" headspace. Processing times are dependent on size of jars and the altitude of where you live. 

Enjoy!!!

Rosemary Honey Butter

While on vacation in Panama City Beach a few weeks ago, our family ventured over to the St. Andrews Peninsula area to spend a day at the beach. After a full day of fun in the sun, we had dinner at a place called Joe Mama's Pizza (mainly because we thought the name was funny). We ended up having some amazing wood fired pizza; but, I fell in love with the rosemary honey butter that they served with warm bread as an appetizer. I had been dabbling in making my own butter at home and immediately decided to try to recreate this flavored butter once we got home.

Making your own butter is not hard. All you need is heavy whipping cream and a container with a lid (you could use a stand mixer but there's something fun about shaking it up in the container). Your kids could even do it. Rule of thumb- the bigger the container, the more cream you need, the longer it takes. If you are having a kid help make butter, give them a smaller container. Mason jars are perfect for this. I use a pint jar, but if Peanut was helping me, I'd pour some cream into two half-pint jars for he and I to shake. ***Side note- I'm picturing having Peanut make some butter as a way to calm down when frustrated. Are you mad at Mommy? Take it out on this jar of cream!!!***

Gather your cream and jar. Better cream= better butter. All I have access to right now is Kroger cream; however, the butter made from this still tastes pretty darn amazing! Start out by pouring some cream into your container (about half full...or half empty if you are a pessimist) and putting the lid on. I let the cream sit out for 10-15 minutes to warm up a bit. Butter forms when the cream is about 50-55 degrees F. You can do this straight out of the fridge, but just know that you'll be shaking your jar for a lot longer while the cream warms up. Then, start shaking! Turn on the T.V., talk on the phone, or turn on the music and have a dance party to keep you entertained while shaking your cream. You are going to shake, and shake, and shake, and shake....until you have butter! Here's what will happen- you will start shaking your cream and you'll be able to hear the liquid sloshing around inside. As you keep shaking, the cream is going to get really thick and you won't be able to hear the sloshing any more....KEEP SHAKING. Trust me. You'll feel really silly because you are going to think nothing is happening. KEEP SHAKING. Just when you think your arms are going to fall off, all of the sudden the cream will pull away from the sides of your jar and you'll hear sloshing again. That means you are done! This will take anywhere from 15-30 minutes depending on how warm your cream was and how much you used.

After 8 minutes of shaking....very thick and not a lot of sloshing. KEEP SHAKING!

15 minutes later- BUTTER!!!

Once you hear the liquid sloshing around in your jar, dump your jar into a strainer and separate the liquid (which is now buttermilk) from the butter. Rinse your butter under cold water to removed excess buttermilk and then pat dry with a towel.

From here, you can add a bit of salt if you like salted butter and then form into whatever shape you want. The first few times I just put it in a plastic container. Put it into the fridge to harden and enjoy!

If you would like to flavor your butter, put it into a bowl and mix in your ingredients. For my rosemary honey butter, I went out to our trusty rosemary plant and picked off a few sprigs.

Rosy the rosemary plant

I then had to run back to my bathroom to get my raw, unprocessed, local honey. Why is my honey in the bathroom you ask? For face wash, of course!

I chopped up my rosemary and added it to the butter (it ended up being about 1/2 Tbsp.) and then added 1 Tbsp of honey (after tasting the butter the next morning, the honey flavor wasn't super strong, so I'll probably throw in 2 Tbsp of honey next time). Mix everyone up.

Put your butter into a plastic container and put into the fridge to harden. I put mine on a piece of wax paper, rolled it up, and then twisted the ends like a peppermint candy before putting into the fridge.

You can use the butter immediately, but if you let the flavors meld a bit, it tastes way better! 

The butter will need to be eaten within a week or so due to the fact there aren't any extra preservatives in it. My family has found that it isn't too hard to do! Enjoy!